Solar New Year

Solar New Year is around the corner. I knew a holiday was coming up when Lotte Mart (local supermarket) filled the isles with gift sets. Ginseng gift sets cost from 125,000-250,000 won. Other gift sets include whiskeys, and soju with glasses. My favorite are the Spam gift sets. A package of every kind of Spam you can imagine. I had thought previously there was only one kind of Spam, also I had never thought of spam as a premium gift set item. I am mistaken.

Cities are emptying as people return home to be with family for the holiday. In Jecheon it seems like more traffic than usual. Combined with the full day of snow there have been plenty of small car accidents. Accidents are settled quickly in cash and each party goes their own way. The efficiency of it is intriguing. No lawyers here.

I walked with a friend to Uirimgi lake. The 6-8km walk was pretty stupid in the night and heavy snow. My hair was frozen, my face I thought I would lose to frostbite. My Korean friend dug deep to find appropriate English... "no pain, no gain" "I'm a fighter" "you can do it tiger" and occasionally the English song, "you raise me up."

At some point my muscles seemed weak, I was out of breath, heart beat fast, stinging pain in my face with my eyes feeling like they would freeze shut. This is the winter version of the same stupidity that lead my brothers to bring a blow-up raft to a sandbar at Hutchinson Island.