SK2: Blog Post #3: (not) Korean Pancake, eating live octopus, more of the story unravels…

Posted on by
Reply

Wednesday

The second day we spent in Busan involved a lot of travel around the southern part of Korea. We first began by meeting Seoksoon, her daughter, Yeongmo, and both of Meghann’s birth parents in the hotel lobby at noon. We had agreed to eat an “American Pizza and Pasta” style lunch for something different than all of the traditional Korean food we had eaten the day before. Lydia recommended we eat at Blacksmith, a restaurant that we had enjoyed during our first trip to Busan in May.

I don’t think this was the type of restaurant that Meghann’s birth parents were familiar with eating at, which lead to some hilarious situations. When we first walked in, Meghann’s birth father walked over to the counter, and jokingly asked if he could buy one of the tools on the wall behind the host stand (they were decorative tools.) After we got seated, the first thing Meghann’s birth father said when looking at the menu was “Why does everything look like Korean pancake?!” We had had a Korean pancake the day before, although it was something very different. He laughed and thought it was hilarious. After looking through the menu, we ordered a few plates of pasta and a couple pizzas. They first brought out bread, one brown piece that Meghann’s birth father held up and said in English, “potato!”

The food itself was very good – not exactly like traditional American pizza but still delicious. Everyone at the table was enjoying the pizza and pasta, except Meghann’s birth mother did not seem to care for either. She had kind of a disgusted look on her face, and when we asked if she liked it, without even translating she quickly shook her head “No!” Before lunch concluded, Yeongmo gave us some gifts he had gotten for us the night before, which included a pair of Korean decorative dolls, and a nice glass set for Meghann’s parents.

Waiting to be seated at the Blacksmith.

Just finished lunch.

After lunch concluded, we all headed to the orphanage where Meghann was briefly held prior to being brought to America. Meghann and I brought a big bag of gifts for the children we brought from the US, and Meghann’s siblings with us ordered a large box of Korean hamburgers and drinks for the children as well. The head of the orphanage, Director Kim (whom Meghann’s korean name was named after) came to sit down with us and talk. Meghann’s mother and the director had some discussion about the facility, which resulted in her deciding to come back to volunteer at the facility to help the children. After that we played with the children for a bit, took some pictures, and departed for our next destination.

Walking at the orphanage where Meghann was held.

Not sure what Meghann’s birth father said, but he’s about to get whacked for it.

Meghann and her birth father sit on a bench at the orphanage.

Joking around before leaving the orphanage.

After leaving the orphanage, we departed for Daegu, the city to the north in which Meghann’s birth father, and sisters Eungyoung, Jinsoon, Songja all live. On the way there, we stopped at a rest stop, which is very different than the kind you will find in the US. They have a lot of stores, convenience stores, and are generally very busy. They also seem to be in very scenic locations, at least the couple that I’ve been to. During the car ride, I had remembered from our first trip that Meghann’s birth mother had decided to live in Busan, in case Meghann ever returned to find her. She had also mentioned that as well when we first met her. I decided to ask her if she would move away from Yeongdo now that she had found Meghann. When Lydia translated the message, I watched her sit up and her eyes lit up and she smiled, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to her yet that this was now a possibility. She said that yes, now that she had found her that she could move. There was definitely happiness and relief in her voice, and it felt like her getting that relief would have made the entire trip in itself.

An action-packed Korean rest stop.

Our first stop in Daegu was Songja’s house, where we sat and talked for a bit and had a few appetizers. We then headed to dinner, this time with Meghann’s birth father in the car. Meghann asked him a difficult question – did he feel that Meghann’s birth mother did the right thing in giving her up for adoption? He paused to think about it. He finally said that times were very difficult then, and that while it was a very hard decision to make, it was what was best for Meghann and best for Meghann’s birth mother. She also asked him how he felt finding out that he had a daughter (we earlier found out from Meghann’s brother that he had only known about Meghann for a month – they never told him as they didn’t want to risk him getting hurt from his heart condition). He said that his life felt like a movie and it was so hard to believe it, but he was very happy.

We soon arrived for dinner, which was at a nice traditional Korean restaurant. While we were there, Meghann’s mother was wearing colorful socks like Meghann, which they ended up trading. At first Meghann thought they were smelly, but it turned out they were just mine being under the table near her since we were on the floor. The food was all very good, and like usual they kept feeding us and we all kept pouring each other shots of soju. Outside, we said goodbye to Jinsoon’s children, as it was the last time we saw them. The daughter was nervous giving me a hug since she had never hugged a foreigner, which was pretty funny.

Traded their socks!

After dinner, Meghann and I, along with Lydia, Jinsoon, and Meghann’s birth mother all went to the massage parlor for a massage owned by Jinsoon. It was a very nice facility and seemed not like someone from the US would expect an Asian massage parlor to be. Given that it was getting late and we had another stop plus a long drive home, we opted to just get feet massages instead of full body massages for the sake of time. We changed into special loose massage outfits, and they did a wash and a very firm foot massage. We were all lying on mats in the same room, and the workers joked that they were nervous because Jinsoon was in the room with all of us. Another funny thing that happened was that Jinsoon’s competitive side came out with Meghann while we were there. When we first walked in, the other business co-owner said that Meghann and Jinsoon looked similar. Jinsoon immediately came back with “but I’m prettier!” Then she kept asking Meghann questions like “were you popular in school?” and before Meghann could respond, she said, “I was more popular”. It was pretty hilarious and we were cracking up as she asked all of these questions to Meghann. Definitely even funnier to me, because I see Meghann’s competitive side all the time and the similarities were very obvious.

From the massage parlor, we went to our last stop of the night, which was Meghann’s birth father’s house. When we entered, his little white dog came running out very excited to see people and was very friendly. They showed us how he knew the sit command. After we all sat down, they pulled out some photo albums and everyone laughed as they showed some very old photos, even ones of Meghann’s birth father as a teenager. After we were finished, we took one last picture with everyone together, and said our goodbye to Jinsoon and Songja as it was the last time we’d see them this trip. We then embarked on the two-hour drive back to Busan to get some sleep. Despite being tired and getting home late, Meghann and I stayed up until almost 2AM reflecting on the experiences we’ve had.

Thursday

With Wednesday’s late night, we decided to push back Thursday’s start to 1PM. Meghann and I slept in as late as we could, and then went for a walk along the beach to get some coffee at Starbucks, and some chocolate to help combat headaches from the lack of sugar we usually get in our American diets. We spent a big part of this day with just Meghann’s birth mother and Lydia.

From the hotel lobby, we headed to Shinsegae, an enormous indoor shopping mall in Busan (and I believe the largest in Asia) to eat lunch. We each got something different at the food court, and sat to talk and eat. Meghann’s birth mother told Meghann to eat all of her food, which she actually did. Meghann in turn told her to eat all of her food too, which she took very seriously and showed Meghann her empty bowl when she was finished. From lunch, we went to a department store to look around. We went by a wall of kim (dried seaweed) which I had liked a few nights before, so Meghann’s birth mother insisted on getting me a giant package of it. She also got us some water flasks to drink. One other funny note – we walked by some Welch’s Grape Juice, so I had Lydia explain to Meghann’s birth mother that it was my last name. She said she would buy that from now on so she could think of us.

