New Years Day

Happy Birthday!...err I mean Happy New Years. In Korea, everyone turns a year older at midnight which makes it one massive birthday party as well. Like Christmas, I had no solid plans for New Years and for a bit , it looked like I would be spending New Years at home alone, eating a new years cake while watching season 2 of Mad Men. I decided to once again spend it at Banana Backpackers Hostel.

There were a few people at the hostel when I got there and it looked like most of them were preparing to head out. The group consisited of some japanese and some annoying american guy. Apparently he didnt like asia or asians but yet he is teaching english in korea and was going out with some japanese. Some other people were planning to go to the Boshingak bell ringing in Jogno which is the big New Years Eve event in Seoul. If this is like any other event in Seoul, expect a sea of people where the most you will probably see is the back of the person's head standing in front of you while at the same time being pushed from behind by determined adjummas and ajoshis trying to get a better view. So not wanting to be annoyed I stayed at the hostel to watch to bell ringing on the big screen. There were some really nice girls from Hong Kong who shared a birthday/new years cake and Banana girl SeungMin supplied the soju to ring in the New Year.
The bell ringing was expectedly dull but I guess it a big tradition in Korea.

With the excitement of the bell ringing over it was time to go drinking! My drinking partner for the night was Seung-Min who claims to be a professinal when it comes to boozing and told me tales of her accomplishments. My drinking powers have also increased since coming to Korea. In Canada Id nurse beers leaving them half empty but in Korea Im a borderline alcoholic. We hopped around bars for the night eating and drinking, beer, kiwi soju,more beer and some kinda sangria. SeungMin boasted she was getting stronger as the night wore on. I assume we coulda kept drinking for a more rounds but it hit 7am and the last bars were closing up. It was a fun night, a big thanks goes out to bananagirl who I will have to challenge another night.

"All of my dreams,

Always find me.

Far beyond these fake fluorescent skies
I know there must be something more,

If I could only find the door
...then I could free myself and see the world outside"

I really dont have any New Years Resolution for this year. My plan is just to continue to do the things that make me happy and to continue to seek out new experiences and friendships.

Wishing everyone luck and happiness for 2011!

The Canadian Beer Choice

Sweet Dunkel Beer, 2nd most popular beer at WaBar

Round 4? Still going strong at 6am in the Morning, Some Kiwi Soju and Seafood Pajeon