Happy New Year 2012!

As I post this, it's 11:30am on January 1, 2012 here in the ROK, but the NYE festivities are just getting started back in the Old Country.

I want to be sure to share my New Year story because though simple, it is one of the best New Year's I've ever had.

Last night my friend and I were both feeling pretty sluggish. I had taken a 3 hour nap and decided not to meet my other friends in Hongdae for what was sure to be a crazy night of dancing and random encounters. It would have been fun, but I wasn't feeling up to it. I told my friend that really i didn't feel like doing much of anything but felt the need to do SOMEthing. So we decided to go to a movie then hit up a bar afterward to ring in the new year.

Movie: Fail. The only show time for our movie was 12:50 am. So, we decided to go to another part of Incheon to check out another theater.

When we got there, it was too late for the movie. So we were going to go to Pizza Hut. But it was closing. Then we were going to go to Outback. It was closed. Then we decided to go back to the area we were in originally. So we ate at McDonald's and made our way to a bar we've been to a few times before, where we had a few drinks and counted down the New Year with a room full of Koreans (and one other foreigner).

All of this uneventful-ness took about 3 hours, by the way. It was really pretty lame, even for just a normal Saturday night.

We stayed at the bar until about 1. I had plans to wake up at 4:30 and decided it would be best to take a 3 hour nap before hand.

It is a Korean custom to watch the sun rise on the first day of the New Year, and then to eat Ddeokguk (a soup containing rice cake, mandu, beef and green onions). One of my taekwondo masters had told me about his plans to watch the sunrise so Saturday morning I called him asking for suggestions on where a good place to watch it would be. He gave me a few mountain options and one island. I chose the closest, smallest mountain. (20 minutes away, only 150m)

So at 4:30 this morning I woke up and caught the day's first bus to the subway. By 6:30 I had arrived at the place where I read online I could find the trailhead nearby. The only information I found about the trailhead was really vague and from 5 years ago, so I was really unsure where to go. I started walking down the main road toward the mountain. When I got to the metro transit office, where the trailhead is supposedly 'across', I was really unsure.

Mountain hiking is a really popular pasttime here, but oddly enough trailheads are usually unlabelled, and hidden down narrow alleys or behind buildings and difficult to find if you don't know where to go.

Luckily, Koreans usually wear orange or pink hiking jackets and carry hiking sticks, a uniform that is very easy to spot. Also, as this is a very old tradition to watch the sunrise, there were many people there in their brightly-colored hiking gear. So I found a group that seemed to know where they were going and followed them down a back street and around a corner, until we came upon the trail.

Together with these many Korean strangers, I hiked up the very rocky incline and climbed the many wooden steps in the dark. The sunrise was not due for an hour so the sky had not yet begun to lighten.

On the way up, we passed a Buddhist temple. I could hear the monks inside the walls chanting their early morning prayers. It was really quite amazing. Hearing that through the darkness on a mountain trail was hauntingly beautiful.

The hike only lasted about 15-20 minutes, relatively easy although more rocky than one may expect. I got to the top on the first crest. There were benches and a pagoda. But there were some power lines blocking the view so I went to the next crest, a bit higher. There was a Korean flag and a few rock outcroppings people were claiming for a good seat to view the sunrise. But, I decided to continue on to the next crest. This was a bit more flat and had a big outcropping in the middle, and a great open view of the eastern sky. So I staked my claim on the rocks and drank some juice I had brought along, waiting for the sun to come up.





The sky gradually lightened and the city lights below slowly blinked off. Soon a man next to me pointed out a break in the clouds where we could see some daylight peaking through. Overall the sky was very overcast so the sun itself could not be seen, but the sky became light and the first day of 2012 had begun.











In the distance I could hear drums from the temple below. Soon, the sound of a simple wooden instrument could be heard slowly approaching. A monk from the temple was walking along the crest of the mountain playing his instrument and chanting, just as the sun peaked over the horizon. He went up the 4 crests and then came back to the one I was standing on, and stood next to me facing the east.
He played his instrument and sang and chanted, welcoming in the New Year.




It was really a magical moment. There were a lot of people there, and some were having a good time, some were in solemn reflection, some were with their families, some were toasting the dawn with magkoli.

By the time 15 minutes had passed since 'sunrise time' I started wondering what I should do next. Should I stay here for a while to see if something was going to happen? Would there be some kind of ceremony, or will people do or say some traditional thing? But then the crowd started to disperse. I stayed put for a few minutes. Then I heard someone next to me say, 'Excuse me?'

It was a woman a few years older than me. She asked me if there was a tradition like this in my culture. I said no, usually we ring in the new year at midnight with a big party, but I had heard of this tradition and wanted to take part. We chatted a bit, and I told her I was there alone, because all my friends were sleeping. Soon we wished each other a Happy New Year and she left to go back down the mountain.

Again I decided to wait a few more minutes. Soon, I heard a familiar voice say 'excuse me' again. The woman was back. She asked if I had any plan today, then she told me that she was there with her hiking group, about 10 people. And when they heard the American was here alone they decided to invite me to join them for Ddeokguk (the traditional New Year's meal). Of course I was thrilled at this and graciously accepted her offer. So I followed her and some of her hiking group members back down the mountain.

At the base, she went and got her car and some of us piled in, and we drove to a restaurant nearby. We had a group of about 15 and they joked that normally the place would be closed but they were open today because of me.

The others didn't speak English and I tried to speak Korean but of course my vocabulary is pretty limited. But I managed to introduce myself and thank them for inviting me to join them. So, we ate ddeokgug, kimchi, fried vegetables, sashimi,and drank magkoli.

Even though I could only speak to one person there, everyone was very kind and welcoming and glad to have me there. It was a shining example, a brilliant reminder of why I love Korea so much. We laughed and joked and ate traditional food and drank alcohol together and I just marveled at how wonderful this day had become.

Outside, it started to snow big, thick snowflakes. Everyone looked out the window and commented on how perfect it was.

And it was. After about 2 hours we paid our bill and dispersed. I shook hands with the group leader and said, really, thank you very much. And he said it was great to meet you, I will see you again soon on the mountain.

So now I have a great new group of mountain hiker friends. A full belly. An amazing memory. And I'm so grateful for the direction my life has taken me and especially for all the amazing people I have met in the past year.

Happy New Year! I hope that 2012 is full of blessings and good things for all of you!

t