Hmmmmm… many of these look familiar. Cheaper than in the US!

After the shopping mall we had some time before Meghann’s sister Seoksoon was expecting us to arrive at their house, so Meghann’s birth mother suggested we go to the small town where she used to live called Yangsan. It was a small town and almost felt like rural Midwest in the US, until we got to the ocean. Close to the ocean there was a small yellow house, where Meghann’s birth mother lived when she was younger, working as a woman diver catching fish and other ocean creatures for food. When we arrived ocean side, there was a lot of small vendors with all kinds of seafood – squid, different kind of fish, lobsters. We pulled over next to a pier and walked out to the ocean, where looked at some fishing ships raised out of the water being cleaned, and Meghann’s birth mother showed us the location she used to dive.

Meghann’s birth mother points to different landmarks in the bay where she used to be a “woman diver”.

On the way back to the car, Meghann’s birth mother asked me if I wanted to eat some seafood and have some soju. Little did I know, answering yes was about to lead me to one of my most adventurous parts of the entire trip. Close to where the car was parked, we walked into a small tent, which in passing I had thought was maybe a processing area for the freshly caught food. In entering, I first saw some baskets of many different fish, still alive. Shellfish, octopus, some I couldn’t even identify. I then saw a raised floor with small tables, space heaters, and dishes, and knew this was about to get a lot more interesting.

Seafood selection at the small cafe. I still don’t know what was in that bottom right basket, but we both know what it looks like.

Now, I’m not the squeamish type at all – in fact I’m quite the opposite. I love trying new things, new experiences, and I’m really open to at least trying anything. I was first gestured over to the baskets, where they asked what I wanted to eat. I actually got a little bit squeamish, and rather than picking anything out, I asked for Meghann’s birth mother to choose (she had the expertise in this area, after all) and Meghann, Lydia and I went to sit down at a table.

Meghann’s birth mother tells them which seafood to bring to the table.

The next thing I know, they bring out a plate of chopped seafood, divided into four different types. The first thing I noticed? Two of the four types were still alive, moving around on the plate. On the far left were still-moving tentacles of some kind (“common octopus” was the translation), the two in the middle were some sort of shellfish, and on the right-hand side was some other sort of shellfish. I tried to go first by pulling one of the tentacles off the plate, but it immediately grabbed the plate with its suction and I had a hard time getting it off with chopsticks, so Lydia grabbed one to show me how to do it. She put the tentacle in a salty sauce of some kind, and then chewed it as soon as it went in her mouth. On my turn, I accidentally dropped the tentacle into my lap, but quickly retrieved it. I put it into my mouth, and quickly chewed away. The taste was actually much better than I expected – it was cold obviously, and had a texture that I couldn’t compare with anything I’ve had before. It was actually somewhat tasty though, and if I lived somewhere were it was common food I would definitely eat it more often. Meghann’s birth mother poured me soju after I ate my first bite, which I grabbed and drank enthusiastically. I tried the three other types of raw seafood on the plate, and ended up enjoying each one. Upon eating subsequent tentacles, I could feel a few of them suction to my tongue/teeth/cheeks very firmly and I would have to chew and move them with my tongue to dislodge them. Definitely not like anything I’d ever had before, and a very exciting experience. Meghann did not try any of the seafood, but Lydia held one up for a picture with her, and dropped it near her as she squealed and scrambled away.

Video – eating the octopus

After the seafood experience, we got in the car to rest as we drove to Seoksoon’s apartment. A number of her family members were there as well. As this was the last night that Meghann and I would be there, the mood was definitely more somber than the other two. We talked and joked around, but without quite the same enthusiasm as before. Seoksoon had a very nice full body massage chair, which we took turns trying. We then decided on where to go for dinner the last night, and with Meghann in mind they decided on the very Korean “Outback Steakhouse”.

Getting ready for what he probably figures is another Korean pancake lookalike.

We arrived at dinner, and to much of the table’s pleasant surprise they actually had soju. We ordered pasta and steaks, as well as some fruit drinks and soju. The food was all very good, pretty much the same as you’d expect to get it in the US. One of the funny cultural differences it that in the US people say “you’re welcome” a lot more commonly than they do in Korea. As it’s one of the few words that Meghann and I knew, we used it quite a lot. For some reason they thought this was hilarious, especially the first time I said it. So at dinner whenever someone would say “gamsahmneedah” (thank you), they would enthusiastically respond “Chimaneo!” (you’re welcome) and all laugh.

Leaving from dinner, we had to say goodbye to Yeongmo, Meghann’s brother. He was very nice and it was sad to say goodbye. He gave us hugs, and we climbed in the car with Seoksoon and her husband, who gave us a ride back to the hotel. They asked if we had any last questions during the drive home, but we both struggled to get a good translation for any questions that we had. At one point Seoksoon gave us a goofy look and held up a translation on her phone, which stated “English translations are weird”. It pretty well summed up the way we were feeling as well. Once we arrived at the hotel, they gave us hugs and we headed up to the room. Being very tired neither of us lasted long and we fell into a deep sleep.

Only two days left – we said our goodbyes this morning. I’ll wrap up the rest of the story in a final posting this weekend!

SK2: Blog Post #2: Spending a day with Meghann’s Birth Family

Posted on by
4

A number of words to describe yesterday: interesting, intense, fun, exciting, emotional, exhausting. It was one of those days with a sensory overload for everyone involved, especially Meghann. It also seemed to be a very positive experience as well. We were with the birth family for almost nine hours, so a fair warning this is going to be a long post.

We started at 11AM in the hotel lobby, first meeting our translator Lydia who we met during our last trip to Korea. I have to say that translator feels like too light of a word. Lydia not only does an excellent job at translating the conversations both ways, but also directs the overall interaction between all parties involved and sometimes almost mediates between the different cultures to help understand differences. She is absolutely amazing at what she does.

Shortly after meeting Lydia, Meghann’s “3rd sister” (meaning the 3rd oldest) Jinsoon met us in the hotel lobby, accompanied by her son (9) and daughter (8). She and Meghann gave each other hugs and briefly chatted.  While Meghann was noticeably taller than Jinsoon, the resemblance between them was striking, especially in the face. We then all went and got in Jinsoon’s car to head to the home of Meghann’s birth mother on Yeongdo, a small island on the south side of Busan.

The drive there wasn’t too eventful. We talked with Jinsoon a little bit while she weaved in and out of the crazy traffic – she drove pretty aggressively, a lot like Meghann does in Phoenix. She had a nice, newer Hyundai with a lot of the features you would see in a nice car in the US. She told us that Meghann’s entire immediate birth family would be there for the day, which included her four sisters (one a half sister), her brother, her mother and father, three nieces and a nephew.

After about twenty-five minutes, we arrived in a small alley and parked right along the side. We walked over to an apartment building and went up several outdoor flights of stairs up to the fifth floor, and then down a small dark hallway to see Meghann’s birth mother standing in a red blazer in a doorframe. She gave Meghann an emotional hug, and lead us all inside the small apartment to sit. All of Meghann’s immediate family was in there to give her hugs before she, her mother and father, and Lydia sat down to talk in the middle of the room. Mrs. Kim was also there, who was the lady Meghann had met during our first trip to Korea that provided a lot of the details about Meghann’s birth family to her. The rest of us stood/sat around the sides of the room, listening.

