The beginning of today was a whole lotta nothin’ if I’m being honest. Like – lazy day to the max.

It was time for Emily’s mom Julie to return back to her outreach group, so they began the long public transport trek back up to Seoul. Meanwhile, I decided to stay at the apartment and lay around in comfy pants. I regret nothing.

But because of this lazy decision, I don’t have much to offer you in the entertaining reading department. I simply laid around watching old Christmas vlogs that I missed from one of my favorite YouTubers SunBeamsJess. I also video chatted with my brother which was quite nice.

About mid-afternoon I got a text from Emily saying, “So, my friend Seungwon has invited us and two other teacher friends to his place for dinner around 7 or 8 for traditional new year foods should we want. Would you be down or nah?”

My first thought was, “Ugh, I have to put on normal people pants …”

But I quickly snapped out of it, and said yes. I mean, how many times do you get to ring in the Lunar New Year with traditional Korean food in South Korea??

Since I had been slobbing about all day in the apartment, I decided to make an effort of getting ready. Got to wear my new sweater and earrings to the party! Annnnnnd then Emily and I took lots of selfies with Korean filters.

I felt so privileged to be invited to someone’s home for a traditional Korean meal. The food was absolutely delicious, and the people from that night were so welcoming and kind. I had a great evening. The only thing that kept things … interesting … was Seungwon’s cat. This cat hated everyone and let everyone know it. You just never knew when she was going to pounce. And pounce she did.

We ate our yummy meal while we watched South Korea fight it out for the gold in speed skating. We also watched a lot of Kpop (which still confuses and fascinates me). As soon as we bit into the rice cake, we all turned one year older. So happy birthday to me! And happy new year!