The 22nd of October was quite a while ago.  A very long time ago, especially in blogging terms.  I have no real excuse for the silence, a few reasons but no real excuse.  Sometimes it's hard to find the inspiration to write, especially when you think nothing all that noteworthy has happened.  Little things get in the way, and after a few weeks I seem to forget that I actually like writing and that updating my blog isn't a chore, it's something I enjoy doing.

Anyway since the last time I posted, here's what I've been up to in a nutshell:

On November 3rd Nick, four other friends and I, competed in a Spartan Race in Seoul.  An obstacle course not known for its ease, I was quite happy to complete the course, albeit with a penalty of 90 burpees due to three failed obstacles!  Apart from Nick who had to do none, we all had to do 90 which provided a nice amount of solidarity on the day!

Pre-race wanna be Spartans!

After the Spartan Race, the silly season was upon us and we got well and truly involved.  I hadn't been looking forward to spending Christmas here (South Korea) at all, but as it happened it was a great day.  The first Christmas we spent here we'd only arrived about a month before, so the day passed with pangs of homesickness, but by this time round we'd been here long enough to make a great bunch of friends which made all the difference and it was a great day, except that is, for being woken by a jackhammer coming from the next apartment at 8am on Christmas morning and Stephen's Day...a great time to start renovations apparently!

Just after Christmas I headed off to Thailand and Cambodia, leaving Nick behind in the cold because he'd taken on extra work over the holidays to save some pennies and clear off some small debts.  I landed in Bangkok, met a friend who was on holidays from Australia, went down south to Koh Tao and rang in the New Year there with her.  When she left to go back to work, I headed to Cambodia for a few weeks on my own before heading back to Bangkok to meet my mum and dad, who I then travelled with for a few more weeks.  We went to Ban Krut for some relaxation before meeting a couple of their friends and going to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.  I left them there, they continued on to the Cambodian coast and I went back to Bangkok (again!) before flying back to Korea on Valentines Day.

Koh Tao with Aisling

Ban Krut with the folks

Myself and Nick spent a few days doing the tourist thing in Seoul before heading back to Daejeon where there seemed to be a flurry of goodbye parties going on.  We said goodbye to some really good friends in those few weeks which wasn't easy, especially when you just don't know when, or indeed if, you'll ever meet them again.  The world can seem so small at times, but so big at others.

While I was on holidays, Nick got a new job at the same campus as me so on the 25th February, we packed up all our worldly belongings, which amounted to an awful lot more than we'd thought, hired a van, and moved out to Hongseong to start chapter three of our lives in Korea.  The move has been great, no more weekly commutes from Hongseong to Daejeon, and lots more fresh air and a generally slower pace of life...we're adjusting to it nicely!

Since the start of the semester on March 3rd, we've kept our heads relatively low.  The major excitement, for me at least, came when my sisters booked flights out for a visit in August!  Even though I've seen the booking confirmation, I still don't quite believe it's happening....very exciting altogether!  Otherwise, I played in a netball tournament in Seoul one weekend which was great...it'd been 9 years since I'd last played and it took me a while to feel comfortable on the court again but I had a great day, and a week worth of sore muscles to prove it! Nick's played in a couple of rugby tournaments, we've been to a friend's wedding and we've bought ourselves new touring bikes which we just took for their first spin this weekend!

GD in action!

Yunju and Mo's Wedding

First trip on our new tourers

There are just over 7 weeks left in the semester now and then we're off to Hokkaido, Japan for three weeks from the end of June.  The plan is to cycle and camp our way around the island, starting and ending in Sapporo.  I've made an outline of our planned route which you can see here.

And there you have it....the last 6 and a half months in a nutshell!