The room was a bit chaotic at this point – everyone very curious, a lot of things happening. I was trying to capture some of it with photos/videos while standing next to Meghann’s sisters. Both Meghann and her birth mother were in tears.  Meghann’s mother was expressing to her how sad she was and sorry she was for giving her up for adoption and not letting Meghann grow up with her siblings, and she was to blame for any anger or unhappiness Meghann felt as a result. Meghann was reassuring her that she did not have any anger or unhappiness, and that she had a very happy life with great parents in the US. Meghann’s birth father was quiet but patted her birth mother on the back (note here – they were divorced before Meghann was born and he didn’t know about Meghann until later).

Meghann sits down with her birth mother and father for the first time.

Meghann sits down with her birth mother and father for the first time.

After about 5-10 minutes, we all stood in a circle for re-introductions, in which they told us their name and age. There was Meghann’s father (Pansik, 73), mother (Sonsook, 63), 1st sister (Songja, 40), 2nd sister, (Seoksoon, 39), brother (Youngmo, 36), 3rd sister (Jinsoon, 34), and 4th sister (Eungyoung, 28). There was also Songja’s husband and daughter, Seoksoon’s husband, and Jinsoon’s son/daughter.

After introductions, a traditional Korean meal was brought out for us to eat. Meghann and I had eaten a buffet breakfast at the hotel and were not particularly hungry, but didn’t want to be rude so we sat down on the floor to eat. They served us kimchi, soup, bugolgi, eel, apple slices, and had a number of dips. The food was all very delicious, better than any of the restaurant food I had eaten in Korean restaurants. When complimenting them on the food, they all laughed and said that I had better say that or I’d be in trouble. They also kept telling us that I looked healthy, and Meghann looked skinny. Meghann’s birth father kept telling me I looked handsome, and when I finally complimented him back with the same, he laughed loudly and said “Of course I am, just look at all of my family!” Shortly after this time, they brought out matching sweatshirts for everyone to wear.

The dinner that Meghann’s birth mother served us.

Another thing we were exposed to here was the Korean drinking culture (starting at 12:30pm, wow!) Meghann’s birth mother brought out a few 40oz bottles of beer, and some bottles of soju, one of the most popular Korean liquors. One thing about soju – it’s 16.7% alcohol, so luckily not as strong as most US 40% alcohol liquors. We each had 1oz shot glasses as part of our place settings (really, they along with a coffee cup and silverware were our place settings as the community style eating doesn’t use plates). The culture there was that drinks were usually poured by others (always using two hands to pour, two hands to hold the glass while the other pours). They immediately poured a shot of soju for everyone at the table and held a toast. After that, it seemed like almost a constant stream of everyone pouring each other soju. I had several compliments that I was able to hold mine well, and they seemed to get a kick out of it each time I’d pour them shots off soju. Meghann stopped after 2-3.

After eating and now being extremely full, we all left to head to where Mrs. Kim lived on Yeongdo island, which is quite a ways up the mountain. Meghann and I had been there the last time we were in Korea – it was maybe five to ten minutes away from her birth mother’s house. We parked and walked further up the steep mountain to where Meghann’s birth mother’s house used to be. After that, we went all the way up to the top where there was a nice walking trail. We walked for a little bit, taking pictures along the way, when took a dirt path off the main trail that lead us up to a little outdoor tent structure with tables. We all sat down, and to our surprise, it was some sort of restaurant and they ordered us soup, a Korean pancake, and fish. And this time around, bottles of Korean rice wine, which we drank out of small bowls. Despite being full, we ate some more to be polite. One thing worth mentioning here – both of Meghann’s birth parents, despite being older, moved around very quickly and seemed very sharp. After we ate, talked, and took more pictures, we visited Mrs. Kim at her house to say goodbye as we headed back to the cars.

Meghann and all of her siblings pose.
Top row from left to right: Meghann, Jinsoon, Eungyoung
Bottom row from left to right: Seoksoon, Songja, Youngmo

All of the women together

Action shot from dinner on mountain

Meghann’s birth mother expresses her thanks to Meghann’s parents in the US for raising her and providing her with a good life.

Neither Meghann or Seoksoon like walking up hills…

From here, we drove back to Meghann’s birth mother’s house. Everyone at this point was having a lot of fun joking around, and a lot more comfortable with the conversation. Lydia was doing a very good job at keeping up with all of the translations, and everyone was becoming very animated as they spoke to help each other understand despite the language barrier. A lot of them knew a little bit of English, so they said they were able to pick out bits and pieces of what we were saying, and sometimes out of the blue would say an English word here or there. Once we sat down at Meghann’s birth mother’s house again, they brought out… more food. Apple slices, kimchi, a few other things I wasn’t able to identify, and of course, more Soju this time around. Meghann left the room to go sit with Jinsoon and her children (and hide from the food), while I stayed and somehow ate some more kimchi and spoke with the rest of the family. They were asking me some questions, such as why I liked Meghann (because she’s beautiful and smart, of course!) and what I thought of different things like the food. They also told me I needed to learn more Korean words. Just as I was thinking I was thankful that the dinner they had brought out was very light, Lydia informed me that we were now going to dinner (ahhh more food!)

More Soju during the “pre-dinner” meal

Meghann with Jinsoon and her children as they use the phone to translate and practice english.

Meghann’s birth mother and father pose for a photo in matching shirts before we go to dinner.

We got in the car and had a short drive to dinner, which was traditional Korean BBQ. Meghann and I sat down at the very end, next to her birth parents and Lydia. Because Meghann was very skinny, everyone kept feeding her and telling her to eat more. They kept giving me food to eat as well. I have no idea how, but somehow I regained some appetite and ate the bugolgi and kimchi. It was all very delicious. As it probably goes without saying at this point, they also were pouring us more shots of soju and drinking more Korean beer. Everyone was in high spirits at the end of the day, laughing and joking around. Meghann and I were enjoying ourselves, but with everything that happened that day, we were pretty exhausted at this point. We finally got back into the cars and Seoksoon’s husband drove us back to the hotel. I think Meghann and I spoke less than 10 words before collapsing into a very long and deep sleep.

Action shot of Korean BBQ dinner.

Songja guards her finished bottles…

Today we’re meeting at 12pm in the hotel lobby to go eat an “American lunch” of pizza and pasta. Not sure what’s happening after that, but this evening we are driving to Daegu (a few hours north) where Meghann’s birth father lives for dinner. More to come!

SK2: Blog Post #1: The Adventure Continues

Posted on by
1

I’m sitting here cramped in to an economy seat on the twelve hour and twenty-five minute United Flight 893 from San Francisco, CA to Incheon, South Korea. The down-graded accommodations will not be the only thing different during my second trip to South Korea this year, but I’m no less intrigued by what we may learn and come away this time around.

You see, the objective for the May trip was to learn about the place Meghann came from. She was adopted in 1982 from South Korea through the Holt Adoption Agency. Post-adoption, she grew up in a very good family, raised by her parents Bob and Nancy. With her good family situation, she never had a strong urge to reconnect with her birth family, which many adoptees seem to have. In fact, for the May trip, when the form asked whether she would like to initiate a birth search, she was somewhat apathetic with her response, and decided to check it with little expectations that it would result in anything. The little information we did have about her birth family was that her mother was a widow who gave birth to her in her 40s, which would make her in her 70s if she were even still alive.

