New Year, New Place

by Mercedes Gates (Canada)

The last thing I expected Canada

We had been drinking all night and the caffeine and alcohol mixed sweetly in my stomach. I couldn’t sleep for that one hour I gave myself before the sunrise. It was a local tradition and I decided to try it for the first time. We rolled out of bed before the sun broke, I ran with the group down to the snowy beach to see the first rays of sun hitting the water. Gyeongpo Beach was swelled with people wanting to see the first sunrise of the year. Looking down the beach Koreans were sitting on heavy blankets snacking on copious amounts of Kimchi, fermented spicy cabbage. It was not my ideal breakfast but my stomach growled regardless. I had forgotten to grab some food on my way out of my apartment. The energy was moving from person to person. I looked over to my friends Karen and Kate, we snapped a quick ‘selfie’ and then looked again as the sun was rising quickly. It peeked out from under the clouds in the distance and then the crowd went wild. Everyone stood up and cheered and then fell silent. It was a new year and new possibilities. My toes were frozen and the waves to my left crashed over and over again. Flow and ebb, the everlasting reminder that nothing stays the same but then all things are connected to a cycle. Then the hangover stuck and I had to sit down for a moment. Puking on a beach on Jan 1 was not going to become an omen for the year to come. My stomach settled and I looked over at crowds moving as the sun rose, they were just as cold as I was and ready to go home back to a warm bed. I was hungry the whole walk back and thought of kimchi and my mouth watered as I fell into bed and into sleep.