Dueling Orbs Birthday: #2 Top Fav Thing To Do in Room 505 at Tianjin Medical Center

Today is Momma and Papa Choi's collective birthday! However, since dad had to leave early this morning back to Korea, we had a mini celebration late last night in Room 505.

According to both of their US passports, their birthday is June 24th (they were born two years apart though in 1955 and 1953, dad and mom respectively)...but it's not technically true. Both my parents were born in South Korea a few years after the Korean War but my mom was born in Seoul to more cosmopolitan, westernized parents who saw solar calendars as the wave of the future. So on the day she was born, they decided to name that date according to the Solar Calendar, which was June 24th. My dad, however, was born and raised in the countryside on a farm so on the day he was born, his parents decided to name that date according to the Lunar Calendar, (which most of the country still did), which was June 24th (according to the Lunar Calendar). The lunar calendar I'm told runs later than the solar one, so June 24th on the lunar calendar translates to around July 25th on the solar calendar. So they were not born on the same day, they just have the same birthday on two different calendars.

This was all very confusing to immigration so when they applied for their permanent residency in the US in the 70s, my dad had to pick a birthday, and since he grew up his whole life thinking of June 24th as his birthday even though it was on a different calendar, he just decided to stick with that. So my whole life, we've celebrated their birthdays together, even though my dad's is kind of a revised birthday.

So, Happy Birthday to 2/3rds of the Choi family today! Mom is now 55 and dad is 53. Opposite ages of their respective birth years. That's gotta mean something right? :) We'll take a good dose of luck for their collective presents please, thanks!