Category Archives: Observation

Summer Break, Makes Me Feel Fine

After Firefly, the rest of this summer so far has seemed to have simultaneously flew by and stood still.

It seems that we aren’t quite able to catch our breaths even though we are on holiday. It’s not in a bad way, it’s exciting and awesome to be traveling the east coast and catching up with old friends, there’s just a lot of sorting out stuff that needed to/still needs to happen.

So, in keeping with that, let’s go as much as possible up to now to do what needs to be done…

Thank you to New York area rest stops for having these machines:

Kosher Snacks

and to Pancho’s Mexican Restaurant in Clifton Park, NY for the linguistic assist.

Pancho’s Food Guide

Finally arriving in Vermont to rejoin up with old Cayman friends, John & Mandy, we strolled around Winooski Falls and saw a rainbow, drank some good wine along with a nice chocolate truffle, went on a tour of Ben & Jerry’s, and tried to keep Vermont weird.

: Winooksi Falls Rainbow

: Wine & Chocolate

: Ben & Jerry’s Tour Tix

: Keep Vermont Weird

A few days later, we headed to Montreal, where fate decreed that we were to park in a spot, where parking is prohibited during the one hour of the one day per week that the city does street cleaning, Merci beaucoup.

At least the street trash was pretty.

Montreal street trash

Coming next, Poutine, Sangria, Charcuterie, Bagels and more…

Airplanes

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Hayley Williams once asked “Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now…”

And then B.O.B. and Eminem chimed in with some stuff, but for this post I think I’ll just stick with the airplane thing.

For as long as I can remember, seeing airplanes take off has been a thing for me. It represents excitement, adventure… and for some reason that I’m trying to figure out, the greener grass.

No matter how good I feel I have it (and trust me, all things considered I have it really good right now) seeing an airplane flying over the Han River last night on the bus home from work got to me like it always does.

Even when we lived in the Caribbean, with the sun, warmth, and all that stuff, I felt that way.

I love the idea of travel, but in practice it’s not so glam. Probably like most people, I hate traveling on planes nowadays. It’s always a hassle more than an adventure, but I was still envious of those folks as they made their way to cruising altitude last night. And I wondered if the sun had set enough for me to mistake the jet for a shooting star…

Changes In Longitude, Changes In Attitude or OMG, REALLY?!

The New Normal

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I’m sure there’s a way to describe going on holiday to the warmth of a latitude closer to the equator. I’m just out of practice in using it and I’ve forgotten.

That must sound a little snobby to someone who’s never lived thru a traditional winter closer to the poles. But trust me, coming back to that climate simultaneously sucks and blows. And since the weather turned here in Seoul, I find winter fashion to be bittersweet. I do enjoy wearing long sleeves and some sweaters, but as much as I’m loving my new LL Bean parka for its rugged good looks, it’s 650-fill goose down, and the faux fur lining in the hood, I resent having to wear it, or anything like it so as not to freeze.

It’s payback, I know that. And for the next 18 months at least, I’ll be enjoying the seasons. Maybe enough to last the rest of our lives.

We head out for Bali on Monday. Very much looking forward to it.

Unreal Korea

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You know, I was never really homesick in Cayman. There were times I missed living in the ‘civilized world’ but the friends and, yes, climate made it an easier place to call home.

Don’t get me wrong: I still very clearly remember the life of being a second class citizen in a small Caribbean country. You stay there for seven years and it’s hard to forget having to contend with people yelling “Go back to your country!” at you when you don’t acquiesce and let them cut you off while driving. Or hearing “My bredren work at Immigration, I can have you kicked off the island,” or even having a bogus file of complaints submitted to the Honourable Work Permit Board.

But lemme tell you this, I miss the heck out of the USA and Cayman right now.

And not just because of the distance and time differences of my favorite tv shows and sporting events. Tech mitigates those issues quite well thankyouverymuch.

