Friday, January 25, 2008

The end of a long week

This week has been horrendously tiring; even though we're not always DOING things, the cold weather and long days have been taking it out of us somewhat. We considered a renegotiation of hours again, but the boss is never in, always stressed, and difficult to get hold of. We'll see.

Today wasn't so bad though. For one, it was Friday. That means, for those of you unsure of your days of the week, it's Saturday tomorrow. And THAT means: no school tomorrow. Or the day after that. So maybe with that in mind there wasn't the stress of, "Eugh">, the week STILL isn't over," because it was. W00t.

So.
* Lauren and I both made animal puppets which induced much animal sound making. You know Korean people say mung mung mung for a dog, and nyaong for a cat?

* I spent the afternoon making several versions of "Grandma's House" which I'll get the kids to make on Monday. It's exciting - you open the door and there's Grandma with all her stuff.

* Olive, our Korean co-teacher/babysitter, made a duck mask, and modelled it beautifully. See the picture.

* It was one of the other teacher's birthdays today, so we had real Domino's pizza. Made a change from sloppy Korean style kimchi pizza. And we ate with our hands; not chopsticks and a spoon!

* We witnessed some major dodgy advertising by a couple with clown faces and crazy costumes. The picture just doesn't do it justice.

* Lauren and I headed to Can More to swing in the swing chairs and cosy up with some fruit, yoghurt and cornflakes. Ah, with a side dish of toast and cream. Bit of a couples paradise this one.

A comparatively fun day, but I'm definitely running on overdrive now. Been waking up every day this week without fail having emerged from one bizarre dream or another. Something to do with sleep cycles or whatever; perhaps my alarm is set for that particular hour where I'm in the dreaming stage. I'm not expert, but it might be nice to sleep through them tomorrow and wake up not remembering what my subconscious has managed to dream up for me. Ha ha.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Snacks

떡볶이, or dukboki, is a common snack often found sold in street stalls. Its main ingredient is duk - chewy rice cake - which is cooked in a spicy hot sauce. Other things might be added - here the dukboki was mixed with some Korean fish cake. It's really popular, and pleasant enough, though I'm not sure I'm an avid fan.


This is 순대, or soondae. It consists of a mixture of noodles and unidentified meat, rolled into sausage skins. It looks and sounds hideous, but surprisingly tasty - rather like a good sausage.


Fro-yo has taken off big style in Korea. Advertised as being real, non-fat natural yoghurt, it's delicious AND healthy. Red Mango is a big fro-yo chain that has made its way to the US, but dozens of other frozen yoghurt cafes have sprung up and litter the streets rivalling the supermarkets and noraebangs. OK, that's a *little* over the top. But there's plenty to be found.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

It's snowing...

...which is wonderful underfoot when the sun has failed to peak through the great cloud of Seoul smog and the settled snow crunches satisfyingly beneath you. Unfortunately when the sun comes out at midday the snow melts rendering the pure white roads a dull sludge resulting in wet socks and a worn-off novelty.

The first two days of teaching have gone reasonably smoothly for me. Vast knowledge differences between the children have become apparent, with some having been taught some English at home while others not having much of an aptitude for much of anything. Considering, these differences are to be anticipated.

The trouble lies in attempting to devise a lesson plan that enables everyone to benefit from the teaching regardless of ability. I've tried to incorporate some kind of colouring/cutting/sticking to occupy the kids in each lesson. This gives me the opportunity to go round and gauge some of the levels of the individuals, but this then only highlights the split between the children. It is nice that we have free reign over what we teach - at least this way if we want to, we can completely cater to the children's needs and weak spots; it's just finding out what they already know which will take some time.

Having a Korean teacher in the classroom has proved advantageous so far. Since the spoken levels of the children are so limited, to ban Korean from the classroom altogether would almost certainly result in increased timidness, low self esteem, or, at best, a silent room. It is only natural for the kids to speak in their mother tongue, helping each other out with the work presented to them or asking their teacher surreptitiously for instructions.

I have one qualm at present, however. I have been particularly irritated by one of my co-teachers; I think she might feel a little over protective over her class and doesn't like the idea of sharing her kids with me. Thus she's been rather trying to take over my English lessons by repeating words I've taught in Korean, or answering my questions in advance of the children. I feel I have no authority in this class due to her insistent Korean speaking. Obviously I have to nip this problem in the bud but tact has never been my strong point, especially in a foreign language...

Pictured: the view of the playground from the teachers room

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Sweeney Todd

Been making my way through the 'romance' films on MegaTV. In the last few days have seen Because I Said So, The Notebook, Laws of Attraction and If Only. A splendid use of my time, I'm sure. Contemplating love, life, and all that.

