We are now officially cycle tourists!

We’ve recently bought ourselves brand new touring bikes and we’re absolutely delighted with ourselves!  Why did we need new bikes when we already have two each I hear you say? Well, strictly speaking, we probably didn’t but I suppose it could be traced back to the summer of 2012.  We were living in Daejeon (South Korea) and we only had one week to take for our summer holidays.  Not wanting to lose too much of that time spent in airports etc. we decided we’d stay in Korea and that we’d go to Jeju Island with our bikes.

The bikes we had at the time were far from touring bikes.  We got them free when we signed up to a smart phone contract when we first arrived in Korea,  but we weren’t put off! We didn’t have panniers or anything like that and to be honest, I’m not sure if they even crossed our minds.  We just put what we thought we’d need into our rucksacks and off we went!

Our free bikes, plus 5kg of rice and 30 toilet rolls! What else would you expect when signing a new phone contract!!

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!

Two more gifts and a postcard from home!

Today I got too more gifts from my students, an iced white coffee and a freshly baked baguette, which I've added to my 'A List' tab.  The coffee arrived just before class and just as I had been debating whether or not to go and get one to perk me up a little....no need!  The baguette came later, before the start of my second (and last) class of the day, and sat on my desk teasing me for the rest of the class.  As soon as the class was over and I was safely behind closed doors again, I devoured it!

This evening I went in search of some other waygooks in this little town.  I'd gotten wind of a book club that was due to meet tonight so I took myself off to that.  Everyone was very friendly, we made plans to meet once a month but the best part of the evening was this coffee....

Such a cute little bear!

Then, too top it all off, there was a postcard from home in my postbox when I got back, which means that I successfully translated my address from Korean into English!

Successfully received postcard, unsuccessfully uploaded and hence on its side!

All in all...not a bad Tuesday, and only three more classes to go until the weekend....I definitely have one of the world's best jobs!