Music: Monkeys Spinning Monkeys by Kevin MacLeod Link:

https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4071-monkeys-spinning-monkeys

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Written and presented by Sophie H. Kim

Edited by Denise Loza

Korean version of the channel : Korean New Yorker's Diary https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/korean-newyorker/id1517726160?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Hi, I´m Sophie.

I was watching a Taiwanese TV show ¨Love, Now¨ and there was an Aha moment!

Shide, a handsome, tall and intelligent man forgot to bring a pen on the day of his college graduation exam. At this urgent moment, the beautiful protagonista Yiru quietly hands him a pen. Shide can´t forget this girl without knowing who she was, or even her name. He searches for her for 6 years. Meanwhile, he saved her blurry image captured at the background of his picture and framed it to put on his desk. Finally he meets her accidentally and they get to know each other. After a while, Shide brings her to the very classroom where they had the graduation exam together. He shows her the pen he carefully saved in a box and says to her:

'This pen means a pure heart of a kind person who provided help without expecting any compensation when I needed the most help.'

***

When I first met Oliver at the French conversation Meetup in New York, we only spent 10 minutes talking to each other. The meetup happened at an atrium in Manhattan in an open space with plenty of groups gathering at the same time.It was not easy to find the group in question. We met each other first while we both looked at the meetup notice and searching for the group. Since the purpose of the meeting was 'French conversation', we tried to communicate in French and I quickly realized he was a total beginner. So, I taught him some useful expressions in French, as I was writing down in his notebook. I assume he was touched or impressed by that - I haven't verified if that was the case though. Just then we found the French conversation group. Since they divided people into two subgroups - Beginners and Intermediate/advanced, that was the end of the conversation with Oliver. That was a brief meeting but we shared our kakaotalk ID. Two days later, the day I was going back home to Seoul, Korea, he offered to show me around the town and we met again. We talked a lot walking around the Central Park. It was impressive for me to see a guy who seemed to be on the same wavelength as me. At the same time, I was wondering why he was talking about himself so much. When he sent me off at the JFK airport, he said that he wanted to see me again, anywhere I want. I answered positively and we stayed in contact with each other continuously until he flew to Korea to meet me 2 weeks later. He came to see me in Korea four times in three months until I was convinced to move to New York with him. I moved to the States 5 months after, leaving everything and everybody behind.

When we think of it, Oliver may almost have decided to marry me after the 10 minute meeting. I sometimes ask him about that. FYI, he's not really a romantic guy as it sounds, and he says "I don't know. I don't remember". But, I had been feeling amazed and grateful. So, when I came across the scene in the TV show, I said to myself: Aha, people get touched by a tiny little thing, pure and natural thing...

I thank God who allowed me to have the guy who fell in love with me without knowing who I was, how old I was, or what I did as my spouse.