It is partially because I couldn’t go to Baltimore when my grandfather passed away. Ok, that one is distance. But it’s more the sheer inconvenience of it.

Yes, there are some fundamental cultural politeness issues. That’s rich coming from me, I know, but it’s true. The pushing and shoving and overall vibe of animosity is right up there w/ New York and there’s a reason I don’t want to live in that city.

Also, there’s an interesting thing about the expats here. They take on a more native thing and say, “you have to adapt to that if you want it to work out.”

Well, that’s just it, isn’t it?

Like maybe the type of people that are expats in Asia are totally different than the type of expats in the Caribbean. And interestingly enough, some of the challenges have come from ‘fellow Americans’ who’ve become power-grabbing opportunists, competing with each other instead of working on the same team. Which is a direct reflection of the duality of Korean community ‘all-for-one’ while simultaneously stressing ‘be the top in your class/field/whatever no matter what the cost.’

Crazy, right?

I just don’t feel at home here the way I did in Cayman, Philadelphia, or Baltimore.

Really didn’t expect that.

So yeah, I’m a little homesick for friends and family and the feeling of community that comes from both.

Autumn

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It’s October 1 and I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Myeongdong Shopping Street chilling before a meeting. The air outside is cool enough for me to be wearing a jumper over a t-shirt and be perfectly comfortable. I also have on a scarf, dark blue jeans and a new pair of Ecco slip-ons. I’ve missed Autumn and the sense of closure that it brings to a year. Living somewhere without the seasons time stands still, whereas here in Seoul, the leaves will be changing colors and the air will get chillier. Winter won’t be fun, but it’ll make spring bloody awesome.

Waking up in Philly

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Whenever we travel out bodies go thru various processes to get things resynced. Not just time change biorhythmic stuff because of daylight but also because the food we eat has different particulates. The water is processed differently in different places and that’s why bagels from the Mid-Atlantic taste better than bagels anywhere else, fwiw.

It usually takes a day or three for all the changes to be absorbed and processed. In the meantime it’s no fun being like an illegal alien, amIright?

Even thru it all, I’m looking forward to making myself a little ill from all the different yet familiar foods here in Philadelphia. And not just the cheesesteaks, but more the small things that make it all the more comforting.

Termini Bakery, here I come.

Rule of Thirds

“Listen Ben… a third of the people you meet and interact with in life are gonna love you, the middle third of the people you meet are gonna hate you, and the last third could give a shit.”

Much like yesterday’s nugget of wisdom, this line, said to me around 1993 by an older radio dude in Washington DC has been haunting me. It’s always been tough to accept that people didn’t think of me as anything short of fabulous. I mean, right?! I try hard, I work hard, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I guess I’m not at all like Seinfeld, of whom Alec Baldwin said, “Your life has been one unbroken boulevard of green lights, hasn’t it?”

I think I can add to the Rule of Thirds… let’s see if this works:

A third of the people you meet and interact with in life are gonna love you, the middle third of the people you meet are gonna hate you, and the last third could give a shit… and the weird part is that people jump over those lines to different thirds with frightening irregularity.

What do we think of THAT mind bender?

Waning moments

It’s in the waning moments that we realize what is important. And those moments can last forever.

The trick is to be observant and ‘in the moment’ to make any experience carry the weight of one that is waning.

One of my favorite professors of mine back at University started the second semester of Astronomy with some advice: “Be where you’re at.” As I get older that statement has been ringing louder. May you rest in peace, Dr. Hobbs.

There was a story on Lifehacker yesterday about why our morning commutes sometimes feel like no time at all has passed that struck home for me. During my first years in Cayman, I remember thinking that the weekends seemed to go on forever. Now I know why. Read it.

It’s never as bad as you think it is and if you lie down or try and calm your heartbeats you can come down from the anxiety.

I’m going to try and be more observant of the moments we have left in Cayman and endeavor to write a little more about the process of moving.

I love you all.

Ben Maxwell

Website of Ben Maxwell.