New Year's Eve in Seoul

Last night Loren, Megan and I decided to check out the New Year's Eve celebration in Jonggak. This area is pretty much downtown Seoul and the city had closed off the street and set up a big stage and were prepared to ring in the new year. Supposedly a bell is rung 33 times and many people come to listen to the bell, shoot off fireworks and engage in the festivities. Being somewhere other than my house in Wisconsin, I had to take the opportunity to do like the Koreans. By the time we got down to Jonggak we were able to grab a quick drink at the bar and then work our way to the street. We went the wrong way thinking we could get on the street that was lined with police buses and through a massive amount of people pushing and shoving. Eventually we turned around and ran the other way and got on to the street. Somehow we either missed the count down or there wasn't one. However, we also shot off fireworks and joined in the yelling and screaming and the happy new yearing. It was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had and I can't truly explain the excitement. After Loren and I shot off our fireworks we settled near a police bus and opened up the soju. We said Happy New Year to anyone who wanted to listen and got a lot of awesome reactions. People were laughing because we were saying it, people were cheering us for our drinking of soju from the bottle and others had to do a double take. Later, we tried our luck at saying it in Korean and got buckled knees of laughter. We got our picture taken with a bunch of Koreans who talked to us about the NBA (Sister, I said my favorite team was the Grizzles!). Afterward we got some awesome street food and went to the bar for another drink before heading to Itaewon. I got home at 5:30 this morning, but it was the best New Year of my life