Its Thanksgiving here in Korea. They call it ?? (Chuseok to you folks back home.)

I’m off on both Friday and Monday so I’ll have a four day weekend. Korea doesn’t make any distinction between holidays that fall on a weekday or weekend, and this one is officially a three day weekend from Friday thru Sunday. Monday is not an official holiday but my school is closing. This year, many of the holidays have fallen on the weekend and we didn’t get any extra days off.
Last year, they all seemed to fall on either Friday or Monday so we had a lot of three day weekends. This year we got the shaft and have gone months sometimes without a holiday break. Next year I think its back to something liveable.

Anyway, we’ll head off to Pohang for the weekend on Friday evening and probably come back on Sunday evening. Another weekend on the floor. Woo hoo. This year, I’m bringing my bicycle so during those long afternoons of watching Korean TV I plan on getting some miles on the bike.
MyeongHee’s mom lives on the coast and the road adjacent to the sea is a fabulous twisty turny thing. If the weather holds I hope to get some nice coastline/mountain photos.

I love it when it goes down.  It’s been up for way too long.  Check out this graph of US Dollars to Korean Won.

Especially since I’ll be coming back to the US in December. I’ve already paid for my plane ticket, but bringing cash is always a hit-or-miss when it comes to gaining or losing purchasing power.  Last May I lost about $250 just walking out of the bank.  I hope the exchange rate stays down long enough to   keep from getting a haircut again.

Of course, there’s more than just market pressures at work on this. The major Korean exporters, like Hyundai cars or Samsung Electronics are all government supported industries – jaebols – a strictly Korean form of business. When the won is down against the dollar, they lose money when they sell overseas. When its high, like it has been this year, they roll in the profits.  Hyundai says that for every 10 won downward, they lose 1% profit.  That’s a lot of dough for a major car manufacturer.  The Korean government won’t let it stay down too long or go too far. Even though a lower won is good for domestic consumption its bad for the major players.

I hope they let it ride at least until Christmas when I’ll want to exchange some.