About a month ago, we had a late Sunday dinner in San Francisco with a friend. He took CalTrain (light rail) up to the City from his house, so we just dropped him off at the station when we were done (it was about 10 pm).
Five minutes later, we get a call....the station is closed for the night, and there are no more trains. He asked us to drive him the 35 miles back to his place. No biggie...we turned around and headed to pick him up.
When we got to the station, he was waiting with a Chinese couple that had also been caught at the closed station. They were staying in Santa Cruz and had no way home, no money, and very little language skills. Our friend had seen them because the wife was crying when she realized they were stranded for the night. He volunteered to take them home.
So, 5 people piled into the car, and we drove down south to my friend's place. He then took them in his car the additional 40 miles to their hotel. It was a strange journey...because they didn't speak English very well...but every 5 minutes or so, the wife would say "thank you" in English to us.
I hope they went back to China feeling a little bit better about Americans.