December and January have been pretty eventful, and I have a lot of blogging to catch up on, but before I get into that, I wanted to share yet another example of the extreme kindness and trust of the Koreans that I've met.
Tonight I had to bring my friend Angie to the airport in Incheon, which is an hour bus ride from Seoul. I used the last of the won I had on me to buy the ticket there, and figured I could take cash out for the trip home at the airport. Well, in true Taryn fashion, my Korean bankcard was nowhere to be found, so I tried to take money out of my American bank account, which I have done here in similar emergency situations. For some reason, none of the ATM’s were taking my card, so I stopped at the KB (my Korean bank) kiosk to see if they could help me out.
They couldn’t issue me a new card or let me withdraw cash because banking hours were over, but the manager said he would give me 20,000 won (of his own) to get home, and I could just transfer money into his account tomorrow.
I think my eyes were popping out of my head in shock because he asked, is that okay? I said, Yes! Is that okay with you? This man gave cash and his bank account number to a complete stranger, without thinking twice.
In any other country I might have been out of luck. But I live in Korea, where people trust their bank account numbers with complete strangers.
2 comments:
You would find the same courtesy in Isreal- maybe not right now with all the bombings.... but the people I met were so nice there!!! They were inviting us into their homes for dinner- complete strangers!
shit I mispelled Israel again..... ugh!
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