So that's what porridge tastes like!

Here's a picture of Suhyuhn (pronounced Sue Yun), the little girl I'm tutoring several times a week.  She is so cute and getting more comfortable with me regarding talking.  She has a number of fairy tales written in Korean, and she reads them and then tells me the story in English.  It's working out well.  Sorry about the one being so blurry...we were in the car on the way to drop her off at taekwando (obviously).  We play word games and I have her practicing her numbers, because they are very different from Korean numbers.  She and many of the children in Korea seem overschooled.  She goes to school, has an English tutor, an art/drawing tutor, takes piano lessons, and takes taekwando.  She barely has any time to be a little girl.

So, yesterday after my tutoring ended about 5:30 pm, Suhyuhn's grandmother asked if wanted a ride to a different bus stop.  OK...that's fine.  Then she said, I'm going to a store, do you want to go with me?  OK...sure.  Her husband is the head of a busy and big group of hospitals.  He travels a lot and was in Tokoyo on Friday.  I think she was a little lonely.  So, we went to a huge mall that also is the location of the exhibition center in Seoul.  The mall goes on for what seems like miles and has every kind of store you can possibly image.  There are also tons of restaurants.   Clothes sizes are a little different here.  Shoes are often sized in sizes like 235, 240, 250, 255 (not sure what this is...centimeters?  millimeters?), dress sizes are sometimes 01, 02, 03, 04, inseams are in centimeters so, 65, 66, 70, 71.  So, it seems such a hassle to have to try on everything thing.  AND, there are a ton of little tiny sizes (to accommodate all the little people).

We also stopped for dinner at a Korean buffet.  On the left there is some kimchi soup (tasty), and rice paste/black sesame porridge (tastes like they toasted the sesames...but VERY bland), on the plate it's mostly sides, one piece of tofu with hot sauce on it, some of those yummy glass noodles (with hot sauce),  bulgogi (very good), and what looks like purple rice.  It's white rice with a black bean cooked in (for good health), but the black bean turns the rice purple.  The salad on the right was more like cole slaw with chopped cabbage and the dressing on top (mind you this was a very small serving), was a crazy pinkish purplish concoction.  Suhyuhn's grandma said it was strawberry.  It tasted a little like thousand island but sweeter.  Not bad, just strange.  The meal was finished with a beverage that is supp0osed to be a digestiv...tasted like tea with cinnamon and was served with crushed ice.  It was good...unusual.  I declined the whole cooked fish...yuck, and the seafood pancakes (they looked scary).

As I was leaving I saw a Bennigans--now that's a hometown name I recognize.  Only, here's a picture of their food, unlike the food at any Bennigans I've ever been.  The same for chains like Outback Steakhouse.  Even McDonalds has Bulgogi Burgers, Shrimp Burgers...lots of fun stuff here.

Have a great rest of your weekend.