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Koreans often arrive for visits unannounced, but this was a completely unexpected visit. On a
Saturday morning in September, Margaret's doorbell rang. She opened the door to find the
children from the apartment across the alleyway. Perhaps they were curious about the American
in their neighborhood. Since food always equals hospitality, Margaret put out some grapes for them. But that didn't seem to make a hit. Communication was less than complete, too; Margaret's Korean barely works with adults, let alone with children. After a few minutes, they scrambled for the door. But Margaret hadn't seen the last of them. Perhaps 15 minutes later they returned, bearing a plate of cookies! This time Margaret did better, too. She remembered some Jello she'd made to take into class as an American food demonstration, so she sliced the Jello into cubes and handed chopsticks around. With their giggling attempts to manipulate Jello with chopsticks (try it sometime), there was entertainment for all. A few weeks later, the kids had a new reason to visit: Nabi, Margaret's kitten. Although some Koreans reportedly dislike (and even fear) cats, few children seem to have these inhibitions.
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