Articles by mgedwards

Distracted by Jumbotrons

Driving in Seoul is bad enough that drivers don’t need any further distractions.  Call it a clash between the highway and Korean digital superhighway.  Seven giant Jumbotron digital billboards are strategically placed around downtown Seoul in order to maximize viewership and inadvertantly distract drivers.  I usually don’t pay much attention to them while driving, but tonight I could not help it.  I was driving south towards Namdaemun in heavy traffic when I stopped and waited for the red light to turn.  As I waited, I couldn’t help but stare up at a monstrous digital advertisement featuring tennis sensation and stunningly beautiful Maria Sharapova.  The giant, digitized Wimbledon champion hits a few tennis balls that precisely hit a faraway target.  Then she suddenly hikes up her tennis skirt to reveal a portable media player strapped to her attractive, shapely leg.  I did not catch which product she was pitching–perhaps it was a Motorola product.  (When the beauty outshines the product being marketed, it’s overkill.)  No matter–the whole scene was rather distracting.  As the majority of drivers in Korea are men, I suspect that I was not the only male driver distracted by this huge, seductive advertisement overshadowing my line of sight.  When the traffic light turned green, I drove on and immediately thought about how easy it would be for this type of advertisement to cause traffic accidents.  While that speaks volumes about Maria Sharapova’s beauty, it doesn’t bode well for Seoul’s traffic safety.

Relishing the sweet pickles

I am moving to a new job soon.  I’ve been in the same area for about seven months, but next week (heck, next year) I will move on and do something else.  I can’t believe my time there is almost finished.  It’s been quite a ride, and I’m going to miss it.  I took my coworkers out for lunch today to thank them for all they’ve done.  They’ve all been a huge support, and I appreciate their help immensely.  I took them out today for a nice lunch at an Italian restaurant highly recommended by a friend of mine.  Her tastes are impeccable, and her restaurant choices are excellent. 
 
The meal was delicious as expected.  I wouldn’t have expected anything less from an upscale Italian restaurant.  The garlic bread with vinegar and oil, leafy green salad, rice pilaf, spaghetti carbonara, espresso, and gelato took me away from Korea for a brief respite.  I soon came back to reality when the waiter brought out a plate of red chilis and sweet pickles.  Chilis and sweet pickles served at an Italian restaurant?  You’ve got to be kidding!  Oh, yes.  Sweet pickles are a nod to the Korean palate.  Western-style restaurants can’t very well get away with serving customers a vat of aromatic kimchi, so they subtly substitute innocuous sweet pickles instead.  I can’t get away from sweet pickles at my favorite Italian restaurant (another one) near my office, nor at my favorite Indian restaurant, and I couldn’t escape them when I ate at a fabulous French restaurant in Busan.  The only foreign cuisine I’ve found in Korea not subjected to the tinge of sweet pickles is Mexican cuisine.  Of course, chili peppers are a staple in Mexican food, so Koreans merely substitute chilis for kimchi. 
 
It seems that no matter where you are–in Korea, the U.S., or elsewhere–you just can’t get away from food localization.  Restaurants serving foreign cuisine will always tailor it to local tastes.  That’s fine, but I think I’ll pass on the sweet pickles. 

It could happen to anyone, anytime

Dear Reader, I crashed tonight and am just waking up.  Work today was trying following a three-day weekend and a couple of unfortunate tragedies that happened yesterday.  Our office spent the day fighting many fires.  On days like these, I’m reminded that I’m not getting any younger.  I just finished a three-day weekend, and I still felt like I’d gone ten rounds in a boxing match.  Kudos to my wife for taking care of our son this evening without me.  She usually puts him to sleep, but I try to spend at least two hours each night playing with him after I get home.  Unfortunately, tonight I crashed and didn’t spend much time with him.  I will tomorrow.
 
Tonight, after I awoke, I thought about people who seem to have everything who suddenly become unfortunate victims of tragedy.  No, I am not really being fatalistic.  I’m recalling two unfortunate events that recently transpired–the one year anniversary of the Tsunami in Southeast Asia and Africa and the funeral of the son of Indianapolis Colts’ Coach Tony Dungy.  I know you know about the Tsunami; if you live in the U.S., you probably have heard the story of how Coach Dungy’s teenage son very likely took his own life, an unexpected, terrible tragedy for a family to bear.
 
December 26, 2004, the day of the Tsunami, seems so long ago, yet I know it is still fresh in many people’s minds.  I’m disappointed by sparse American media coverage of the first anniversary of this tragedy, just as I was with coverage of the tragic earthquake in Pakistan.  Events of this magnitude impact so many people, especially those who are left behind.  I think they deserve more than a one-minute headline.  I thought about the families of Tsunami victims who traveled to the sites where they lost their loved ones one year ago.  At the same time, I remembered the Dungy family, who buried their son.  Just a few weeks ago, the Dungys were on top of the world.  Their father’s team, the Colts, was on the verge of a perfect football season.  Now, the family must grapple with the loss of a loved one.  Neither the Tsunami nor the death of James Dungy were very expected.  It reminds me of how life can change in an instant.  Sometimes life-changing events are positive ones, but sometimes the event could be tragic.  Times like these remind me to live life to the fullest, because I’ll never know what will happen tomorrow.