Leading up to the May trip, we were met with several phone calls from the adoption agency, sometimes saying they had “found something”, then retracting, and changing. Finally, they said that the adoption papers had a name which wasn’t Meghann’s mother, but rather a neighbor that had some information on her birth family and was willing to talk with us.. We would meet with her during the weekend when we would travel to Busan, the city on the south coast where Meghann was born.

Queue us arriving in Busan, being ushered into a little room in a restaurant where we sat on the floor eating Korean barbecue, and suddenly being told the neighbor we were meeting with was on her way to the restaurant (instead of later at the adoption agency). As we step out of the room with the rest of the adoptees, this little old lady waves us down while pointing at Meghann. Our translator comes out of the room after us, and lets us know that the lady says she knows Meghann is the one she is supposed to talk to because she looks like her mother.

Wow! Here we are caught off guard, not expecting to be meeting anyone at this time, to someone recognizing Meghann for looking like her mother. It only got crazier from there.

We proceed to leave the restaurant with our translator Ellie, and Mrs. Kim (the neighbor). Mrs. Kim has no hesitation getting right into sharing information, as we walk down a dingy alley to a car to drive us all to the Holt agency nearby. First off? She handed Meghann a picture from her purse, which contained a picture of several ladies together on the Korean “Parent’s Day” holiday, including her birth mother. Next? She informs Meghann she has three older sisters and an older brother. She gives us a number of other interesting pieces of information, such as that “her mother is healthy like a man” and that her father was sick and passed away shortly before Meghann was born, hence the adoption. Also, her mother was still alive, living on Yeongdo, the island off Busan where Meghann was born. Mrs. Kim had not heard from Meghann’s mother in some time, but seemed absolutely determined to track her down and tell her that she had found the daughter she had given up for adoption 30 years prior. She also said that Meghann’s mother had came to her asking her to help her find her daughter, and even went to Busan to search for her.

The trip to Busan concluded the next day with a trip out to Mrs. Kim’s house where she showed us the spot where Meghann’s mother used to live. Everything ended on a happy note, with a lot more learned about Meghann’s birth family, but no connections actually made. Meghann was happy and somewhat overwhelmed with the information, although not particularly disappointed that we weren’t able to find and biological family members.

Fast forward to October – Meghann receives a call from Holt, informing her that they had been contacted by Meghann’s biological sister, who had heard through a friend at church that Mrs. Kim was looking for her. She had written a letter for Holt to translate as well. The email that Holt forwarded to us, however, had her sister’s email address, and Meghann was able to find her on Facebook shortly after. It’s a very vivid memory for me when Meghann found the picture, as she started yelling for me to come into her office, despite the fact it was 5:30 AM and I was sleeping on the other side of the house. Even at a first glance the resemblance was obvious. From there, we were able to make first contact with her via Facebook message.

Leveraging Google Translator, we were able to exchange some (semi-coherent) emails – it was very exciting. Not only did we receive recent pictures of her entire biological family, we also learned that her birth father was still alive. Her birth parents were divorced. Her father had remarried and was widowed, but not before having a daughter, giving Meghann a younger half-sister.

After weighing a number of factors into the decision, Meghann and I decided we should return to South Korea to meet the rest of her biological family. So here we are, en route to Incheon Airport, with a very exciting and unpredictable week ahead of us.. We are staying in Seoul Sunday night, and then taking the bullet train from Seoul to Busan to stay Monday-Friday. We will return to Seoul on Friday night, and fly back to Phoenix on Saturday. I will be blogging with updates and pictures when I’m able to – stay tuned and wish us luck this week!

Blog Post #9: New Job, iPhone 5, Dexter

Posted on by
2

I have not been a good blogger. Over three months since my last post, and so much has happened, so little was written. I don’t think there is any way I could make up for it in a single post, but I’ll cover as much as I can, quickly, unfiltered.

I started a new job at RMS on June 25th, which is the main reason I’ve been too busy to write. I’m a “Technical Project Manager”, just as I was at Wells Fargo. There are a lot of differences from my old role, but here are the biggest: I travel every week to either San Francisco or Hoboken, soon to be other international locations as well; It’s a company of ~1000 vs. a company of 280,000 which has a different culture; it’s a company with lower structure vs. a company with extreme structure; I’ve gone from a technology-only role to a role that supports clients, business and technology. Overall it’s been extremely exciting and I really like working at the new company. They treat employees very well and I feel like the growth opportunities here are significantly higher than what they were for me at Wells Fargo – Wells Fargo has many caps on growth as they encourage you to grow slowly over a long career there. RMS is definitely the right choice for where I’m at and where I want to go.

Onwards to the iPhone 5. Being a good iPhone lifer, I thought I’d post my thoughts on the (my) new iPhone 5. Like my last iPhone 4S, my current iPhone, and probably any future iPhone, I set an alarm for 5 minutes before ordering opened (2AM CST, the time zone I was in) and woke up to place my order to get it shipped to me on launch day. Before I get into my iPhone 5, I want to open by saying that the upgrade on my iPhone 4S from iOS5 ->; iOS6 was a bigger upgrade from the iPhone 4S to the iPhone 5, in my opinion. The new maps app has a great interface (ignore the reviews, just another iPhone thing blown out of proportion), shared photo streams are actually cool and useful, Facebook integration is an improvement, and the panorama feature on the camera makes for some amazing photos. While the iPhone 5 is without a doubt the best iPhone to date, whether or not the upgrade is worth it to you completely depends on your tastes. For me I use my phone several hours every day, so paying even the full price ($650) for a top end new phone to me felt worth it. If your phone is not your favorite thing to spend money on, an iPhone 4 or 4S with iOS5 will still be a great upgrade and maybe hold you over until you either have a free/cheap upgrade available or the next iPhone i released.

One more paragraph on the iPhone, not really iPhone 5 related, but Apple related. As long as Apple stays true to their corporate values and the vision set forth by Steve Jobs, I will always buy their products. These days you can get phones that may equally or even better suit your needs from Android or maybe even Nokia/Windows, but Apple has a certain quality about it that I admire and respect and strive for. Google/Android has the objective to deliver a phone with a lot of highly customizable features which you can tinker with and customize to your heart’s content. There is a lot of value in that if you are a certain person, and even the Dustin of 14-20 would have had preference in this. iPhone’s objective these days is not to be highly customizable, but rather be simple, streamlined, optimized. They strive to deliver the best, the most beautiful, the easiest. In my professional life, my goals are aligned with this strategy. I always drive to deliver something that’s simple to understand, easy to extract the benefits, and consistently something one can rely on. One last note, I would highly recommend the Steve Jobs biography as a very helpful and inspiring read – it’s something I love reading when I travel for work. While he could be a terror and a complete pain in the ass, he was also able to market, design and deliver excellent products. Sometimes things have benefits and drawbacks, but even if something has a lot of drawbacks, in certain situations the benefits can edge these out.

