New Friends

Today was probably the busiest and most fun, action packed day for Michaela. We were invited to spend the day with new friends; a little boy Michaela's same age and his little brother and Mom and Dad whom are also all American expats living in our same neighborhood. It was an awesome day and so much fun to meet new people, who are generous and kind. The kids played wonderfully together and seemed to mesh very well pretty early on.

Michaela and I were introduced to a new mall today called Times Square. This mall is truly the mac-daddy place. I know in prior blogs I've spoken about my various Korean shopping experiences and the mega-malls here, but I don't think I've really done them justice.

Basically, when these "malls" were designed they were built as life style centers. We have one that we love in Las Vegas called Town Square. In Korea due to space constraints and the cold weather rather than build these centers in an outdoor atmosphere, they build them up in huge multi-level malls. This one has an E-Mart on the bottom two floors. E-Mart is like a grocery store and Walmart all rolled into one place. It is fantastic. If you can't find it at E-Mart it probably can't be found. The next several levels have the regular stores and in the midst of all of that the planners built a huge kids play area. In this mall it's called Strawberry Land. This is no Chuck E Cheese. This place has multiple rooms with bounce houses, zip lines, slides, ball rooms, a story room, and even a small train ride inside the facility. What a great place to bring the kids on a rainy day, like today, or when the weather is cold and nasty. They even offer package deals to  buy time slots in bulk. My friends did that and then you can go anytime you want with your coupons. Koreans are super kid focused. They truly hold their kids up on pedestals so there are always kid centered things to do in public venues. They even have set-up separate nursing areas for new mom's.  I can remember so many times having to duck into a Nordstrom's bathroom to feed and change Michaela when she was an infant because the public facilities didn't have a nice cozy place to sit while you breast or bottle fed. Undoubtedly at the top level of every life style center you will find a fitness facility, a massage business, a hair salon, a huge food court, and in some they even have wedding chapels. This truly is a one stop shop experience. The Koreans even have 4-D movie theaters. I really can't imagine what 4-D is. If anyone out there knows, I'd be truly interested in the concept.

Anyway, we had a fantastic time of it and Michaela got in some great kid play time which she has been sorely lacking since we moved here and I got in some great meet new friends time, so all in all in was a really nice day.

Peace,
Stephanie