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Smile
On a Sydney train, you witness the worst and the best of human behaviour.
I was sitting in a carriage that was half full this morning, when an elderly Asian couple scrambled to get on the train. Now I can say this because I am Asian, but generally Chinese people - especially old Chinese people - aren’t known for their polite behaviour. If you don’t believe me, read this story about classes being held in Beijing, teaching people not to spit in the streets.
Anyway, this couple boarded the train and took the two spare seats available, each on opposite sides of the carriage. They clearly wanted to still talk to each other, and so would periodically yell something in Chinese across the carriage. At one stage, the wife threw a newspaper over at her husband, presumably because she wanted to show him something written inside.
Everyone was getting a little frustrated at the (increasingly louder) conversation until one young man vacated his seat so that the husband and wife could sit together. The wife was so happy she could sit next to her husband. When they got up to leave the train, she waved her arms at the young man, did a funny little dance (not unlike the old Grandma in Disney’s Mulan) and gave him this huge grin - like a watermelon split in half. It was the loveliest smile I’ve ever seen. And it made everyone in the carriage smile.
Even now at my desk, I am still thinking of her watermelon smile. And it is still brightening my day.
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:)that’s cool soph. It’s funny how often I’ll be watching someone being annoying on the train, and I’ll be seething, but then they will do something little, almost unnoticable, and i’ll find myself suddenly liking them, and forgiving their annoyingness.