Maedeup Exhibition in Insadong

 Nan-Young and Young-Soo rearranged my schedule so they could take me to a maedeup exhibition in Seoul.  Young-Soo drove and she was pretty careful.  We left around 9:45 am and the traffic was still pretty bad.  We got to Insadong and parked and that is when I realized we had no idea where to go.

 So while the three of them figured it out.  I took a picture of how I want my windows at home to look like when we return.  Do you think Rocketman will go for it?

                                            It can't be far, we're already in Insadong.

 Then we started walking and I kept my camera ready to take pictures and it's a good thing I did or

I would have missed this

and this grandmother and yes, her hair was really lavender.

                               But we finally found the exhibition.  Just follow the flower stands.

                                 We found a lot of maedeup so I started taking pictures...

 ... until they told Nan that I couldn't take pictures.  But I was already done.  They had an exhibition book for 15,000WON ($13.00 USD) and I was going to buy one when they gave me three free.  It sure is great being the foreigner.

               Then we did some shopping in Insadong.  These are suppose to cure whatever ails you.

                                                  I love looking at bojagi and chasu.

 Soon it was time to go.  It was lunchtime and I was hungry but they said we would eat at Young-Soo's.

 Young-Soo needed to stop at a rest area so we stopped for coffee.  I found this adorable puppy on a table with a young couple. 

I had noticed on the ride into Seoul that Young-Soo's gas tank was near empty and I was really worried when we started to leave the rest area without stopping for gas.

I told her to get gas and she pulled up to a pump.  The service guy came over and I rolled down my window and said, "ca-duke-e-o."  Young-Soo just about fainted until I grabbed a bunch of money to show her I would pay.  I had thought about all the kindness that had been shown to me, especially this week, and it was time for me to give back.

They were SHOCKED that I knew what that meant until I explained how I was in the car every week and Rocketman would say the same thing to the gas station attendant.  I don't remember in recent history seeing Young-Soo so happy.  I don't think she usually puts much gas in her car and it made me feel so good to put that huge smile on her face.

 Sometime during the rest of the drive back to Suwon, it was decided that we would go out to lunch.  We ended up at this little hole in the wall place near E-Mart, which was way out of the way.

                                            Nan-Young was tired and so was I.

                                     It was about 2 pm and the place was pretty deserted.

                                                        Can you find the napkins?

                           Again, can you find the napkins in this photo?  It's on top of the rice cooker.

 We went mainly vegetarian.  The halmoni (grandmother) also brought us a delicious stew.

  / I couldn't believe Young-Soo got that huge piece of veggies into her mouth.  The halmoni was so thrilled that I was there.  I was her first foreigner.  She kept coming over to our table with a huge smile and would wait for me to take another bite of something.  I was full and couldn't put another bite in my mouth when  she grabbed some chopsticks, filled it with some veggies and placed it right in front of my mouth so I had no choice but to eat it.  It was delicious, of course.  But that was a first. 

 Nan-Young and Young-Soo loved the marinated leaves and so they bought a bag of them.  I paid for lunch. 

 This is where the halmoni did all the cooking.  She was a one person restaurant too.

 Nan-Young gave her one of her pins that she had been wearing.  I just love seeing things like that.  The halmoni was really touched.

                                                         Here is the front of her restaurant.

 Afterwards, we went to a huge grocery store.  This is a picture of the elevator.  It was the largest I had ever seen.

 I came home with these for me and Rocketman.  They were only 5000 WON (4.50 USD).

 And this golden frog from the same vendor.  Nan-Young and Young-Soo really were giving him the business to get him to give me a frog.  I know they mentioned I was an American to which he looked up and pointed to tons of foreigners that are in Insadong every day, so they brought up that I had been on American television and he finally gave them one.  I felt bad about it but they were thrilled that he had gave in to them.  He is a cute little guy.

It was a fantastic day and I got home around 5pm exhausted and happy.