Cycle 14 – Item 93

8 (Sat) April 2023

Mellow Mushroom Pizza

2.5

from Papa John’s Pizza

at home

-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-

with IZ and his friends

To celebrate his 11th birthday, IZ invited friends over for a party + sleepover.  Apparently, the event was the hottest ticket in town, but we’d set a cap of 7 guests, so he agonized over the past week deciding who should receive a coveted invitation.

The past few years had been very difficult for IZ, having left international school in Manila then enrolling in a Korean school here, where language and cultural barriers, exacerbated by pandemic restrictions, prevented him from learning to socialize and make friends.  Now, after a year at KIS, he’s thriving.  I’m confident that he’ll do very well when he transfers to SIS and transitions to middle school next year.

Anticipating that their sole objective for the evening would be to play Bed Wars (or whatever computer games they’re into at the moment), I’d developed a few team challenges so they could “earn” screen time.  The challenges included the Serial Killer Souvenir Guesseroo, the Roll-Em Up Count-Em Up Diceroo, and the Up-Down Front-Back Runneroo.  But like at IZ’s 7th birthday party (see 10.098 Spaghetti Vongole al Vino Bianco), the challenges – which seem so clever and fun on paper when I’m designing them – didn’t go so well.  Stupid kids.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)