Okay, last topic and I’m calling it a night before my 4:45am alarm goes off! Tonight was the season premiere of one of my favorite TV dramas, Dexter. It’s been one of my all-time favorite shows since I started watching it, but after seeing the premiere, I think this season could be the best one yet. I’m really pumped to see where it goes, I’m on the edge of my seat.

OK that’s all for tonight, but leave your comments and I’ll try to comment or make some new posts if you have questions or topics! Have a good night.

iPhone 5 Panorama Shot

iPhone 5 Panorama at 4 Peaks jeep trail in Arizona.

Blog Post SK #4 – Engagement in Busan

Posted on by
3

There isn’t a clear-cut place to start the story of this weekend, really. So many things happened through the course of events from Friday to Sunday, it’s a bit overwhelming to digest, even having experienced it all first hand. We took a bullet train ride across South Korea, worked with several translators, met the lady that was the neighbor and town mayor to Meghann’s birth mother that knew the circumstances of her birth and adoption, and of course, got engaged on the beautiful Haeundae Beach in Busan, the city where Meghann was born.

For today, I’ll be sticking to the story of Meghann and I. The rest of the items will be added to my long-running list of items to write about from this trip, which I’m sure will keep me writing long after the trip has completed.

Meghann and I initially met through my time in the Leadership Development Program at Wells Fargo in late 2008. Our first face to face meeting did not go well, actually. We were at an after work event while in Phoenix, and while I don’t recall this, I was apparently very rude and short with her. :-) I think I was probably just nervous starting my first job, surrounded by many unfamiliar faces at a dinner social event. Soon after the event, my leadership class were sat down to interview with Meghann and her manager to determine which assignments we would get working in her group. My interview went well, and landed me working with her directly on the first parts of the Wachovia/Wells Fargo integration for the mainframe group.

I was energized by this assignment. Meghann was definitely a fireball at work, to the point where I think the rest of my leadership class was intimidated by her. She kept challenging me, loading me up, having me call new people and work on things I was completely unfamiliar with. I in turn kept rising up to the challenges, turning around assignments in significantly before the deadline, and paying attention to every detail, but also listening to her feedback to make sure I always met or exceeded her expectations. We gradually built a strong mutual respect for each other, and enjoyed the challenges we would throw at each other.

The first time we ever hung out outside of work was in early 2009, Meghann flew into town for a work event and I volunteered to pick her up at the airport and grab ice cream before dropping her off at the hotel. We discovered that we had many similar interests, including fitness and exercise, travel, and ambition at work. She even liked playing video games, occasionally. We had a lot of fun joking around, and soon after made plans to run the Twin Cities Marathon together later that fall. Most of my fitness experience was weight lifting, although I had recently trained and run a half marathon the summer before.

We continued to become closer and closer friends, until we eventually started dating. Despite living halfway across the country from each other, we kept in close communication. We begin writing each other long emails every single night, which continued for over a year until I moved down to Phoenix to finally close our distance gap. We even still continue the tradition to this day when one of us is out of town. The best part of this though was that it allowed our relationship to be based on a strong friendship.

We’ve had several other significant milestones in our relationship, including running marathons and half marathons all over the country, adopting two amazing dogs, moving to a new house, and finally, the Korea trip that we’re on now.. which leads back to the topic at hand.

Doggies!

I’ve known since very early in our relationship that I’ve wanted to marry Meghann, in fact it was difficult to wait to propose as long as I did. Based on all of our life circumstances though, the timing was for the best. I bought the ring back in January, which made waiting 5 months for the Korea trip the longest of my life. I had originally planned to propose at the N Grille at the top of the Namsam tower, which slowly spins for a 360 view of Seoul. It’s also where we locked the bracelets to the fence from one of our first dates. Despite being a beautiful location, I saw the menu when we were at the tower earlier in the week and realized that there wasn’t anything on there that she would like. Knowing that would not be a good way to go, I decided last minute I needed to make a new plan.

I knew that our hotel for the weekend trip to Busan was going to be on a beach, and given that was the city where she was born and had great scenery, it seemed like a good opportunity. When we arrived at the hotel, I quickly scoped out the beach for possible locations while she was busy talking to someone in the lobby. The next piece I had to figure out was the timing. Meghann has been passionate about running since I’ve known her, so I thought it would be appropriate to propose before a morning run together, which we’ve done on and off throughout our relationship.

Haeundae Beach

So the morning came, and I snuck into the bathroom to pull the ring box out of the Nintendo DS case I had it hidden in (the only place I knew she wouldn’t look), and we headed down to the beach for our run. Rather than taking off on the boardwalk for our run, we stopped to admire the beauty of the ocean, beach and city landscape. We walked to down to a private area I had earlier identified on the beach behind a huge pile of sand (needed because I get stared at a lot here as a white guy) and confessed that I had brought her down on the sand to ask her something. I was very nervous, as I had been waiting for the moment for so long, but I got down on one knee in the sand, presented the ring and asked her to marry me. She said “Yes, of course”, tears were shed and we embraced. It was a very nice moment.. then of course, we headed up to the boardwalk and began our run. :-)

Post-Engagement

So, that’s the story behind one of several major events this weekend.. Everyone else on the trip has been very gracious about it and congratulating us, and Holt even had a cake sent to our room to congratulate us! Also, as I’m writing this from the road, I can’t add pictures until later.. Photos added! Everything has been uploaded to Facebook if you’d like to see pictures of the ring or the location of the proposal. More to come on the rest of the trip and exciting weekend!

Blog Post SK#3 – More Korean Culture and Expecting Single Mothers Visit

Posted on by
5

Ahn-nyeong hah-seh-yo!

While we are continuing to have a great time here in Korea, but I have to say some of the “uncontrollable” factors have been working in our favor to make the trip even better. We have had beautiful weather each day, with lows in the upper 50s and highs in the low eighties, with either sun or light cloud cover each day. Also, we didn’t really know what to expect when taking this trip with a tour group – we had not ever traveled with a group before. Overall so far it has exceeded my expectations. A lot of the others on the trip are around the same age, and the group seems to constantly be getting closer. Having a lot of others to talk to is nice, especially since the places we go we can’t have a lot of conversation with the locals without the help of a translator. The people we’ve met here keeps the trip even more interesting and fun, so thanks to all of the others here for helping make this awesome! :-)

2012 Korean Tour Adoptees

Wednesday’s activities were primarily focused around the Korean Folk Village. This was a “living” recreation of what Korea was like before modern culture. It featured old houses, a traditional Korean wedding ceremony, a jail, and several demonstrations of dances and other activities. There were a ton of young children there at the Korean Folk village exploring it like we were. They were very friendly and seemed well behaved for the most part. There was one point where one of the young Korean girls walked past me and said “Hello!”. Following suit, all the others in their group continued to say “Hello!”, I think just sort of practicing their english. It was very funny and cute.

House at the Korean Folk Village

Wednesday evening was a lot of fun also – I had the chance to meet with my old college roommate June. He came and met Meghann and some of the others on the tour and we chatted in the hotel courtyard for a while. After that, June drove us out to an area with some restaurants and bars where we had a few drinks and caught up. He’s in the process of launching his own company here in Korea, and sounds like everything is going well for him. At the end of leaving, he called for some service which was very cool – someone met us in front of the bar and drove June’s car to drop me off at the hotel, and then drive June home. Sort of like a Taxi service, but uses your own car. I’ve never seen these in the US but seems like a very good service.

