Go, Lance go!

Tonight I turn to France, a place half a world away, where American cyclist extraordinaire Lance Armstrong is vying for his seventh and final Tour de France victory.  After three stages Lance is comfortably in 2nd place behind American David Zabriskie.  More importantly, he is already comfortably ahead of his top rivals, including German Jan Ullrich and Italian Ivan Basso, early in the race.  In past races, he typically lagged behind in the early stages and overtook the field in the Pyrennes Mountains.  Aside from a surprise drug test, this year the race has been incredibly smooth for him.  He was the only racer tested, probably due to past allegations that he dopes.  After all, how else is it humanly possible to win so many races consecutively without performance enhancing drugs?  Simple–enter just one major race as Lance does each year and be a human machine (Lance is regarded by many as the fittest athlete alive in any sport).  Barring a disaster, it looks like Lance will win his seventh straight Tour de France and will go out with one of the most amazing records of any athlete in history.  His win record will likely stand for many years to come, just as Barry Bond’s 70 home runs in one season will remain untouchable in the post-steriods baseball era.
 
Despite setbacks off the course, including surviving cancer, allegations of doping, and his divorce, Lance still stands tall.  It is great to see that he will likely join the ranks of greats such as John Elway and Wayne Gretzky and retire at the height of success rather than fade into mediocrity.  After all, wasn’t Michael Jordan’s image slightly tarnished when he donned a Washington Wizards jersey and tried in vain to compete with teammates and opponents 10, 15, 20 years younger than himself?  I think it is better to go out a winner than to burn out and fade away.  One wonders how many consecutive victories Lance could have before he’s beaten in the Tour by up and comers such as David Zabriskie.  Still, I think this should be left to the imagination.  Imagination is often better than reality.  Of course, Lance could still fail this year.  He could get injured, or he could be eliminated from contention.  Somehow, I doubt it.  As much as the other riders want to win cycling’s top race, I think that sentimentality is working heavily in Lance’s favor.  The St. Louis Cardinals had just as much right to win last year’s World Series as the Boston Red Sox, but sentimentality worked heavily in the Sox’ favor and they swept the Cardinals 4-0.  The same is probably true for Lance this year.  
 
I’ve watched the Tour for a long time, ever since American Greg LeMond began his impressive run of four Tour victories.  As an American I feel excited and proud to see an American do so well in a sport dominated by Europeans.  It will be sad to see Lance go, but I also look forward to see who the next dominating rider will be.  Of course I hope it will be an American, but no matter what I will continue to enjoy following an entertaining Tour.
 
Note to InsadongKR:  Thanks for the link on your site.  I appreciate it!  I also posted a link to your restaurant’s page on my blog.  I used to go to Vancouver, B.C. quite often when I lived in Seattle.  If I get a chance to visit Vancouver when I return to the West Coast, I’ll stop by your restaurant for some delicious Korean food.  With so many Chinese restaurants in Vancouver Chinatown and Richmond, it’s great to see a Korean restaurant open up there.  There definitely are not enough in the Pacific Northwest.

Happy Fourth of July

American Independence Day arrives one day early in Korea.  Although today is July 4th in Korea, it won’t be the 4th in the U.S. for a few more hours until daylight hits the East Coast of the United States.  You do your best to observe the holiday as you would at home, but in a faraway place like Korea such momentous occasions can feel somewhat obscure.  For years my wife was far away from her home in China while she lived in the U.S., and for her important Chinese holidays seemed distant.  Chinese New Year or Mid-Autumn Festival never felt the same for her in the U.S. as it did when she lived in China.  I now know how she feels.  Easter, Memorial Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, now Independence Day.  I celebrated all of these holidays in absentia this year.  They still offer a welcomed break from work, and with so many Americans in Korea it is not too hard to find holiday activities.  Still, it is never the same as it feels when one is home in one’s own culture.  It’s yet another reality expatriates face no matter where they are, no matter where they are from. 
 
I remember times in the U.S. when the neighborhood kids (supervised) ignited firecrackers and small fireworks in the street in the early evening.  At night we would head to a local park where we could watch the city fireworks.  I remember one year about six years ago when my wife and I went with some coworkers to her office in downtown Seattle.  From our vista we could see two firework displays going off simultaneously, one in Elliott Bay next to downtown and the other to the east across Lake Washington.  Perhaps the best one of all was the one I saw last year while living and working in Washington, D.C.  I lived in an apartment complex in Arlington, Virginia and was fortunate to have a balcony overlooking the Capitol Building and the National Mall.  From our balcony I watched the firework displays light up the sky above the nation’s capitol.  The scene was unforgettable.  Today will be my first visit to the U.S. Ambassador’s residence to celebrate the July 4th.  Try as they might, the event will never replace the excitement of celebrating Independence Day at home with a picnic and fireworks.
 
