So, under some duress, I have been asked to add my two cents….so here it goes.
From my perspective, things are pretty good. Daphne and Zoe are serious troopers making it happen. friends, good attitudes, good grades. Couldn’t be more proud of them. And they are just so supportive of each other. Amanda makes everything ok and positive, and of course keeps us eating great food always.
So this past week we did a few different things. Amanda was away seeing Eloise at school and saw her parents. While she was away, Daphne and Zoe both had stuff to do with friends so I was a bit alone. Have to say the downtime was quite welcome. I watched TV mostly. Baseball heaven.
The Korean series goes on at the same times as the “world” series. The Wild card team called the Doosan Bears beat the big favorite, the team that wins every year, the Samsung Lions. U.S. World Series plays here weekend mornings, while Korean series on at night. In between, I drive kids places and do yoga. Pretty simple huh. (Amanda would of course be hitting museums and improving her Korean).
With Amanda away, Daphne went to China to feed pandas and clean their cages, a school trip. She’s been completely out of touch except occasional texts to her sisters saying she’s having fun but can’t get anything western to eat. I sense the lack of communication is a good sign from experience.
Work is good. I’m not used to working this hard but I usually like it, and sometimes love it. Feel like I’m using all the brain power I have left In my 50s to figure things out here. My group is definitely an underdog unit, no one here thinks we have a chance, but it makes me incredibly engaged and focused; and I’m becoming quite attached to the people I work with. I started out trying to adapt myself to everything around me until I realized that the place needs my American experience and not my fake Korean adaptation. So, I’ve started asking them to be like me….Tell me everything they’re thinking, interrupt each other, accept sloppy execution vs perfect inaction. It may not work but feels like the better choice, and I think some of them are getting it. I’m seeing clients a lot which is interesting and energizing. I’ve gotten so much better at using a translator. I had to really push her to start being more aggressive and translating everything that everyone says non-stop. In the beginning, I caught her choosing what she would translate and called a foul. Told her I want to know absolutely everything, and she should translate everything I say, even if she thinks it’s inappropriate. This was a breakthrough. When she started doing this, meetings improved and she became appropriately exhausted at the end of meetings….my assistant speaks English but still understands about 60 percent of what I say. I’ve learned that language is definitely just one way people communicate, and there are still barriers if you speak the same language. For example, I work with a New Zealander (a “kiwi”) and I seriously understand very little of what he says. He speaks in expressions I’ve never heard, always with his lips pursed as if everything is a secret….btw, the Koreans just love the slow simple small vocab way I speak English. Never thought that would be a strength. But it really is. They all have taken some English so they all get some of what I say.
Amanda came back during this week but Daph’s still away. Amanda, Zoe, and I did a Citi community service day today which is basically a beautiful hike picking up garbage in the rain. It is supposed to be a family event but no other families showed up except mine and Zoe was a big hit. She never complained and we had fun. I of course picked up more garbage than anyone else, it is something I’m quite good at.
Korean are nuts about golf. everyone plays it. You are a man if you drink and play golf a lot and nothing else much matters in their eyes. (I am known to be a good drinker but the lack of golf prowess is also well-known).
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