Alright I’m going to focus in on New Year’s for this blog as it is a holiday I particularly value.

New Year’s was pretty weird for me back at home because most years I would have to celebrate at home alone because both my mom and dad would have work those days. It was not until later during the high school days that New Year’s went from being a pretty empty evening into a night filled with shenanigans with other people. I ended up doing things either with one of my parents or with my friends. Yet, most new years still kind of felt empty, pretty much like most of those empty resolutions folks make too often.

This was my first New Year’s ever outside the US and I was eager to see other countries celebrate it. So our evening started with waiting an hour for 샤부샤부 (shabu shabu, which is thinly sliced Japanese beef) at 로운샤브샤브, a pretty top notch shabu shabu place in my opinion. We definitely got our value for 16000KRW each. The night continued into chocolate and tea and learning about how Emily’s friend goes about mixing music as a DJ. We finally left for 종로 (Jongno) where the bell would be rang at 보신각 (Bosingak). The crowd was crazy packed and I had not seen so many Korean officers at one place for anything. In fact, I just saw that many officers in one location ever. I think the officers were astounded by the number, too, because plenty of them were taking selfies. As much an LOL moment as our reaching the place just in time to hear the ringing of the bell at midnight.

We got to enjoy a free show by a formerly famous Korean punk band (that still seemed pretty famous by the amount of people able to sing along with the lyrics). Despite the cold and blinding lights, we all had a pretty good night.

On actual New Year’s day, many of us got to take part in a Korean tradition courtesy of Winnie. In Korea, to actually get a year older, one needs to eat a bowl full of 떡국 (rice cake soup). The 떡 fills you with fortunate and age and is a staple of Korean food culture and tradition. People are typically supposed to eat it on 설날 (Korean Lunar New Year), but over time it has come to be a tradition on the Gregorian New Year. With that and “Pitch Perfect”, New Year’s was awesome.

HAPPY 2015, EVERYBODY! 😀