Today's Lantern Festival marks the end of Chinese New Year celebrations, and what a Chinese New Year vacation I have had! It surpasses all my previous CNY experiences because of a change of my marital status and a change of my surrounding climate.

Traditionally, the second day of Chinese New Year is for married daughters to visit their birth parents because they may not have the opportunity to visit their birth families frequently. Living with me at Taipei County puts my wife in that category, but a more gender-equal way of thinking says the otherwise: why could not the married daughters join their birth parents for dinner during the Chinese New Year's Eve? They should be able to do it if they feel like to, and that's exactly what my wife did. I joined her, too.

Heading to Kaohsiung for the Chinese New Year vacation also had the benefit of a warm and sunny weather, although I enjoyed it only for four days, from the new year's eve to the third day. In order to save money on high speed rail tickets, Evania and I hitchhiked on her uncle's car and headed north in the early morning of the fourth day. That's the ride that made me believe three and a half hours were enough for driving 341 km from Fengshan to Banqiao.

Above all the wonderful things that happened while we were entering the Year of the Tiger, it was Abby's cute smiling face that brightened us up the most. Abby, my niece, who turned one during the vacation, flew over the Pacific to meet her extended family members.