Happy New Year! (^^)

New Year's was an interesting and fun night!  Started out with getting together with my friends (Haylie and Toni) for a quick dinner in Jongno 3-ga.  After having our quick dinner at Burger King, we got brave to go out into the cold at about 10:45 or so... well we started to walk towards Jongno 2-ga where I was told was where we should be.  As we got close, we hit a group of people waiting for something.  Well it took about 20 or so minutes standing squished against random Korean people and then have them tell us that we were going to be going the wrong way when they finally allowed to go in... THEN everyone turned around... and we all were pushed to the right direction trying to not fall down at the open spaces.  Then we were pushed to another area where we had to wait just a little longer to go through a man-made gate.  Soon i'll have fun videos of our pushing and shoving and being trapped.  haha!  but after we finally got through we got to see (sorta) a really cool show being put on.  Singing, dancing, traditional drumming, and the heard the Bosingak bell being rung.  It's hit 33 times for good fortune in Korea for the New Year at midnight!  It was nice being with a gazillion Koreans and my friends counting down to the New year!  ^^

After our fun adventure there, we decided to go and get some coffee and warm up cause it was pretty cold!  After we got warm, we decided we wanted to check out a Jimjilbang because it was late (around 1:30 or so) and the subways wouldnt be running and my friends live a pretty long way away.  So they asked at the Pascucci where a jimjilbang was close to us.  After going around the block for a bit and asking a few different people at a few convenient stores, we finally found it.  We went in and decided we would rest and just chill out.  I've never been to a jimjilbang and so I was a little apprehensive but super excited!  After sitting around, Haylie and I went into one of the hot rooms... about 76 degrees Celsius (168.8 degrees Fahrenheit)... brick walls and all so it kept the heat in pretty well... we lay down in there for a little bit and once we started to sweat we decided maybe it was time to go and that we might want to try the tubs... hehe!  So after chatting about it for a little while Haylie and I decided we'd give it a try... thing with Korean saunas (jimjilbangs) is...well... you're naked.  and not just naked... but you're naked with other people... haha!  this sauna was not very busy so that's why we kinda decided to go ahead and jump in!  hehe!

It was nice and relaxing.  I enjoyed it and would definitely do it again!  We stayed in the tubs for maybe 20 minutes or so because they were super hot!  haha!  We got ready to leave at 5 because we were hungry and then my friends were going to head out on the subway.  Although McDonald's wasn't serving burgers, we headed back to Burger King and tried there.  Afterwards we headed to the bus stop for me and then they were off to the subway.

Today I slept for a good amount of the day... haha and now watching I, Robot and working on getting pictures and videos up because it was a fun night!!

I hope everyone had a good night out and enjoyed counting down!

^^