Last Sunday I spent a few hours meandering through the old city taking photos, which can be seen in this set. As I stood on the old pedestrian bridge that crosses the now-closed railroad tracks I was passed by 3 teenage kids that excitedly said things like "Hello!" "Hi" and "You are so great!" as they walked by. All of this was nothing new, however, because we are commonly greeted by locals as if we were stars. It can be flattering at times, but sometimes it would just be nice to be able to walk around an not feel like a complete foreigner. Anyway, these 3 boys kept walking and I kept taking photos of the landscape, but once they reached the other end of the bridge, they must have mustered up enough courage and decided to come back and ask me to take a photo of them. So I said sure, but I will need to back up a little because I have a zoom lens on my camera. They didn't quite understand and looked nervous as I started walking away from them, but were reassured when I turned around and said ok, 1, 2, 3! I showed them the photo and again they said "Oh you are so great!" "You are so good!" And they also gave me an awkward half-hug. They asked where I was from, and new of Minnesota; why I was in Jinyeong; how old I am, etc. They were so eager to ask me questions. I asked where they were going and they told me church, and pointed to the steeple in the distance. At this point it seemed as though they would have stayed and continued asking me questions for for another 30 minutes until service started so I simply said, "Ok, thank you, see you!"
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