On Turkish Street Kindness

This morning, riding the service bus to school, I saw something that made me smile. While we were waiting for a student, there was a small kid, about 8 and bundled up, trying to cross the street in front of us, but the traffic was too thick. A couple times he looked ready to make a dash for his car waiting across the street, but stopped himself as the cars whizzed by. And then, out of patient kindness, our bus driver got out of the bus, took the child by his hand, and helped him across the street to his thankful driver. Would this sort of thing ever happen in America? Not the America I know.

If I were in a different mood, today's post would have read like this:

This morning, riding the service bus to school, I saw something that really frustrated me. While we were waiting for a student, there was a small kid, about 8 and bundled up, trying to cross the street in front of us, but the traffic was too thick. A couple times he looked ready to make a dash for his car waiting across the street, but none of the drivers even thought to stop and let the poor child pass. It was so bad that my bus driver had to go out and help him across the street by hand, and even with the bus driver helping him the cars refused to stop!

Would this sort of thing ever happen in America? Not the America I know.

In other brief news: I caught a student plagiarizing yesterday. I'm going to meet with her and the head of our department today - I'll let you know when the situation resolves!