Best wishes to everyone for a healthy and prosperous 2014. It’s only 11 hours until midnight in Korea, so we get to start celebrating a bit earlier than most of the rest of the world. Me, old fuddy-duddy that I am (NOT), I’ll get to bed early. New Year’s Eve just doesn’t excite me like it used to. I suppose the bars in Yeosu will be packed with celebrants, and the police will be out in force. In Korea, unlike in the U.S., it’s legal for police to set up checkpoints and randomly pull drivers over without due cause to give them a breath-a-lyzer test. My guess is that it cuts down on drunk driving, but I don’t have any official stats to back that assumption up. In about 30 minutes I’m going to take a walk to E-mart, a national Walmart-like super store, a couple miles from the uni. I’ll keep an eye out for any checkpoints and take some photos if I can.
Again, Happy New Year to all!