Streets of Seoul Day 2

Well we woke up this morning to pouring rain.  Non-stop pouring rain.  Way worse than yesterday.  The kind you just don't want to go out in.  We decided to be brave, throw on a hat, and run over a couple of blocks to Dunkin Donuts.  We had some coffee and breakfast and then headed back to the room to put together our game plan for the day.  Despite the sideways pouring rain, we decided to head over to Namdaemun market to check it out.  The positive to the pouring rain, there were very few people out shopping.  Very good for my spacial issues.  The negative, it's pouring rain and with very few shoppers out almost every retailer wanted to make us (actually me) some sort of deal.  The easiest american place that I can compare it to is a huge flea market or swapmeet.  Tons and tons of never ending rows/alleys of tables and shops set up.  I looked at a lot of fake purses.  I mean A LOT.  Never did find anything.  Well, that's a lie.  I found one that I really loved but it was more than I wanted to spend.  Even at the "great deal" the guy was offering me.  While we were shopping Kasey decided he wanted to give one of the food vendors a try.  So we headed down an alley of food places. More like a back alley...  I mean really back alley.  There were rows of food places and the ladies were almost begging us to come in.  The bargaining tool they used for the two americans...."we have english menu."  Must have heard that 20 times.  I finally gave in to one lady.  I had to.  She worked so darn hard and was so determined to get us to go in, how could I not give her our business!  I really wanted to get a picture of this place, because again, those of you who know me would be SHOCKED that I went in and ate there.  Not gonna lie, I was a little scared.  But, I told myself I was going to really embrace the culture while I was here.  What better way then to eat korean food in a back alley of a flea market.  Right?  Plus I had to make up for the panini and club sandwich dinner we had last night.  Anyway, the food was super good.  We had pork dumplings and fried rice with vegetables.  We both enjoyed it.  We did a bit more walking around and exploring of the streets as we made our way back to the hotel.  Took some photos of what we saw along the way, and also a picture of the traditional korean hanbok we bought for Maddyx at the market.

As you know, tomorrow morning is our first meeting with Maddyx.  We'll leave our hotel around 8:30 for our 10:00am meeting.  I think it's only about a 20 minute drive, but I do not want to be late!  I'm trying not to think about it too much.  I know, sounds weird.  But if I do, I'll be so nervous and sick to my stomach (more than I already am) that I wont be able to enjoy my time here at all.  As a side note, I've had a lot of new emotions surface since I've been here.  That's a post for another day.  But I will share at some point.  For now, I'm signing off and headed to our lounge to grab a glass of wine (or two) and try to relax for the rest of the evening.

Streets of Seoul, day 2, through my eyes.