Viva el Paraguay!

If you frequently surf the Internet or have watched television in recent days, you probably know by now that the Football (soccer) World Cup began today in Germany.  Even if you’re not a big fan of soccer and are just mildly curious about the sport, you probably still have a favorite team you’re rooting for to win the cup.  If you’re American, it’s probably the American team; if you’re Korean, you are no doubt rooting for Korea to win it all.  I’m not a soccer fanatic, but I do enjoy following the sport during the World Cup.  News about soccer and the World Cup are plentiful here in South Korea because Korea, along with Japan, co-hosted the event in 2002.  I’m in a bit of dilemma this year, because my host country, South Korea, my national team, the United States, and my upcoming host country, Paraguay, all qualified to compete in this year’s World Cup. 
 
So which team should I root for to win the World Cup?  Most definitely NOT Brazil, which I believe will win yet another World Cup again this year.  I’m rooting for Paraguay, which unfortunately is down 1-0 to England as I write.  Why Paraguay?  Because I love an underdog, and I love to see a small country like Paraguay (population 6.1 million) achieve greatness.  Still, Paraguay has a very tough road ahead of it.  While I hope it wins the Cup, it’s more realistic to root for the Paraguayos to advance beyond their pool (Group B).  Of course, I would be thrilled to see the United States or Korea also reach the World Cup finals, but in the final game, if Paraguay were a contender, I would be rooting for Paraguay to win it all.  Viva el Paraguay! 

Another day, another…yeah, whatever

I feel a bit downcast today.  I interviewed about 175 people today over half a day, probably another 300 or so all day tomorrow.  It is such a daily grind.  The only joy it brings is knowing how many thousands of dollars it brings in…for my employer.  I came home tonight and read some junk mail asking me whether I would like to spend some of my hard-earned dollars to buy commemorative postage stamps featuring great statesmen like Robert D. Murphy and Hiram Bingham IV (I’ll let you do an online search if you want to know who these people are).  I immediately thought to myself–I’ll bet these guys never interviewed 300 people in a day.  I’ll bet they couldn’t, even if they tried.  Would they have ended up on a stamp if they did?  Probably not.  They were too busy saving the world to spend the best hours of their day doing interviews.  Rather than being on a stamp, they would have just wielded stamps and stamped, stamped, stamped documents about 200-300 times each and every working day.  Times have really changed.  Those who play up the significance of the work are people who have never done 30,000-40,000 interviews in about 18 months.  I wish they would.  Things would change very quickly if the Powers That Be spent just week doing this kind of work at the pace and volume it’s done.
 
The one joy that brightened my day today came when I sat down to play with my son.  He had lined up all of his Thomas the Tank Engine engines and coal tenders and organized them sequentially from one to six (each train has a different number).  He pays attention to little details I would never have thought to remember.  It’s amazing what goes on in that kid’s head sometimes!

The toughest job in the world

Tonight my wife is on her way back from a business trip in Busan, Korea.  I played Mr. Mom once again, the third time in less than two months.  My son and I had a fabulous time tonight.  When I returned home from work, he wasn’t hungry, so we went for a walk to the neighborhood playground, and we played together until dusk.  We walked home, and he still wasn’t very hungry, so he watched a video until just before bedtime.  By that time he was hungry, so I coaxed him into eating a meal he really didn’t want to eat.  That eliminated his late-night snack craving.  I bathed him, brushed his teeth, put on his pajamas, read him some bedtime stories, and then, rather than trying to lie next to him to help him fall asleep–an honor reserved for mommy–I turned the light out, kissed his forehead, and let him fall asleep by himself.  It worked.  Everything worked like a charm.  I am so happy.  I had the most carefree caregiving night I think we’ve had with him in months.  I think tonight’s strategy worked for a couple reasons.  One, he tends to behave better when mommy isn’t around.  Two, I did it my way and avoided copycatting his mommy’s style.  Mommy is a great mommy, but my son demands more from her than from me.  When I act like daddy, he tends to be a better child.  Perhaps that’s out of a healthy respect for me, or maybe it’s because he thinks I’m not cut out for being mommy and cuts me some slack.  I think my wife is a bit jealous of how well he behaves when I’m not around.  Of course, it hasn’t always been easy for me with him.  When we were in China and in the U.S., I was often at wit’s end dealing with his incorrigible behavior.
 
After having been with my son alone thrice for several days at a time, I decided that single parenting has to be the toughest job in the world.  Not only do you have to work for a living to earn enough money to provide for your child’s basic necessities, but also you have to fill the roles of two parents.  It’s even tougher when you have more than one child.  Single parenthood can also be career-limiting, because working and simultaneously caring for your kids can put a big strain on your ability to multi-task.  I have a cousin who until recently was a single mom with three children (she’s now remarried).  We don’t have much in common, and she can’t relate to my own life ("good luck with that Korea thing," she told me before we left the states).  At the same time, I couldn’t really relate to her life either until I had a child and took care of him on my own.  Having had a small taste of single parenting, I now realize that it is the toughest job you can have.  I salute the single mothers out there who work all day and take care of their children at night, the ones who have to rely on the grandparents, daycare, or public school to watch their children during the day.  You do amazing work.