Yesterday's swearing in of President Obama provided many people, all around the world, with once-in-a-lifetime moments. While I was not in my native Washington D.C., I was privy to the inauguration from perhaps the oddest of places: the back of a taxi.
Let me explain. I had no intention of watching it. 12pm D.C. time - when the whole shebang was to go down - is 2 am Korea time, and not a time I wished to see what with my 7:30 am wake up call. So I decided on checking out "Defiance" at one of Ulsan's lovely cinemas. The movie ended around 10:30, and disappointed with its general lackluster, my friend and I decided to grab a beer. Though we both only ended up taking down two drinks, we found ourselves stumbling out of this watering hole at the ripe our of 1:45. She, being a Korean, had her car. Me, living in the absolute opposite direction, and being a general western pauper, had to grab a taxi back to my little beach hamlet.
I immediately noticed that the driver - like so many Korean cabbies - was in the middle of a program on his in-car tv set. Nothing unusual. But wait! Then he turns to me and says, "Oh oh, yes, Obama Obama." Only then do I notice he's watching a live feed of the inaugural. So there I am, in Korea, in the back a cab, barreling into the darkness and watching the codification of my new government. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the man himself take the oath from the cab. I made it home in time to see that on a real TV. But just witnessing the pomp of the whole event, not to mention Biden's oath, where I was - it felt spectacularly bizarre and absolutely fitting.
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