I attended the New Year's Eve service at my church and stuck around for the social afterwards, but then I left and ventured out alone.
I had been asked by numerous friends, coworkers, random gym buff boys from System, and boxing babes from Paul Brown Boxfit to join them in ringing in the new year.
I declined everyone's offer. I wanted to ring it in by myself and I wanted to do it in the most Torontonian way possible -- do the countdown at Nathan Phillips Square downtown. So that's exactly what I did. I headed downtown not knowing what to expect except for a lot of people, fireworks and one grand countdown at midnight.
I should have expected more though.
I should have realized after experiencing Halloween here that holidays in Toronto, Canada are like holidays on steriods -- they're so extremely exaggerated, extreme and blown up.
Nathan Phillips Square was absolutely and insanely packed. I got into the square part somewhat but decided to step back and stand where I felt not as squished like a sardine. I stood curbside and was still elbow-to-elbow with those around me. Everyone there was either in a couple, with family, or single but looking to make a couple (looking for a hook-up). I didn't fall into any of these labels and an older couple beside me commented about this after they witnessed a few guys approach me and try their best line at securing a midnight kiss with me.
New Year's Eve is always about spending it with the person you want to kiss at midnight and there was no one I wanted to kiss but I did hug that elderly couple beside me. He kissed her, she kissed him, and then I wrapped my arms around them both and we all stood there in a super adorable hug.
Getting back onto the subway after the festivities was next to impossible so I walked a good chunk of the way home. By the time I reached Yonge and Bloor I was thirsty but everything was pretty much closed, everything but on Tim Horton's coffee shop that is so I went there. It was jammed pack!!! I bought a coffee, took a seat at an already somewhat occupied table and took a sip. There were three people also sitting at my table and I totally didn't notice upon sitting down that they were Korean. I didn't notice until they started talking. As it turns out, one of them didn't speak much Korean and was trying to figure out how to say a certain English word in Korean. After what felt like her hundredth failed attempt and trying to pick it from her brain, I spook up. I knew the word so I blurted it out. Of course, as you can assume, this sparked a conversation between them and me. A white girl speaking Korean?! Yup, that's me. You'll never believe what became of this conversation though. No sooner did we start talking and they start asking me how I had learned Korean but we discovered three of us are from Cheonan, South Korea. Now keeping in mind that Cheonan isn't exactly a major city nor is it really big, it was so wild to be having this most random of random run-ins. One of them use to live in the same neighborhood I did and so we sat there amazed at this fact.
First people I met in 2016 were 3 Koreans, 2 of which are from my Korean hometown. Stranger things have happened, right?! Right, but this is right up there were very strange and such a fluke. Welcome to 2016 -- a year of definite opportunities and even more strange occurrences and possibilities yet to come!
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