Children are evil, and parents are stupid.

So, I'm in a restaurant, after a harder than usual day at work. My dinner, Dolsot bibimbap, just arrived at the table, so I start mixing all the ingredients in the hot bowl. The restaurant is unusually busy, and I noticed that I got the last available table. None of my favourite salad tonight, just the bad mix of corn, peas and tangerines in some kind of white salad dressing.

Then I notice a few kids running around. This is not unusual in a Korean restaurant. It is not unusual to have Koreans speaking and laughing loudly, without considering other people in the restaurant, because the other people don't consider the other people either. Then, the kids notice a foreigner. They notice me. They come up to my table, standing on the opposite side, and just stop and stare. Not a regular stare.. a DDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNNNNN LLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG stare.

At first, I ignore it. They probably haven't seen a foreigner before (and by foreigner, I mean someone who isn't Korean). Eventually, they run off and are out of my sight for a few seconds, thank fuck. Then, I can hear their voices in the background, the kids, have told other kids, that a foreigner is in the restaurant, and then they all run over, and stare.

I'm trying to eat my dinner in a crowded, noisy, and smoky restaurant (too many Koreans smoke, to businesses would lose money if they banned smoking here), and I have kids starting at me. Normally, after I say hello in Korean, they run off, and don't really come back, except for a stare if they're walking past to run around somewhere else to annoy someone else. But not these kids. I say hello in Korean, and they just kept staring. It started to shit me, so I said "go away" in Korean, they laugh, and run off.

I tried to enjoy the time that I would have alone, because I knew it wouldn't be much. I've noticed that their parents are in one of the closed off rooms, where you can close the doors, and block out some of the noise from the main eating area. Then, I hear something that I know very well in Korean: "go and say hello to the foreigner".

With no consideration of me, my personal space and/or what I'm doing, parents will randomly say "go and speak/talk/say hello to the foreigner". This has happened many times, the most hilarious is in the Mens Bathroom in a department store, while I'm taking a piss, and a father and his son are washing hands.

So, the kids run over, scream out "hello!", loud enough to stop everyone talking for a moment, and look at me, then they run off back to their parents, while I'm just sitting there trying to eat dinner. Then they do it again, again, and again, laughing, running off, and coming back.

By then, I was just pissed off, and stood up as they were running over, gave them a "come any closer and I'll kick the fuck out of you" look, which stopped them in their tracks (being way taller than them with an angry look help) and just went over to the counter, and paid for my half eaten meal, and said to the woman at the counter, who I call 이모 (auntie - Its a Korean culture thing) and said to her: 저는 일찍 나갈게요. 왜냐하면, 어리니들은 시끄럽고 짜증나요. 그들은 싸까지 없어요. For those playing at home: I'm leaving early, because the kids are noisy and rude. They have no manners (and I used the bad meaning of no manners). She didn't look too impressed, maybe because she had a pissed off regular customer.

I wasn't going to make the effort to find the kids' parents, and tell them that they're annoying me. Korean parents, generally, are way more sensitive about their children, and I wasn't in the mood, or in the right frame of mind to talk to them. I would have most likely said something wrong, or they would take offence with the tone I would have used. For me, this is a big problem in Korea - Parents than have no idea about parenting. Korean parents seem to let their kids run around, do whatever they want, and receive very little discipline. They see their children as something special, sweet, innocent and not capable of anything bad. LIKE FUCK THEY ARE!

Don't get me wrong, some kids aren't too bad. They know how to behave, or know to fuck off, when someone says to. But there seem to be so many stupid, rude, obnoxious children here, that have stupid, rude, obnoxious parents.

How many days to go now? 220, and counting!