Thursday was the expecting single mother visit. This was probably one of the most interesting parts of the trip so far. We took our bus a little over an hour south of Seoul to a center where the single expecting mothers (or new mothers for up to three months) could live and receive help and education to get re-initiated into society. In Korea, there is a stigma against single mothers and they are looked down upon much more than in the US. There were also a few other interesting laws, such as abortion being illegal, as well as determining the gender of the baby prior to birth due to the preference towards males.

The group was a very interesting one. They ranged in age between late teens to as old as 45. Some of them had babies already, where many of the others were expecting over the next few months. Three of the mothers had actually defected from North Korea, which was pretty amazing. Most of those that are able to escape from North Korea to South Korea actually go through China, as the DMZ between North and South Korea is so secure. These three ladies had each taken that route, and two of them actually had husbands still in China. I did take some pictures, but because of the stigma we had all agreed not to post any of the photos online. One other funny thing happened at the very end – the translator came up and told me that the expecting mothers wanted me to take a picture with all of them because they thought I was handsome. Not very often I get to be considered “exotic” as a white guy! I was very flattered and am not really used to being the center of attention, so my face turned bright red. I was happy to take the photos with them though, it was a lot of fun. I always crack up when they say “Say Kimchi!.” The others on the trip gave me a hard time for a while after that. :-)

Next on our agenda was another lunch of Korean BBQ, and then we went to a fortress which was pretty neat. There was another example of the Koreans doing something that I wouldn’t ever see flying in the US – a bunch of young kids shooting bows and arrows at targets, with a crowd of us watching from the side. Yep, one mis-flying arrow off to the side and I’m sure someone would have gotten hit. Anyways, we got to shoot the bows and arrows also, and it was a lot of fun, made me want to practice that some more when getting back to the US. We walked along the fortress walls and took some great photos as well.

Korean Fortress

 

A bunch of children shooting bows and arrows

Yesterday evening Meghann and I were on our own. We were going to eat at the nice italian restaurant inside the hotel, but it was closed due to an event with the Panama Embassy. We decided to do some walking, and were wanting to try an “American” restaurant to see if we could spot the differences and ended up at the Outback Steakhouse. The menu was definitely very different, and they didn’t have any burgers which Meghann was hoping for! We ended up having pasta and bread, which was very good. The waitress spoke just enough english that we were able to complete the order and ended up having good service as well.

Anyways, we are now off to Busan for the weekend! We are taking a two and a half hour ride on a bullet train to Busan, which is the city where Meghann was born. We will be visiting the orphanage where she was born, and then have the rest of the weekend pretty free to explore the city. I’m not sure what our connectivity will be like, so I may not write again until I return to Seoul on Monday. More to come!

Blog Post SK#2 – South Korea Initial Impressions

Posted on by
3

Ahn-nyeong hah-seh-yo! (Hello!, in Korean)

I’ve been in Korea now for just about two full days – the only thing I can say is WOW! I’m having a great time here. Being immersed in this new culture is amazing, and I’m feeling constantly invigorated with everything I do.

Meghann and I started out Monday morning with a four mile run through downtown Seoul. It was surprisingly quiet, but it was an excellent way to get a feel for the city. We stuck to the same street two miles down and back, but we went through several different areas, some nicer than others. I didn’t get too many “weird” looks, but I did have several people smile or nod. I was the only non-asian I saw during the entire run. After the run, we had breakfast at the hotel which offered a pretty standard American breakfast buffet – it was pretty good.

Snapshot of the area we ran through Monday morning in Seoul

After the run and breakfast, Meghann and I met the rest of the tour members in the hotel lobby, and we boarded a bus for a Korean palace. On the way to the Palace, we saw the “blue house” which is the South Korean equivalent to America’s White House. It was in a beautiful area surrounded by lush mountains.

South Korean Blue House

After the Blue House, we walked through a large temple area. They talked about how the temple was used by the king and queen. We saw a lot of impressive asian architecture, and they talked about the history of the temple. The temple had hand painted detailing all over the ceiling and exterior, and some of the areas were very large. We also saw the “changing of the guard” ceremony, which was pretty neat to see.

Korean Architecture

Changing of the guard

After the temple, we went to Namsan tower, which is up on a mountain. It had a great view of the entire city of Seoul, with the city stretching out from the tower in all directions. It really reminded me of being on top of the Empire State Building in New York City. It was definitely a tourist attraction, and had gift shops and several americanized shops. There was also a tradition at the tower, where couples would put locks on various parts of the tower to signify their everlasting love. Meghann and I decided to buy a lock, and we locked the bracelets to it that we won together on one of our first dates over three years ago, and had not taken off since. It has definitely felt weird ever since without the bracelet on my ankle.

Lock at the Namsan Tower with the bracelets from our first date.

After the Namsan tower, it was finally time for us to eat lunch. This was our first encounter with real Korean food on the trip – definitely an interesting experience. The first thing we tried was Kimchi, which is a very popular Korean appetizer dish. It’s essentially cold rotten cabbage with spices. The first time I had it in the US, it was about as tasty as it sounds. Having it in Korea though, was surprisingly better. It’s not about to top the list of things I want to eat regularly, but for trying a foreign dish, it was acceptable.

The remainder of our lunch was Korean BBQ, which we also had for dinner, and lunch the next day. It’s a very unique experience, and not like anything I’ve ever had in the US. In the middle of the table they place a grill-like thing with hot coals. They then place meat on the grill, and everyone eats the Kimchi and other things on the table while the meat cooks. The amount of food they give here is unbelievable – probably 5-7 dishes of food per person, mostly things to accompany the meat. The food is also mostly communal – no one has individual plates, but rather you make your own food from what’s on the table and eat it as you make it. We also noticed they kept bringing us more and more of the meat, despite our table being full. One restaurant also had us all sitting on the floor. I tried to sit indian style, but at this point in my life my body isn’t made for that anymore. After some adjusting I finally got comfortable. Another piece worth noting – the restaurant server culture is very different. Each table has a button which can be used to call the server at any time. Also, the servers seem very polite towards the males, and not at all towards the females. Luckily I’m one of the few males on the trip.. :-D

Korean BBQ #1

Korean BBQ #2

Today’s highlight was another morning run through Korea, this time through the beautiful river walk area. One thing I’ve noticed about the culture here I’ve enjoyed – whether it’s the driving, eating, hiking, or anything else – the culture seems to learn towards individual accountability, which is a change from the US where much of our culture always blames problems and issues on others. During our run this morning on the river walk, there were waterfalls and other paths with no railings whatsoever. Not at all dangerous if you were careful, but in the US anything like that would always have excessive railings and signs, significantly detracting from the experience. The driving also seems very chaotic, but it moves quickly and I haven’t seen any accidents or road rage. It’s pretty refreshing, and I wish our country’s culture would lean more towards individual accountability.

The last key thing to note is that Meghann and I had the chance to visit the offices of the adoption agency through which she was adopted. They reviewed the adoption case file with us, which was very interesting. We met several of the people involved with the agency, and even got to meet some of the babies! It was a very interesting experience and really shed light into some of the culture challenges single mothers may have in Korea, which has lead to a large population of babies needing permanent homes. We will be participating in more adoption-related activities throughout the trip.

