The pink lady and her dog

There's a woman whom I often walk past in the mornings on my way to school.

I am walking along the river path to school, and she is walking her dog. She wears a cute little hat, usually some item of pink clothing and has a dog on a leash. The dog is a bit different from most other dogs I have encountered in Korea. Most dogs are either very small, maltese-poodle or jack-russell style, just the size to fit in a small apartment, or they are big and ready for the pot. Her dog is medium-sized and white, with a cute tail that curls up. They are a cute pair, and along with the man with the mole whom I wrote about in an email a few months back, they are the ones I see most regularly on my way to school and we greet each other.

But because of langage difuculties, we never go beyond greetings, I often wonder if it wouldn't be nice to meet up for coffee (with a translator in attendance of course) but then I think of the mission of organising it and leave it be. Then I wonder if we'll ever go beyond greetings, and then I leave that too because I'm probably being silly.

But today she did it! I walked past her and said "Anyeonghasseyo!" as usual, and she said "Anyeonghasseyo! Yeppoyo!". Wow! She greeted me AND said I looked pretty. How very kind of her! She made my day, at 8:20am! What a sweet lady. I am going to ask someone to help me learn how to say "Your dog is very cute." I can't really say she's pretty because she's usually wearing sports clothes and often a face mask - in contrastI am dressed as smart as I get for school -and I do try! I'm a stickler for honesty. So I'll go for the dog until I can be honest about her prettiness!

These are the little encounters that make this a memorable experience, despite all differences in language, culture etc.