Don't Smile

It's been weeks since my last blog entry. I have formed several possible entries in my head but they have yet to make it to the world wide web. Part of the problem is my computer at the library won't allow me to look at blogs--there is a block on all viewing blogs. It would be the perfect time for me to blog. I sit for almost 6 hours sometimes without any interruption. When I come home I don't think about blogging--homework, cooking, cleaning and laundry seem to fill up our evenings so blogging is the last thing on my mind.

May is finally here which means Spring has finally come. Korea is beautiful in the Spring. The mountain ranges roll with shades of green. Everything is new. Fresh. Alive. I'm thankful that God arranged Spring after winter. Winter is beautiful in it's own way but after long, cold, and dark days, the sun, warmth and blue skies are welcomed to this happy heart.

O-kay, that's not at all what I wanted to blog about. I got a little side-tracked.

During the summer of 2009 we were preparing to come to Korea. Part of our preparations were reading books on the Korean culture. I found several used books and began reading what I could on the history and culture of Korea. I also started to 'randomly' meet Koreans. I was working at Starbucks at the time and to be honest I don't believe until this one certain day I had ever served anyone Asian. That may sound strange to you that I was aware of this but if you know me, it's not strange at all. I was about to finish my shift when a group of college aged girls came in. I thought they looked Korean (Asians don't all look the same). I asked them where they were from and sure enough, they were from South Korea!

After I got off my shift, I went to sit with them and chatted about our future move to their homeland in a few short weeks. We exchanged e-mail addresses and phone numbers and the following week they came over. We chatted about their experiences in America, the good, the bad and the ugly. The challenges of cultural differences and the things that they had come to enjoy while living in the Mid-West.

One of the huge challenges was space. In Seoul, there really is no personal space or wide open spaces. They moved from one of the most populated cities in the world to Lawrence Kansas. It's a shock for sure. They had come to love the space, the quiet and not being shoved onto buses and subways.

After they shared about their experiences we asked them about what things we should be aware of culturally. Greetings, bowing, food, etc. I had read about a few things but getting first hand information would be a lot more valuable and perhaps save us embarrassment.

Don't Smile. Yep, don't smile at people. Don't look them in the eye and smile. They will become suspicious and wonder what your motive is. Wow! I thought, "O-kay, I will try but that will be super hard for me."

I have not heeded to this piece of advice. I can't help myself. I smile at people. I make eye contact. In the past two years I don't think anyone has questioned my motives for smiling at them. I have had the most beautiful exchanges with people by a simple smile. I wish I could replay each of these exchanges because they are some of my most beautiful memories here in Korea.

I like to engage people, meet people and have, even if brief, some small interaction with them. The barrier of language has kept me in many cases from experiencing this but when I smile at someone and bow, something has broken through. Warmth, compassion, acknowledgement.

I don't know really have words to describe these moments for me but when I close my eyes, I see faces of beautiful Korean woman who I've only exchanged a smile with.