Mom's Visit, Days 2 and 3

No fun stories from day three, because I had to work.  Not only did we not get to play, but my sweet momma stayed in the ah-pah-tu all day, CLEANING!  (Goodness, I must be a mess--both my husband and my mother clean for me!)  But I finally have an organized linen closet, sock drawer, and craft chest.  So much work!  Dinner was delivery Korean soul food from the ajummas downstairs, and it was pretty yummy.  And I got to see my sweet husband today!  He had to come all the way down to Seoul after work to pick up a car key, and while I feel bad that he had to make a round trip in one evening, it surely was good to see him, if only for a little while (darn the Army and 6 a.m. formations...).

Yesterday was fun, though.  Mike had the day off from work, and the three of us took on the massive and crazy Namdaemun Market.  Frommers says that if you can't find it in this market, which has been going strong since the 15th century and takes up multiple city blocks, it probably does not exist.

We even found a "bamboo wife" like we had seen at the Folk Museum.  The idea is that a guy would wrap his legs around this thing when he slept in order to keep cool.

I've been to this market three times so far, and I have yet to visit without getting lost.  But that's part of the fun, I guess.  We enjoyed wandering and browsing (at least Mom and I enjoyed it, and my patient husband got to see first-hand where I get my shopping habits from, as Mom and I both compulsively tried to compare every item in booth after booth...) for most of morning.

Even the most tireless shoppers must eat, so we set off to find the restaurant street.  Mike found it, and led us through the chaos on a recon run before settling on a bibimbap and noodle booth.

A barley rice mix bowl for everyone, and some soup thrown in by the ajumma just to make sure we didn't leave hungry.  Yum!

Lunch restored our energy, and we wandered through a few more side streets before finally deciding to head for the bus stop.  We had a pretty productive shopping day, all in all.