Seoul's Namdaemun Market

We wanted to go to a really good Korean Market and were told the Namdaemun Market is one of the best in Seoul.  When we got to the market Little Monster had finally fallen asleep in the stroller. After about 10 minutes of walking down the market, Kevin was stopped by a little Korean women who wanted to see the Monster.  She gets down and pets his hair and is cooing at him and talking to him.  This little lady is joined by another and another until there were 8 women all surrounding the sleeping Monster and going absolutely crazy over his blonde hair.  It was about this time, with 16 hands all up in his face, that Little Monster woke up.  He was not very happy about having a bunch of strangers surrounding him, so he starts wailing and screaming.  I thought for sure it would scare the ladies away, but they seemed to think him even more adorable.

While Kevin was shooing to ladies away, I was taking the girls around to the different vendors.  When we arrived at the market, I gave each of the girls 15,000 won to spend on whatever little trinket they fancied.  Once their money was out, they couldn't ask for anything else.  Big Sis found a booth with book marks, fans, and many many different Korean little trinkets.  This was perfect for Little A, because all she wanted was a Korean hand fan.  M&M found a bag that folds into a super small bag, Big Sis found some book marks, and they all were excited about the goods they acquired.  Kevin and I found some magnets.

It was well past lunch time and the kids were absolutely starving.  We found a restaurant across the street and since the kids were past the point of no return, we went on in.  We found a seat and were greeted by a Korean menu and smiling faces that didn't speak a word of English.  Luckily there were pictures on the wall with the different food options.  I walked over the the wall with the waiter, and pointed out 5 different options in the hope that at least one would be good.

As we were waiting for our food, Little Monster was getting out of control loud, the girls were fighting and complaining and making quite a scene.  As we are sitting at the table we keep trying to look for silverware.  Kevin tried to get the waiters attention, without any hope.  Then the man next to us very pointedly looks at us and then very slowly opens a little hidden drawer on the side of his table and it has napkins and silverware in it.  We look on the side of our table and find the same type of drawer!  The only problem is that there were only metal chopsticks and spoons in the drawer.

The food gets brought out one by one as it is finished cooking.  The kids are so hungry, they dive for the food.  They have no idea how to use chopsticks, and are using them to pierce the food that can be pierced.  They are fighting over the foods that taste good and are making a very big scene.  About this time, two of the kitchen workers come out and just stand there smiling and talking to themselves and laughing at us.  The kids are really struggling at this point, and despite Kevin and my pleas to please keep quiet and attempt to use the chopsticks, it's impossible.  One of the kitchen workers comes over laughing and hands us all forks.  He then takes my food (Which looked absolutely delicious with all sorts of vegetables separated around the edge of a bowl with an egg in the middle) and mixes weird stuff in it and then takes a knife and proceeds to cut up and mix my food until it looks like throw up. Little A has honey mustard on her plate for her chicken and when her chicken is all gone, she then takes her hands and is using her finger to lick up the honey mustard.  At this point we are a 6 man circus for the Korean Restaurant.  Our entire table is surrounded by the staff who are smiling and chattering to themselves in Korean and laughing.  One man is down on his knees and is literally in M&M's face laughing.  When Little A has licked up all the honey mustard, the staff must have wanted the circus to continue because she runs to the back and brings two more small bowls of honey mustard and places them infant of Little A.

I have literally arrived at the point where I feel I am walking the walk of shame.  There's nothing I can do but shrug my shoulder and just go with the flow and laugh along with the entire restaurant staff laughing at us.  Oh well, at least we got some great food, were the center of attention, and made some Koreans think Americans are absolutely ridiculous.  So.... Embarrassing!  But that's the life of a parent.