Wow, talk about a big surprise.  Today I gave a presentation on career development in an American context to the students of Incheon Foreign Language High School in Incheon, Korea.  I’d prepared for the presentation for about a week and thought I would receive a cordial welcome from the 150 students who came to hear my presentation.  Instead, I felt like a musician at a rock concert.  I usually feel like an average Joe (no offense to all the guys named Joe out there).  I had a blast basking in 1 hour and 20 minutes of fame.  You can’t help but feel special and uplifted by that.  The students’ enthusiastic reaction to my visit was completely unexpected.  I arrived to a banner strung across the school’s entrance announcing my presentation.  After visiting for 15 minutes with the school’s principal, I went to the auditorium and was met by thunderous applause and whistling. (Whistling by students in Korea–who ever heard of such a thing?)  Somewhere in heaven, I’m sure Andy Warhol smiled, bemused.

Much to my chagrin, I sent an earlier version of the PowerPoint presentation I’d prepared for my speech, so the multimedia component lacked some pizzazz.  I had to ad lib and talk about some of the changes I’d made from the previous version.  I worked the crowd, giving them many personalized examples to pique their interest.  These students are some of the best in Korea, and I surmised that most are hoping to attend Korea’s top universities or elite schools overseas.  I told them about the story of Bill Gates, who dropped out of Harvard University to found Microsoft with two friends (Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer).  I counter-weighted that example with the example of Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google who graduated from Stanford University and lined up funding for Google from Stanford.  I also used the example of my wife, an alumna of a similar foreign language school in Shanghai.  After she graduated, she went to the U.S. and eventually became vice president of a small bank in Washington State.  I used these examples to show how career development in the U.S. is an individualized endeavor and that there’s no single way to have a successful career.  I wanted the students to know that in the U.S. they don’t need to go to Harvard or Stanford to be successful.  I wanted to impress on them that success is a state of mind, that success in the American context is whatever the person considers to be success.

The students asked many excellent questions, particularly about studying in the U.S.  The way they responded to my presentation made it obvious that most knew English well.  They humored me with "ooh’s and ah’s" whenever I used my meager Korean.  The tone of the presentation was lighthearted and informative.  The highlight was when I did something completely unexpected and sang a few verses from the Beatles’ song, "Yesterday."  During the question and answer session, the students’ microphone abruptly went silently, and to kill time I decided to sing for them.  My interpreter, a veteran in the profession, said afterward that she had never heard anyone sing during a speech.  Because Koreans are crazy for noraebang (karaoke) and pride themselves on being able to sing, I thought I would entertain them with a little serenading.  I also did it to show that Americans are just little bit different.  An American, moreso than a Korean, would have the gumption to sing during a speech.  I’m positive that they will never forget the time when an American official showed up in a suit and started singing during a speech.  After my presentation ended, I transformed myself into politician and marched down the center aisle to shake students’ hands.  I felt like a prize fighter after a successful match.  I could tell from their faces that most enjoyed my presentation.  I just hope that through all the entertaining and frivolity they heard my core message–that career development is up to them, and that they need to realize that there are many ways to find the "American Dream."  I think they were listening.

My entire office left work early today for our annual summer picnic.  We went to a nearby park on a gorgeous day.  The setting was perfect for an office picnic.  The weather could not have been better.  My office is huge, and we had well over 100 people attend the picnic today.  Although I wasn’t the organizer, I took over grilling duties like I always do and arguably did more work than most on the picnic today.  It’s a labor of love I’ve enjoyed doing since I started grilling several years ago.  I’ve grilled on many occasions for many people.  However, I’ve never grilled for over 100 hungry stomachs before.  I can safely say I much prefer grilling for less than a dozen people than I do for hundreds.  I had a couple of assistants who did a fabulous job helping me gather food and supplies, shop for groceries, set up, and take down the grilling station.  I carted over a ton of food and a couple of charcoal grills from my house to the park.  Everything went smoothly before the picnic began.  I stoked the grills and got the barbeque going.  I grilled cheeseburgers, hamburgers, veggie burgers, and hot dogs.  My Korean colleagues made bulgogi using one of the grills.

We avoided any major difficulties while grilling.  Still, the sheer volume of food we had to cook made grilling much more of a chore today than I’d hoped.  At times, I felt like Hephaestos, the Greek god of fire, slaving over burning coals.  I can still feel the smoke in my lungs, and my eyes have been watery all day long.  I probably inhaled more carcinogens today than are recommended for one’s health.  In the end, it was worth the sacrifice.  Last year, the picnic-goers waited a long time for food.  This year, mounds of heaping bulgogi, burgers, hot dogs, and side dishes were waiting for them when they arrived.  I enjoy being known as "The Grillmeister," even though can be a thankless job.  I left this morning at 9 a.m. to start working on the picnic and didn’t finish until 6 p.m., long after the picnic-goers left.  The worst part of being a grillmeister is cleaning up after a barbeque.  Not only do you have to clean the grill(s), but you have to transport everything home.  That can take multiple trips.  Being grillmeister is fun when one grills, but otherwise it can be an inconspicuous job.  It’s also a bummer because the grillmeister is usually the last one to eat, and by the time they do the food (what’s left of it) is cold.  And they are apart from family and friends while they grill.  It’s a lonely life, but someone has to be the Grillmeister.