And a very Happy New Year to you all!

I haven't written for 2 months, time seems to have disappeared very quickly and I am already in my 4th month of teaching in South Korea. November was lots of fun as not only did I celebrate my 27th birthday but I also had a visit from an ex chateau colleague Katie. She was my traveling buddy in New Zealand but we hadn't seen each other since so we had a lot to catch up on. I partied in true Korean style on my birthday, Korean restaurant, ate birthday cake with chopsticks and Karaoke till the early hours in one of Korea's many singing rooms. We also saw Mamma Mia the musical, in Korean which was fantastic! They had the English translation on a screen to the side of the stage so wasn't hard to follow, plus I knew the story anyway having seen the film. It's definitely worth a trip to the west end if you get the chance though!

December was also a busy month, not only with Christmas but I had the opportunity to go skiing over one weekend. Was good to gets those skis back on again but not so good having to share the pistes with so many low level snow boarders. Skiers were a bit in the minority! One thing Korea does that I've never seen Europe is night skiing until 4am….they actually only close for about 2hrs a day (4am - 6am) I shouldn't be surprised as they are slightly crazy out here! My hostel was at the bottom on the slopes and I woke up at about 3am to still see a lot of people skiing outside. Not sure it would be my thing really though as I am sure it was freezing.

Christmas was naturally a bit different from at home. I met Becky and some of our friends at one of the local "Foreigner Food" restaurant/bars for a turkey dinner on Christmas Eve. There were a lot of people and we had a Secret Santa and dancing after our meal. I spent the night at Becky's and woke up to open presents with her and her Mum. (Charlie joined us later in the day as she had to work till late on Christmas Eve unfortunately.) There were 10 if us all together at Becky's flat on Christmas Day. We did another secret Santa and played some other games, like pass the parcel and team games. A fun one we invented involved having to open and eat a Clementine while wearing a hat, scarf and gloves and only using chopsticks. Turned out Becky's Mum and Charlie were experts at this! We had totally untraditional selection of food. Starting with chocolate fondue, followed by chicken and rice followed by bangers and mash. Sounds weird but was a good team effort and really yummyJ. It was a really fun day!

I surprised my family on Christmas day by informing them I would be coming home for 10 days over New Year. They were really happy to have me back for a few days and I had a really good time. I spent my first day with Abbie, Charlie, and my boss's son, Nicky, who came with us to see some of Europe. We had a pub lunch in Canterbury and went to the Cathedral. Abbie had the shock of her life when she saw us at her front door! Next stop was Stubbington, Charlie and Nicky stayed the night so my parents had their first meeting with a Korean. I spent the rest of my time at home, catching up with friends, had New Years eve at one of my local pubs, went shopping with Mum. It was really good and it didn't feel like it went by too quickly. My last day was in Newbury with my grandparents, we all went over for lunch. My Grandparents then gave me a lift back to Heathrow as Charlie stayed an extra week with Nicky to go to various other places in Europe.

I am now back in the swing of things in Korea. I started Korean lessons this weekend which was good. It will take a long time to get anywhere near good but it's a working progress. Please keep in touch with any news wherever you are!

Take Care

Gaelle xxx