I still have so much to write about, but with ten days left in the tour, I’m sure I’ll have several most opportunities to keep it up. More to come, and kamsahamnida (a Korean thank you!) for reading…

Blog Post SK#1 – Arrival

Posted on by
4

Whew – where am I? What day is it? What time is it?

It’s a bit disorienting the first time making such a drastic time zone change. I’ve flown back and forth across the US many times, pacific time to eastern time, which can have a sense of 3 hours lost or gained, but that doesn’t even compare. Meghann and I left Phoenix Saturday morning for a 10am flight. We had a layover Saturday afternoon at around two, and boarded our ~12 hour flight to South Korea. Being that going from Phoenix is in the -8 GMT time zone, and South Korea is in the +12 GMT time zone, this meant we lost 20 hours, in addition to the flight time. We arrived in South Korea at around 7PM on Sunday. Pretty weird, huh? To top it all off, we flew west with the sun, meaning we had daylight from when we woke up in Phoenix, and throughout the entire flight to our new time zone. Despite being in a weird sleep state, I know my adrenaline will keep me alert all day.

The flight path we took from San Francisco to Incheon, South Korea went through Alaska and Russia. The light/dark represents the area with current daylight.

Despite a few hiccups with a close connection and low overhead bin space, the flight from San Francisco was very interesting. First of all – making an international connection we had to leave security and re-enter security through a (very slow) international security checkpoint. After hurrying to our gate and arriving just as boarding was finishing, I realized at that point, for maybe the first time in my life, that I was definitely a “minority” to the Koreans and other asians that were on our flight to Korea. I tend to thrive in new or unique situations, so I was enjoying it and very curious about anything and everything I was unfamiliar with.

Once we were boarded it when I really began to feel the “international travel” experience. Everything was translated into another asian language, visually on signs and verbally for any flight announcements. Each seat had a screen with games, guides, book summaries, and a lot of other interesting info. I spent some time with the “learn another language” app, which had english to Korean. Meghann and I also played tetris against each other to pass time. We slept off and on throughout the flight, watched some TV on the MacBook Pro, and talked. They did serve free wine and two free meals. I enjoyed the first meal, which had a salmon salad appetizer and chicken, rice and vegetable main course, but Meghann, not so much. We opted out of the second as it was late in the flight and we were both didn’t have much of an appetite. They did also bring by fresh fruit at once point, and a delicious ice cream bar!

Took a snapshot of the meal they brought, although didn't think about it until after I had finished the main course...

Once we arrived at the Incheon airport (about an hour west of Seoul), we were both eager to get off the plane. I found the airport had free WiFi, so I did a Facebook check-in and update from my phone. The airport gate was very clutter-free compared to an American airport. There were no restaurants, booths, and minimal artwork. It was all very clean. We arrived at the baggage claim, which was still inside the secure area, different than any American airport I’ve been in. Once we were outside the secure area, it looked a lot more similar to an American airport with restaurants, shopping, and information booths. We met the others on the tour, and walked to a small bus that would take us to the airport.

View from the bus ride

Thought this sign was hilarious - we weren't sure what it meant. Smokers will be shot? Click the image for a higher resolution.

The bus ride was very cool, as it was my first “exposure” to what things were like there on the ground. I don’t know what I was expecting, but the trees, plants, landscape, all looked very similar to something you would see in the America, similar to the midwest except with more mountains. Much of the buildings and architecture were all very similar as well. All of the road signs were in both English and Korean, which was helpful. Lots of public transportation everywhere.

Seoul Welcomes You

I’ll write more about our room and some other experiences in my next post. Today we are touring the city of Seoul, but not before Meghann and I go for a quick run outside around our hotel area. I don’t think my text messaging or calling will work the entire time that I’m here, but we’ll be reachable by email, FaceTime, Skype, etc. I’ll be checking email, Facebook, and my blog for comments each time I’ve got a moment and there is WiFi. More to come!

Blog Post #8: T-5 Days and Counting

Posted on by
2

Alright.. three weeks since my last post. Seems like a hiatus based on previous post frequency, but I’m anticipating some serious ramp-up here throughout the month of May. No excuses, I just haven’t felt like writing and have been spending more times with hobbies and other activities. I’m sure the frequency of my posts will fluctuate depending on whether or not I have anything interesting to write about!

So what’s in five days? For a little over half a year, Meghann and I have been planning a trip to South Korea, and we finally leave Saturday! It will be my first time travelling internationally, and I’m really excited about it. I’m hoping to take photos and upload them here, along with stories and experiences. I’m not sure what sort of free time I’ll have to do this or what my energy levels will be like, but I’d like to write as often as I can. Ideally I’d like for it to be every day, but let’s just say I’ll do my best. For future trips, I’ll remember… planning a trip over the course of 7-8 months is exhausting.. going forward I’m going to set specific times to do planning and then not worry about it the rest of the time (aka, all the time for half a year).

Leading up to leaving, Meg and I have an extremely busy week this week. Tomorrow we have Dash’s final advanced dog training course, in which he’ll (hopefully) graduate. This time around, we did exercises to build his confidence (which he passed hilariously easy), “back” (take steps backwards from a heel), and more focus on the “stay” command with distractions. We’re pretty confident he’ll pass… he’s a great dog, but still an 18 month old puppy with lots of energy! Certain things are more difficult with that. Thursday Meg and I fly to Texas for a work event. I won a top 3% performer award for 2011, and we we have an award ceremony and celebration event to attend Thursday evening. Friday morning we fly back, pack for Korea, and leave for an early flight Saturday morning! Phew… busy week. Fortunately, Meg’s mom Nancy is coming in to town to watch the dogs and house sit while we’re in Korea! THANKS NANCY!!

So wow! First time traveling internationally. I really have no idea how I’ll react. I’ve spent a fair amount of time reading about Korean culture, and I’m generally pretty open and accepting of new cultures and experiences, so I’m hoping it will be mostly positive. Here are some interesting observations I’ve made so far in my learnings…

  1. To say “Hello” in Korean, it sounds like “On-yong ha-say-yo”. Not sure why greeting has so many syllables (could you imagine trying to say that quickly in passing?!), but it’s the extent of my Korean language so far and I’m looking forward to utilizing it
  2. Gift giving is a major part of the Korean culture. Meghann and I have an entire suitcase filled with gifts of all types, for orphanage children, trip attendees, friends, and others we may meet along the way. I personally find this piece fascinating, as I think I would be annoyed by something like this. I usually really like to keep my posessions to what I exactly need and no more, as I’m bothered by clutter.. if gifts are given so frequently, I would expect to have a lot of extra things I wouldn’t know what to do with. I’m hoping to have some conversations with Koreans about this to get more understanding on this piece of their culture while I’m over there.
  3. The dining culture seems very specific. Elders always begin eating first at the table. Second helpings of the first course (I think???) you will always be offered, in which you are expected to decline. If an elder gives you a drink, you are expected to drink it, but any drinks should be taken facing away from them. So I’ll do my best to adhere and will probably learn a lot in the process.
  4. Meg and I have been watching quite a few videos from an online blog called “Eat your Kimchi“, which is made by two english speaking Canadians that moved to Korea. They’ve documented a lot of their experiences which have been very helpful. I’d recommend checking it out if you’d like to learn more.. everything from restaurants to their trip to Korean Costco. My old college roommate June (from Korea) sent it to me as soemthing to read to learn more before traveling out there.

