And on the seventh day, God ended his work which he had made…

Courtesy of Korean fashion designer Andre Kim

Oh yes, I did…go to…Bennigan’s. And I will be going again because LE had such a fabulous time at their indoor “Neverland” that we will be making this a regular part of our routine. You can track your kid in every room on their multiple monitors, while enjoying a disgusting American meal and making polite conversation with other Korean Horangimoms. I can’t quite complete this post without sharing some of their menu highlights: “Salad Pizza” which consists of pizza crust with a layer of cream cheese, topped with an abundance of spinach and assorted greens; “Cream Pasta” which consists of a heavy cream sauce the way Koreans think Americans like it made (this is not a good thing) and “Croque Monsieur” which literally looked like a yoga block. 

And of course, how could I not mention the GENIUS behind the “sandbox” concept which actually doesn’t contain ANY sand but artificial soft rocks! Conversation highlights included: parent-obsession with their children learning perfect English, what age is appropriate to send their Korean child to top boarding schools on the East Coast, educational trends, and after school education activities that help educate their educated children. 

Pasta, the fish. LE brought home a little fish from school today, aptly named for his desire to find a place to get decent pasta in this country. I hope LE doesn’t want to eat him by the end of our trip. 

I mean, really., 

I don’t even know what Koreans really look like anymore because I haven’t run into a single person that looks like they didn’t get some work done.

That’s how long it takes for clothes to dry in the washing machine that also operates as a dryer. I was surprised to learn before arriving in Seoul that while all Koreans have a washing machine in their home, they don’t own dryers. Apparently it’s bad for the environment, consumes an enormous amount of energy and is bad for the clothes? I will take my two washers and two dryers any day, thank you very much. 

LE is starting to make friends at school and has already bonded with one boy in particular. His name is “Namu” which literally means “wood”. Koreans have started naming their children for the “sound” and “object” of the name in the last decade rather than the traditional  approach of taking Chinese characters and family names to create names with depth and meaning.

For example, there are children among us named “Purple”, “Strawberry” and “Love”.

His class has 8 boys and one girl who visits Korea twice a year with her mother from London for a few months at a time. 

Not how I remember it as a child, but interesting nonetheless. They’ve spruced up the place since my last visit more than two decades ago, complete with changing of the guards.