Our Adoring Public

One of the things we're having to get used to here is all the attention. Or maybe I should say I'm having to get used to the attention my children are getting. No one really pays attention to me except to marvel that I'm the mother to ALL of these boys. The boys aren't having trouble getting used to it, they love attention!

When we're waiting for a train we actually attract a crowd. Anyone over the age of 35 seems to be charmed by our kids. Men and women will go out of their way to come and talk to them, pat them on the heads, touch their faces, and sometimes take pictures (good thing I'm not too nervous about germs!). If we're in an office or restaurant and our kids start fussing or crying there's instantly someone there talking to them or offering them candy.

Some restaurants and businesses have play areas set up for kids. We ate lunch at just such a restaurant this weekend.
We met one of my husband's friends from work and he took us to a Korean Barbecue place he likes. We removed our boots in the entryway and were seated on pillows at very low tables. The waiter brought many "side dishes". There was kimchi, lettuce, salad, sliced garlic and onions, beansprouts with some sort of kimchi on top, sauces, and some sort of Korean coleslaw (like all my very technical names for the food?). They lit a little charcoal grill in the middle of the table and pulled down an air vent over the grill (you can see it in the pictures below). Our friend gathered a plate of raw meats from the refrigerated buffet case. He cooked for us and we enjoyed quite a feast, as it was "all you can eat" style. This restaurant had a clever twist on "all you can eat". If your eyes are bigger than your stomach and you leave food on the table, they charge you a fee for being wasteful. Near our table there was an area with a TV playing Korean cartoons and about half a dozen mini retro arcade games.

We had been seated next to a Korean couple and their friend. They watched and smiled at our kids all through the meal and when we were finished eating they started trying to talk to them. Their English was extremely limited but the boys were happy to put on a performance and chatter away in English. The woman managed to communicate that they'd like to take a picture with the kids. I offered to let them hold the baby and they were ecstatic. With a lot of gesturing and help from a translation app on my phone, we figured out they wanted to text the pictures to me. The waitress even got in on the action and carried boy #3 around the restaurant for a while, showing him to the other servers and even some of the other customers! The woman showed me pictures of her two kids, they looked like models! I then saw one of the men hand boy #1 some money and told him to get ice cream (he knew the English word for ice cream!). I tried to refuse it, but he gave it to my son anyway and kept smiling and saying "ice cream!". I thought it was 1,000 Won (about $1), and didn't realize it was actually 10,000 Won until the cashier handed us change. I had #1 try to give him the change, but the man insisted he keep it. Hopefully we followed the proper procedure though, I've read that when given a gift you're supposed to try and refuse it at least once.

As you can see, the boys love the attention.

She insisted I get in the picture too.

I'm starting to think that seeing South Korea "with kids" is the only way to go! With them along the boundries of culture and language seem permeable.