So… uh… I sure like lists, huh? Yep. Sure do. Recurring theme here.

More to come… If there is anything specific you’d like me to look for or write about with my international travel, post about it in the comments! Specific topics or questions will make my posts more interesting, I’m sure.. Thanks for reading!

Blog Post #7 – A Lyricist Without a Clue, What Year is This?

Posted on by
3

Just want to stand there and watch me burn \
That’s all right because I like the way it hurts\
Just gonna stand there and hear me cry\
That’s alright because I love the way you lie…. I love the way you lie

So every night around 8-9 PM, I put Meg to bed, put the dogs to bed, and am faced with the decision: What do I want to do with my 2-4 hours tonight? As of late, I have a fairly standard set of options (ranked in order of high pleasure, low productivity to low pleasure, high productivity):
1) Play Star Wars: The Old Republic on my PC
2) Play on my iPad
3) Write in my Blog
4) Continue to study iPhone App Development

The distribution lately has been 60:20:15:5. Some times I wish it was the reverse, but WHATEVER- I’m wriring, right? Before I get started on tonight’s post, I’d like to point out that I’ve added a star rating option for each post. I’m very “feedback driven” as a person, and enjoy seeing which topics my readers like/dislike. Even if you don’t want to post, or even know that I have any idea you’re reading this, please rate my post! It’ll help me make things more interesting in the future.

Tonight’s topic is: SONG LYRICS. I’ve always had an interest in song lyrics – starting with CDs that had the lyric pamphlets included. I remember the first CD I owned – Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill”. One of the most awesome CDs of all time… after reading the lyrics pamphlet and realizing there was profanity, I hid it in a secret hiding place because I didn’t want to get in trouble. I even remember after innocently playing the CD in our living room loudly and Alanis said “I’m brave but I’m chicken shit” my mom gave me a funny look and said “What did she say??” and I turned beat red, said “She said that she’s really sick”, took the CD out and discovered its new hiding place. Hah! Since this occurrence, I’ve always made a point with any album or song I’ve enjoyed to listen to it and read the lyrics of any song I like while I listen to it – I feel really understanding what they’re saying make the song that much more powerful when I listen to it in the future.

Anyways, Meg and I were riding in the car tonight and the song “Love the Way You Lie” came on by Eminem, featuring Rihanna. This is one of those songs that always makes me pause what I’m doing and takes all of my attention – it captures many things that make a song amazing: intricite, poetic lyrics; beat and rhythm; intense passion from the artists; tying many concepts together with the polish you would expect from one that settles for no less than perfection.

So with that said – tonight I’m going to post and evaluate five of my all-time favorite song lyrics. These are not ordered and not necessarily my “Top 5″ (that would take too long to truly discover with all the music out there I’ve listened to), but rather serves as a good basis.

  1. Eminem – Stan: Ugh!!! While I had my entire #1 written out for the song “Love the Way You Lie“, I deleted it all after re-listening to the song Stan by Marshall Mathers (aka Eminem). Stan was originally released by Eminem and “stealing” the chorus from a song by Dido, but after it was released, it shot Dido into the top of the charts (and made her one of my other favorite all-time artists) and she didn’t seem to mind. Stan is such a great song because it shows how much Eminem is able empathize with his audience. The song is about an angry, delusional fan that misinterprets his music and takes it so his extreme. Throughout Eminem’s career, he has often times had this happen, and this song is about as direct as he get (listen to the last verse) as “don’t take my music too seriously, be responsible, use your best judgement”.
    “You got some issues Stan \ I think you need some counseling \ to help your ass from bouncing off the walls when you get down some \ And what’s this shit about us meant to be together? \ That type of shit’ll make me not want us to meet each other \ I really think you and your girlfriend need each other \  or maybe you just need to treat her better \ I hope you get to read this letter \ I just hope it reaches you in time \ before you hurt yourself, I think that you’ll be doin just fine \ if you relax a little \ I’m glad I inspire you but Stan why are you so mad? \ Try to understand \ that I do want you as a fan”
  2. Jimmy Buffett – Last Mango in Paris: I’ve always loved Jimmy Buffet – before I knew who he was, he always had songs that made me feel like I’m on vacation, whether I was on the beach, or on my way to class or a meeting. Choosing the song “Last Mango in Paris: has only come up recently – it ties really well in with my last post on adventure. Jimmy’s songs are usually about paradise, adventure, or controversy – three things I’m quite fond of myself. I even had the pleasure of seeing him in concert in Vegas recently – I will definitely see the next one I have the opportunity to – he’s a great performer.
    “I went down to Captain Tony’s \ To get out of the heat \ I heard a voice call out to me “Son come have a seat” \ I had to search my memory \ As I looked into those eyes \ Our lives changed like the weather \ But a legend never dies \ He said I ate the last mango in Paris \ I took the last plane out of Saigon \ Took the first fast boat to China \ And Jimmy there’s still so much to be done”
  3. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Hard to Concenrate: Every now and then a song has significance not only because it’s a great song, but also for sentimental reasons. I listened to the album “Stadium Arcadium” by Red Hot Chili Peppers probably 2-3 times a day every single day while doing my first IT job during the summer of 2006. I owned my first cellphone that would play music, so I used all of the available storage space on the two CDs (Jupitor & Mars) that made up this album. I chose the song “Hard to Concentrate” because I always played this song a few times in a row.. it has lyrics that I always found to be very romantic.
    “Do you want me to show up for duty \ and Serve this woman and honor her beauty \ and Finally you have found something perfect and Finally you have found… yourself With me… will… you… agree to take \ This man… into your world… \ And now… we are as one… “
  4. She is Love – Parachute: The reaosn this song is special to me is fairly straight forward – it was Meg and my first “song” together. When doing a quick sort of my iTunes library, this one had the most plays (by a lot) at 297. That means I have listened to this song for almost 15 hours. It has great song lyrics and a great overall feel to it. Definitely a song that will always be special to me.
    “I’ve been beaten down \ I’ve been kicked around \ But she takes it all for me. \ And I lost my faith \ in my darkest days \ But she makes me want to believe \
    They call her love, love, love, love, love.
  5. Oasis – Wonderwall: It’s unfortunate I’m restricting myself to only 5 songs on this list for tonight – I have a feeling I might have several follow-up posts with more lyics to this topic eventually. This song came out while I was in high school. It talks about the many paths one might experience when going through relationships, but it focused on the passion you really feel for one person – and it captures it just oh-so-wonderfully.
    “And all the roads that lead you there were winding \ And all the lights that light the way are blinding \ There are many things that I would like to say to you But I don’t know how \ I said maybe \ You’re gonna be the one that saves me \ And after all \ You’re my wonderwall.”

So there are the first 5 that hit me – I have tons more which I’ll re-visit eventually. So I’d love to hear – what do you think of my above choices? And what are YOUR top song lyrics? Anything that hits home for you each time you hear it? I’m always looking for new music, or exploring the lyrics of music I’ve already listened to further…