My mom kept telling me, "Go stand by the front door downstairs and wait until an American comes in. Then you'll have a friend." Yes, I told her she was crazy and that I was NOT going to spend my days standing and waiting at the door. Well I didn't have to do that after all. The funny thing is that I met them near the front door as they were getting off the elevator and we were getting on. There have been plenty of instances where I've seen people I think could be American, but upon waiting and listening to their language during their conversation, I learn that they are indeed not American. So as we were doing the switcharoo at the elevator, I did my listening thing and could tell that they were definitely from the good ole US of A right off the bat. It all happened so fast, us getting on and them getting off, that I didn't have enough time to stop them and say, "HEY! I'm American! Let's be friends. Please."
I took the boys upstairs for lunch, all the while thinking, "I should've said something. I sure hope we cross paths again." An hour later, the boys and I went downstairs to check the mail. As we were waiting on the elevator back up, guess who walked back in the door themselves! Talk about divine intervention! In the 2.5 seconds it took for the elevator doors to open and them to get on (we couldn't all fit in the elevator together with all the kids and multiple strollers), I quickly told them I was from Texas, I hadn't met another American since I'd been here, and what condo number was ours in case they needed something or just wanted to stop by. Oh, I also learned that they had just arrived in Busan the day before.
Knowing that they needed some time to recover from what I'm sure was not a magical, rest filled, scream/whine free airplane ride across the Pacific Ocean (just speaking from experience here....) in addition to the humongous time zone difference, I didn't want to go knocking on their door quite yet. Plus, I I was so excited that I met an American family that I couldn't quite remember what condo number they lived in. All I could remember was the floor. So after a handful of days, I decided to go up to their floor and give trying to find them a shot to check in and make sure everything was going okay so far. I quickly found them, because they had two strollers parked outside their front door. Thank goodness! That spared me from having to knock on every door on the floor to find them. Either that or putting a "WANTED--American family" poster by the elevator.
Anywho, long story short, we have friends! :)
Today the boys and I walked to the market to visit our favorite Korean man. We came home with a bunch of fruit, and the sweet man even threw in an apple for free because he saw Connar eyeballing it. I never thought I'd be so comfortable going to an outdoor Korean market, tell a Korean man what I want, and be able to tell him thank you in his own language. He tries to speak English back to me, which I think is pretty neat too.
On our walk back home, the boys were itching to get out of the stroller! Monkey see, monkey do...Except this little monkey's arms aren't quite strong enough to hold himself up like his big brother can yet. Soon enough, I'm sure.
