Lunar New Year in the Philippines

Here in Korea, Lunar New Year is one of the biggest holidays. Usually the holiday is 5 days long (Wednesday to Friday and then the weekend), but Gwen and Samson are awesome people and gave me Monday and Tuesday off too so I could go to the Philippines for the week and visit family.

I left Daegu on a bus for Incheon airport at 1 am on Saturday morning and ended up at my final destination in Iloilo at 5 pm Saturday afternoon. Traveling there was very uneventful and pretty boring. Although I think I'm becoming a pro at traveling solo.

I'll just explain my trip with pictures. The only part I regret is not taking more pictures at Tito Ollie's house. I think I was jet lagged and overwhelmed by the heat at the time. I had a really bad headache that day and didn't end up taking enough photos of the family.

So here we go...

My Tita Nene's bamboo house.

My Lolo's (Grandpa) grave. R.I.P.

My cousin Kent's kid, Lance, and a feast of delicious Filippino food, except for the oysters...wasn't a fan.

My cousin Mark's kid. I think his name is Aziah or something like that. Also my cousins, Kim and Jay, playing mah jong (they wouldn't take my Korean won, so I had to borrow some pesos).

My dad's sister, Tita Nanet and my cousin Jay, who looks a bit like my brother, Neil.

The house my dad grew up in and my Grandma Pet's grave. R.I.P.

Spot sunbathing in the morning sun. We bonded during my stay.

Me and my cousin Matt while waiting for the boat to Bacolod. I absolutely adore this kid.

My dad's side of the family. Look how tall I am! This was an awesome night. I had so much fun with my cousins even though we just met.

Afternoon at the beach in Iloilo. Matt-matt working hard at building our sand castle.

The finished sand castle designed and constructed by Matthew Garcia and Samantha. To the right are my silly cousins, Pauline and Jay, getting dirty in the sand.

Me and Jay at the beach. He's holding me up after I fell off a bamboo raft.

Beautiful sunset on the beach. Why do I live in countries with winter?

Mmmmm...I've been dreaming of this for awhile now.

View from our restaurant at the beach. I think it was called "Breakaways" or something along those lines.

My cousins: Pauline, Jay and Matt.

Sitting at my Grandma Pet's piano. I still remember her playing "Oh Canada!" on it when I was six.

Visiting my Lola Nene. She isn't doing too well.

So those were the parts of the my trip that were documented in photos. I spent a lot of time shopping and came home with twice as much clothes as I left with. Overall, it was a great trip. I laughed, I cried, and I met and bonded with so much family. I really want to go back and really get to know everyone more, but duty calls and I had to return to Korea for work. Thanks to my parents who subsidized my trip (I still owe you $500), to all the relatives in the Philippines who made sure I had an amazing time, and to all the relatives in Canada who made sure everyone in the Philippines knew what to feed me. I feel so loved!