New Years

The whole Redeemer gang, all of us Dutch too! AND of course we happened to find a HUGE Christmas tree made of Heineken bottles! Destiny.
Wow, it's hard to believe a week's gone by since Christmas!
I had today off and relaxed after a pretty busy last few days!
Good friends of ours from Redeemer, Nick and Mel moved to Korea about a month ago just after their wedding! They decided to come up for a few days to celebrate a late Christmas and New years together.
Saturday night we basically had a Redeemer reunion plus a few friends! It was so crazy to see everyone together and know we all went to the same small school together! It was a great night of dinner, drinks, karaoke and snow! We also exposed some of our non-Dutch friends to droppies! Which they thought were disgusting! haha
It was really such a great time together. Sunday we did the regular church/brunch thing and then headed home to relax. Nick, Mel, KAty and I rented some movies and played some cards and Jenga together. Lots of laughs were shared.

Monday, I started camps which actually went really well day 1. 14 girls came out of 20 I was told would be coming. I'm sure they will be coming tomorrow. I think it will be fun and my planning will pay off. The first thing I asked them to do is make English names. It was fun for them and I know all their names after the first day! I hardly learned any girls Korean names this semester! It's so difficult. Names they came up with included Dragon, Fiona, Charming, Bin and some more common names like Christina, Annie, Sally, and Cindy! They are creative!

After the school day was finished Shana, Katy and I met and headed into Seoul for the New Years festivities. We were expecting it to be CRAZY! But, although it was busy and crowded in the main area, most people don't think New Years eve is a big deal. It's the Lunar new year when they go nuts. That's going to be in February just around the end of my winter vacation.
We met Nick and Mel in Seoul by the huge CHristmas tree they have there beside a big outdoor public skating rink! We had dinner again, some great conversation and drinks. Nate and Maria and some of their Mokpo friends joined us later too! Then we all headed out to see the fireworks. We had no idea that the fireworks were not the typical ones. The thousands of people there on the street could buy fireworks and just light them off themselves. We were walking down the street to small fireworks breaking over our heads. It was Crazy!!! We had so much fun trying not to get lit on fire...There was also a main stage with popular Korean bands. The countdown was displayed on a building with lights and followed by so many fireworks - it was hard to breathe with all the smoke and ashes falling from the sky!
Definitely an experience I won't forget and a really fun New Years eve!
Hope everyone back home had a great party!
Thanks shana for the use of some of your pics.