Articles by mgedwards

Helping friends in Seoul

Today we had dinner with some new friends and colleagues who just arrived from Beijing.  They will be in Seoul for a few years.  A family of three, they arrived last Sunday and are starting to settle into their new life here.  On Monday, I helped them check in, and we went out for lunch.  Tonight we had them over for dinner.  They’re a very nice family.  We’re glad they’re here.  Their arrival reminds me of when we arrived ourselves about five months ago.  Our own arrival seems so long ago now.  It’s hard to believe that our time here is almost one-quarter finished.  This family will be here for about four years, giving them plenty of time to settle in and enjoy Korea.  They appreciated our invitation and had a great time enjoying Chinese and Korean food that my wife prepared.  It was delicious.  We had a great time talking about Seoul and about their experience in China.  Their Mandarin Chinese is fabulous; in fact, my new colleague’s Chinese is almost flawless.  He speaks several languages, including Chinese, Japanese, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.  I can tell that he is very gifted at languages.  He will soon add Korean to his repetoire as he spends one year learning Korean before starting his new job.
 
I also had the privilege today of helping an old friend who’s working in Chennai, India.  He’s been there since late last year.  We met in Washington, D.C., before we left for our respective assignments.  He and his wife, who’s Korean American, came to Seoul in June so she could give birth to their first child in Korea (Chennai is not equipped to handle a western-style birth).  I’m very happy I ran into them today and was able to document their child as an American.  We may work together in the future in another location, and I am privileged to have the opportunity to play a small part in their child’s life.  We will also hopefully meet up soon for dinner before he departs for Chennai.  He has to head back to work, while his wife will remain in Korea with family until the baby is ready to travel to Chennai.

The Monsoon Swoon

We’re in the middle of what I call "The Monsoon Swoon."  It is a literal and proverbial time of the year when life can feel a bit blasé.  Work is hopping as I try to get a couple of Americans out of the country.  However, our home life during the past couple of weeks seems to reflect the persistent monsoon season—it feels methodical, cyclical, and steady.  I don’t mean that life is depressing or melancholy; rather, it feels a bit meandering.  We are like branches and twigs floating in a steadily flowing river known as life.  Activities pass us by like debris, and tasks descend upon us like rivulets of water.  Life feels common and uneventful, yet always somewhat hectic as it pulls us along.  Above the busy undercurrents of life floats a persistent sameness.  All the while, interesting, enticing scenery surrounds us.  Such is life, ever progressing, oft restless, sometimes turbulent, and sometimes calm.

The Monsoon Swoon is a time when one anticipates the future while trying to enjoy the present, sobered by nostalgia for the recent past when life felt a lot more eventful.  In the U.S., this is a time one might describe as the "dog days of summer." In Korea, this time of the year might be more aptly described as the "raining cats and dogs days of summer."  It is a time when one wistfully looks forward to the day when the rain stops and the sweltering heat begins.  It’s a time when you might dare to look forward to the gorgeous fall season—until you realize that if it were fall, then the unforgiving winter would be fast approaching.

Although it rained today, the monsoon season this year has been drier than expected. The weather has been muggy but bearably cool.  Yesterday, the lawn dried out enough for me to mow, and I harvested the lush, grassy field.  My son and I headed to the pool again on Sunday so he could continue to learn how to swim.  I’m so proud of him.  He grabbed hold of a buoy, and I let him go and watched him kick his feet, propelling his body slightly forward. The buoy and life preserver kept him afloat. I returned the audio accessory I bought to fix the sound problem I’m having with the VCR I bought, and I resigned myself to return it to the e-tailer and buy a new VCR.  My family went back to Costco to buy a beautiful set of china my wife eyed during our last visit. On Saturday, I put in some overtime, and in the evening we joined our neighbors in Itaewon for dinner. We also visited a second-hand store, where my wife loaded up on a handful toys for my son. It was an incredible deal, but I have decided that second-hand stores are not my cup of tea.  All of these activities kept us busy over the past couple of days, and I enjoyed them.  Still, like the monsoon season, they were all familiar and cyclical.  They are all common diversions from “The Monsoon Swoon.”

A Rant about calling internationally

Dear reader,
 
I haven’t posted a Rant for awhile (that’s a good thing).  I have one today, though.  Every week or so I make calls on the weekend back to the United States.  The timing is tricky because the U.S. is between 14 and 17 time zones behind Korea.  Day there is night here, night there is day here, Saturday here is Friday there.  I call the U.S. regularly to keep in touch with family and friends back home.  I receive calls from back home occasionally, but about 95% of the international calls between Korea and the U.S. have been initiated by me.  Why?  I decided to take a break this weekend in mute protest.  Unfortunately, if I skip a week or two calling home, I end up feeling guilty.  I think it has to do with filial duty.  The phone is a two-way communications tool.  Why is it so hard for people from back home to pick up a phone and call their loved ones and friends overseas?  If you live overseas too, do you experience the same problem?  I’m sure you do.  Are you the one who always ends up making the phone call? 
 
In the past, I’ve also been guilty of not keeping in touch with those who live abroad.  Here’s an example that implicates me.  When my brother lived in Japan, he used to complain all the time that no one back home called him regularly.  You know, he’s right.  I now know exactly how he feels.  When I lived in the U.S. and he was in Japan, I kept telling myself, "Well, I really should call my brother."  I never did call him as regularly as he called me.  Now the same thing is happening here, although the role is reversed and I call him more than he calls me.  He calls me much more regularly than others, because he knows the distant feeling you often feel when you’re an expat.  I heard that a friend of mine back home asked my mother’s boss if we were coming back to the U.S. for Christmas this year.  Well, why not pick up a phone, call me, and find out firsthand?  I know it can be a little more expensive and a bit inconvenient, but it’s well worth the effort to the person you call.
 
If you know someone you care about who lives overseas, give them a call!  Figure out how to dial internationally.  They would love to hear from you.