Our nation is a young nation of 229 years.  It’s easy to assume that America began on July 4, 1776 when the Continental Congress in Philadelphia approved and issued the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.  That’s the day the United States of America observes as its national holiday.  In reality, America is a much older nation.  America began in 1519 with the founding of St. Augustine, Florida.  It began in 1620 with the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts.  It began in 1625 when the Dutch settled on Manhattan Island and founded New Amsterdam (now New York City).  It began in 1718 with the founding of New Orleans, capital of Louisiana Territory.  It began in 1803 when Lewis and Clark pushed westward to the Oregon Coast.  Some say it began much earlier with the founding of Native American settlements throughout the United States.  All of these dates represent the founding of America, because each in their own way contribute to the collective history of the United States. 
 
If I had to choose a definitive date in American history that defined us as a nation, I would choose June 21, 1788.  On that date, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, resulting in the official adoption of the Constitution as the primary governing document of the United States.  Before that, the Articles of Confederation remained in effect as the legal basis of our nation.  More than any other document, the Constitution brought Americans together to form a single nation, and for 217 years we have recognized it as integral to our national psyche.  Under the guidance of the Constitution, we have become a nation of 50 states and territories spanning an incontiguous area covering several continents.  We are diverse and multi-cultural.  We come from many different backgrounds and demographics, but for the most part we identify ourselves as a singular identity–we are Americans.  We may be Asian, Latino, African American, Native American, Pacific Islander, or Caucasian, but we are still American.  The fact that so many disparate people can generally live peacefully together is a testament to our great nation.  It isn’t perfect, and tensions and inequities exist, but on the whole Americans live peacefully together and have put their trust in the Constitution to sustain and protect them.  Multi-ethnic empires have come and gone, cobbled together by war and conquest, but America is different.  Some might claim that America tends towards empire, but aside from acquisition through conflict such as Puerto Rico and Hawaii, the reality is that America was cobbled together through colonialism, purchases, treaties, statehood, and expansion.  It’s a unique combination that adds to our nation’s character.  It’s my hope that today’s celebration will be one of many to come.

Rain, rain go away

The monsoon season is in full force right now.  We thought about heading south today to visit ceramic shops and the Korean Folk Village in Icheon, but we decided to abort at the last minute.  Instead, we took it easy at home today.  In the afternoon I tried to take my son to the pool for his first swim.  We wanted to buy him something to keep him afloat in the pool (as a safety precaution).  Unfortunately, the local sporting goods store carried neither child-size life preservers nor arm floaters.  The lack of common items readily available in Korea is one of the more frustrating aspects of life here.  For example, finding grilling utensils such tongs and oversized metal spatulas is difficult.  Typically, items not often used in Korea are hard to find.  I realize that seems like an obvious assumption, but it’s a reality you realize often if you’re an expatriate living in Korea.  I plan to take my son to the pool as soon as I can find something that will buoy him in the pool.  We also had difficulty finding a good pool.  We drove to the one freely accessible pool near our home and discovered that it’s an outdoor pool.  Swimming outdoors in a monsoon is not much fun.  We spoke to the pool manager and finally learned through the broken English that there is also an indoor pool nearby.  Unfortunately, it was closed by the time we arrived.  We decided to try again another day.  My son was a good sport and settled for Popeye’s Fried Chicken.
 
All in all, it was a quiet, melancholy day.  I would normally be bummed out about this time of the evening with only five days of work to look forward to, but tomorrow is U.S. Independence Day and I have the day off.  Tomorrow night my wife and I will attend the annual Fourth of July celebration at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence.  In the morning, we’ll take it easy at home.  Although there is presently no U.S. Ambassador to Korea (there should be within a few months), it is still an important event.  Dignitaries and honored guests are invited to this annual event.  The Chargé, or acting Ambassdor, and the former Ambassador’s wife will host the event.
 
This afternoon I also assembled our elliptical machine.  We don’t get enough exercise and are constantly finding excuses not to exercise, so I decided to bring exercising home.  I put the machine next to the bed to serve as a constant reminder that we need to exercise (or perhaps it will serve as an extra clothes rack).  I set up a small TV and DVD to give us something to watch while we exercise.  What better incentive could we have to exercise?  Of course, I didn’t use it today except to test it.  I reasoned with myself that because I worked "so hard" putting it together I didn’t need to use it today.  And so the excuses go on and on… One of these days I will actually start exercising.  No wait, tomorrow.  No, I can’t…I have to go to the Ambassador’s residence.  Yeah, right.
 
Wade3016, thanks for the comment on the audio I mentioned yesterday.  The problem does have to do with mono- to stereo-audio conversion.  I bought a Y-splitter to split mono into stereo audio, but that did not work.  I will try a few VCR channels to see if that works.  I have a feeling that I may have to return the cheap VCR and buy one with stereo audio output.  I’ll exhaust my splitter and channel options first, though.  I’ll write you soon offline or give you a call.
 
To everyone who has written comments in the past few days:  Thanks for your input!  I appreciate it.  I read every comment posted.  I’ll look at your sites soon too.  I appreciate the traffic.  I’m not sure why, but traffic on my blog has increased substantially in the past couple of weeks.  I’m glad to see it increase.  Your comments let me know I’m not writing in a vacuum.  Thanks!