New Year's Eve

Marissa and Dustin arrived in one piece on the 30th. Her boyfriend, Luke, is teaching in Gangwando about 3 hours from Seoul. He came to Dongbaek for the week she was here. Saebomi, a Korean exchange student who lived with Marissa's family while we were at Luers, also came to Dongbaek to play with us.

On New Year's Eve, we left Dongbaek around 3 pm to check into our hotel room in Yeoido. All public transportation stops at midnight, so this way we would be able to get a cheap cab ride back to bed after midnight.

Karen, Marissa, Luke, Dustin, Saebomi, Betsy and I checked into our hotel and began getting dressed for our VERY cold evening. We had plans to ring in the new year in Jonggak, where they ring this huge bell (that probably has some importance to someone - I just don't know what it is) 31 (or is it 33?) times at the stroke of 12.

Here are Betsy and Dustin in our hotel room!

Marissa, Luke, Molly and Betsy all layered-up and ready for New Year's Eve!

When we arrived in Jonggak we realized we were very early so we went to McDonalds to grab some dinner. Karen ordered a cheeseburger. This is what she got:

Needless to say, we, along with the Korean McDonald's employees got a huge kick out of the burgerless burger. We started the evening on a good note!

After dinner, we made our way toward the bell, but stopped for a photo op on the river in front of the Christmas tree! Here are the Indiana girls:

We made it to the bell! It was soooo crowded and fareezing. We decided we are NEVER going to Times Square in NYC on NYE.

From left: Karen, Saebomi, Dustin, Betsy, Molly, and Luke

We had to wait for the police guard to block off the street to flood the street in front of the bell. It involved climbing a fence and trampling some bushes, which Marissa lovingly coined "The National Garden." We don't know why. It was pretty much the longest 45 minutes of our lives. We were smashed in a huge crowd, thought we were going to fall over every time someone moved, and everyone of us had to urinate.... badly. We were very happy to see the new year.

Here's the bell ringing!

Then, we made our way to a nearby Texas-themed bar to relieve ourselves and grab a snack and a beer. Luke, Marissa, and I recharging:

After Texas, Karen, Dustin and I went back to the hotel. We were pretty tired. The rest of the group went to Hongdae to meet up with some of Luke's friends. We think we heard them coming in at daylight... :-)

Happy New Year!