Food Tour and First Sightseeing Trip

Hi all,
We thought we'd give you a little update about the food tour we took last night with three other adoptive families staying here at the agency.   The tour was led by an adult Korean Adoptee who grew up in the U.S.  He now lives in Seoul and owns a Korean cooking school and gives the food tours.  One of the other sets of parents hooked us up and we were invited to join the group. 
We ate at four different restaurants, most of which we wouldn't have been brave enough to venture into on our own.  At the first stop we had an appetizer which consisted of steamed tofu and kimchee.  We toasted our time here in Seoul with bowls of homemade rice beer.  One bowl was bubbling green but it was amazingly delicious. 
The second stop served more rice beer with a dish of boiled chicken and sweet potato noodles.  It was a little bit spicy but also really, really good. 
The third stop's meal was grilled kalbi pork ribs.  The ribs were pre-cooked on an outdoor grill and then the meat was brought to our table and finished cooking on a tabletop gas grill.  We used the meat and a host of Korean side dishes to build our own lettuce wraps.  The drink concoction at this meal involved a shot of coke, shot of rice wine, and beer.  It made for an interesting flavor combination. 
After a long walk through back alleys that would have made Andrew Zimmern nervous we arrived at our final destination where we ate fried cakes made of mung bean paste and mung bean sprouts.  They were right up there with the mini-doughnuts at the State Fair.  (We were very glad to be eating anything other than the pieces of animals we had walked by on the way to the restaurant!)  
It was nice to spend the night with other familes like ourselves and an adult adoptee.  We learned a lot about Korean culture and about adoption along the way.  We made sure to get back to the agency before the doors were locked at 11:00.  Plus we had to get the other three couples to bed... all three of them took custody of their children today and will be flying home soon.  We were grateful to be navigating the subway system and the streets of Seoul with couples who already had the lay of the land.

Today we spent some time wandering about on our own.  We eventually found all of the shops and places we planned to see today, but took a few wrong turns along the way.  We had fun buying a few Korean toys and some clothes made in Korea for Max.  We walked by a few shops last night before and during the food tour that we would like to make our way back to in the next couple of days.  Cindi, we had a very delicious iced mocha at Starbucks (Thank you!).  It had at least triple the chocolate syrup as the mochas usually have in the U. S., but I have a feeling they saw us coming and thought we would like it that way.  We have been told that we Americans like things much sweeter than Koreans typically like their sweets.  (Maybe that's why the rice cakes really do just taste like rice.)  We walked all over the city in the heat (Mom, it was 86 degrees and sunny) and headed back to the agency feeling pretty worn out.  When we got to our floor, we met a new couple who had just gotten custody of their son this afternoon and he was missing his foster mom pretty badly.  Within about thirty minutes, the three couples we had been on the Food Tour with joined us in the common kitchen area and we got to meet their three boys.  Shortly thereafter another new mom who is staying on another floor joined the group and there were five newly adopted adorable Korean boys running around the kitchen giggling with each other and playing ball.  It was so amazing to watch how the boys helped each other work through this rough day with so many changes.  (It was the best sight we could see on our first day of sightseeing!)  That was hours ago and all of the little boys have been tucked into their rooms and since it is quiet, we assume they are sleeping, at least for now.  We're still sweaty and a little worn out, but are filled with a whole new energy.    Kurt is going to try to add a few photos of our last day and a half.  Thanks for all of the emails and posts on the blog.  It's fun for us to get back from a busy day and see that you all have checked in.

Love,
Dede and Kurt