Lunar New Year, that is. In many parts of the western world, it’s known as “Chinese New Year” but that doesn’t sit well with all the other Asia culture who also celebrate the event. The official new year day is next Tuesday, January 27th. But since it’s normally a 3-day holiday we’ll start on Monday and have through Wednesday. So, I now have a 5-day weekend. This is a much bigger holiday in Asia than January 1st (or December 31st) and is a time of family gatherings.

This year, I’ll be going to MyeongHee’s mother’s house on Pohang. Although I’ve been in Korea for 3 years, I’ve missed all the official New Years rituals. In 2005, MH and I weren’t dating long enough for her to take me home to her family. My friend Kim Wheels had come then and we spent the holiday wandering around Seoul trying to find restaurants that were still open. In 2006 I was living back in Texas. In 2007 I had just barely returned to Korea and went skiing with friends. In 2008, I took two weeks vacation during LNY to come back to Texas and see my family and friends. This will be the first LNY, or  “Sol Nal” as they call it, in which I’ll get a chance to see how the Koreans do it.

We’ll leave from Ulsan on Sunday, so when I come back I hope to be able to type a few paragraphs on what LNY means for the Koreans.

I’ll be sitting on my ass on a comfy sofa until we go to Pohang. Once we get there, its three days of sitting and sleeping on hard-ass floors.