Articles by mgedwards

Dinner with the Bushes

Today was a crazy day in Busan gearing up for the APEC Summit.  I finished pretty late today and headed to E-Mart for a quick dinner.  After this blog entry I’m heading to bed for some much needed rest.  Tomorrow night will end even later than today did.
 
I want to reminisce tonight on what happened last Friday when I was still in Seoul.  A couple really wonderful things happened; the first I will write about tonight, and the other I’ll recount tomorrow.  On Friday evening my wife and I went to a benefit dinner at the Shilla Hotel hosted by the Korean American Association in honor of former President George Bush and Barbara Bush.  We were fortunate to have the chance to meet the former president for the first (and probably only) time.  The dinner was a fundraiser for the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund.  Just as they did for the Tsunami Relief Fund, President Bush and President Clinton joined together again to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and to help rebuild the U.S. Gulf Coast region.  President and Mrs. Bush came to Korea to raise funds for the relief effort.  Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon introduced the President and Mrs. Bush.  He speaks eloquently in English, and he laced his speech with lighthearted comedy.  President Bush also delivered a great speech.  Following the speeches and a toast, we had a wonderful dinner, followed by a couple musical performances, including a rockin’ drum solo by U.S. Ambassador to Korea, Alexander Vershbow.  His drumming made the jazzy music just a bit more rock n’ roll.  He is such a classy guy.
 
The evening was laced with reminisces from Bush’ distinguished career, including his distaste for broccoli and headlines-grabbing parachute jump on his 80th birthday.  He looked fabulous for a man of 82 years.  I can only hope to be so vigorous at that age; heck, I’m not even that active now, and I’m much younger!  It’s quite a contrast to last year when I went to the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. and paid my last respects to President Reagan, who wasn’t much older than President Bush is now.  The dinner also reminded me of the 1992 Presidential Election, when President Clinton defeated President Bush.  During the dinner, President Bush noted his collaboration with President Clinton on tsunami and hurricane relief, and he said, "Just because someone defeats you doesn’t mean he’s your enemy."  It’s something I think those working on Capitol Hill should take to heart–Democrats and Republicans.  President Bush’ reference to his 1992 defeat reminded me of that Election night so long ago, when I was still dating my future wife.  I was a student working at a restaurant on a college campus, and my wife came to visit me briefly.  I remember talking to her for a few minutes while I rested my head on my mop handle.  I didn’t even watch the election results and didn’t find out until the next day who had won the election.  We’ve come a long way in those 13 years since we were in school and working part time.  I never would have thought 13 years ago that I would one day be sitting at a dinner with the former President and First Lady.  If I could, I would love to be able to my younger self myself about Friday night, I don’t think I would have believed me.

Greetings from Busan!

I arrived in Busan this morning.  I will be here for 10 days working at the APEC Summit.  While it’s a great opportunity for me, I will be staying here solo, without my family.  That’s unfortunate–my son and I had a wonderful time yesterday, and I hate to be away from him for so long.  It’s never easy being apart from your spouse, either.  I will also work a lot of hours while I’m here.  I worked nine hours today and will work even more tomorrow, even though tomorrow is Sunday.  APEC gears up on Tuesday and winds down on Saturday.
 
Events such as APEC are rare, as are the opportunities and requirements for an event of such magnitude.  Thousands will descend on Busan by early next week to attend a variety of APEC meetings.  Much has happened since I last wrote, as you can imagine.  I don’t usually miss two days of blogging in a row, but preparations for my trip to Busan and other circumstances drew me away.  I will try to keep writing as much as I can while I’m here.  I’m glad that I have an Internet connection in my hotel room, although the room itself isn’t very nice and it’s much too hot (they turned off the air conditioning).  It’s not nearly as nice as the room I stayed in when I was in nearby Haeundae for a couple days in late September.  It is closer to where I need to be during the APEC Summit.  I would prefer a better location over a better hotel.
 
Tonight I met up with a World Adventurers fan and some of her coworkers.  Monique has been reading my blog for awhile, and I’ve also been reading hers, Quemino’s World.  Her blog is great.  I’m lobbying for it to get a "Best of MSN Spaces" nod.  I call hers the "literary blog," because she posts far more literary references than I do.  If you haven’t checked out her MSN Spaces blog yet, have a look.  She is here in Busan now as part of the APEC delegation.  She is just as nice and congenial and thought provoking in person as she appears to be through her blog–what you read is what you get.  (She’s reading this, so I need to write nice things about her!  Seriously though, she is a great person.)  One of her coworkers asked about how to make a successful blog.  We told him that you need a "hook," something unique that sets your blog apart from other blogs and keeps people coming back for more.  Really, you can blog about just about anything, even something you know nothing about.  That can be even more fun, because then you can write an expository and be blissfully ignorant about the subject matter. 
 
Monique and her coworkers will spend the next week here too as APEC delegates.  I will work behind the scenes.  Tomorrow night I will backtrack and tell you all about the exciting things that happened while I was away.

On the home front

Lately I haven’t written much about life in Korea.  We’re doing fine.  There really hasn’t been specific to highlight over the past couple weeks, so I decided to focus on other blog topics for a change.  My wife has been working for a month now, and my son has finally settled into a new routine where we both leave in the morning for work and the nanny takes care of our son.  Lately I’ve been coming home a couple hours late each night because there’s so much to do at work, although I usually arrive about an hour before my wife does.  For the past couple of weeks my son has grown much closer to me, and we spend more quality time together.  I don’t know whether this is because my wife is now working full time.  More likely it’s because he’s growing up fast.  Our new nanny is doing well, although we have given her critiques on caring for our son and cooking meals (hiring a nanny affordably while living overseas is a great benefit to expatriate life).  My wife and I haven’t had much time for domestic chores, and they’re piling up.  Lately, we haven’t been out and about too much on weekends, and we haven’t taken any time off.  Now that the weather in Seoul has turned colder, there’s less incentive for us to go out and explore Korea.  It hasn’t rained or snowed, but it definitely feels chillier now than it did just two weeks ago, dampening our enthusiasm to brave the elements.  The falling leaves are piling up around the yard, but I haven’t had much time to rake them up.  For the first time in over two years, I have to hire someone (our nanny’s husband) to do the work. 
 
When we first arrived earlier this year, it seemed that we had more leisure time available than we do now.  Now, life seems more cluttered.  I think it’s because both my wife and I are now both working and working long hours.  The extra work and commute time impinges on our time available to do other things, like spending time with our son or entertaining guests or touring Korea.  It will get worse before it gets better.  On Saturday I will head to Busan for a week and a half for the APEC Summit.  It’s the biggest event in Korea this year and a heckuva lot of work.  My family won’t be with me.  I will put in a lot of overtime down in Busan, and my wife will be busy holding the fort down at home when she’s not working.  Thanksgiving will be upon us before we know it, and we haven’t even had time to put together our Thanksgiving plans.  We will probably join the community association’s annual Thanksgiving dinner.  Things probably won’t slow again down before Christmas.  Perhaps peace and quiet will be the best present we receive this year.