But this evening we headed to the Nowon Lotte Cinema for the big screen version of Sweeney Todd. Despite the rather twisted storyline, this has got to be Tim Burton at his most wacky and Johnny Depp at his most brilliant - equal to many of his other works. So refreshing to get a talented young actor in, too; Ed Sanders is brilliantly cast, though great things come expectedly from Bonham Carter, Rickman and the rest.

Perfectly dark, creepy and disturbing - picturing London at its most atmospheric - I revelled in this new masterpiece.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Introductions

There are six classes in this kindergarten, each with approximately 25 children. It has been split so that Lauren will teach the five and six year olds (they are Korean ages, so since we've just reached the new year it's safe to knock off two years to get to the familiar aging system) and I will teach the seven year olds. I think this works well for both of us; Lauren has been dying to teach some really little ones since she's not yet had the chance, while at our last school my five year old class was my least favourite (perhaps bar that bunch of 13 year old boys) since I find them just *too* small.

Anyway, Lauren and I went into each of the six classes today, introduced ourselves and attempted to gauge the levels of their English. Although some of them might not be letting on their proficiency due to timidity, we got the general impression of "low". In a way, this might make lesson planning easier since if we assume no knowledge, at least we can be sure they are getting a full English education.

The children will have their regular Korean lessons while we will flit in between them giving them a 50 minute English session a day. The Korean teacher will be present in the room while we teach which we initially thought might be a hindrance; Lauren had bad experiences at that other Korean kinder she worked at with the Korean teacher butting in and answering the questions for the children -- defeating the object of the lesson. However, with 25 total non-English speaking children, having a Korean teacher will no doubt be beneficial
for class control, and the teachers have also been informed that there will only be English spoken in the English lessons -- so maybe the less able English speaking teachers will pick up a thing or two, too, lol.

It was good meeting all the other kindergarten teachers today too; there was much more of an atmosphere in the staff room (what with there being other people there), and although we might feel as though we're raining on their parade a little, they all seem like nice girls (yep, another difference between a hagwon and a kindy - no men) so hopefully it'll end up being a nice place to work.

Obviously I'm feeling a little more positive about the whole thing today; still not dead impressed at having to work til 6 but it's marvelous what a little human interaction can do for ones morale. :D

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Revisiting the past

Was both frustrating and amusing to watch the Korean teachers from the kindergarten ransacking our old school for all the books/resources they could gather together, while we watched in the background shaking our heads in full knowledge we would not be using half of the things they were grabbing.

From a personal point of view it was very strange to be visiting the school again. Even though we were only there for a month, this was where we first got settled in Korea and to go back there was almost like going back home. Or maybe putting on a smelly - yet familiar - old sock. Either way, it was surreal seeing my handwriting still on the white board in my old classroom, seeing Greg's Batman mask he made for Halloween, seeing Alun's name written on an old post-it. And yet the place was turned upside down; all the TV screens had (naturally) been taken away, the teacher's room was a bundle of papers and scraps from the free-for-all at the end of term, and there was mould growing on some of the food that had just been left to lie out in the dining room. It's like we all got up and left without a second thought. Actually on second thoughts, that's what did happen. (Left: post-bombed ex-teacher's room)

I had a brief word with the kindergarten headteacher about our working hours, though it seems that she's not keen to let us off mid-afternoon as we'd originally "agreed". Although many advertised jobs tend to finish late, it's definitely the principle of the agreement that frustrates me rather than the hours themselves. Having said this, we are currently working a 45 hour week, which to me is pretty unacceptable for a gap year job. Still, she knows how I feel about it and is supposedly working around letting us off early some d
ays of the week once the new school year starts, but for now it's 9-6 all the way.

On a different note, Lauren and I headed into Itaewon to the 3 Alleys Pub for the Thursday night pub quiz. Having the first round as identifying "famous" aeroplanes, we didn't hold high hopes for our score, however we got approached by several old men (definitely a bit of an old man's bar this one) with their "witty" yet nonetheless amusing banter. Was great to have a proper English (or American) meal and not to feel obliged to buy food with our drinks; felt like I was right back at home, though not necessarily in a good way ;) (Right: the bar of the 3 Alleys Pub)

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

New job

It seems an absolute age since I blogged about work...just been filling my posts with details of my life as a sight-seer. I suppose that might have something to do with the fact that I've been out of work for over a month, thus the shock of getting back into a routine is hitting me let alone writing about it.

Except so far, it's not a routine. This week we've so far spent our time printing out worksheets and flashcards, laminating and cutting out, thereby developing some minor strain of RSI from scissor overuse. Yesterday we ventured into town to choose some storybooks, only to find that our boss had gone out and bought some without consulting us. Tomorrow we're raiding our old school to see what we can salvage from the closing aftermath and teaching an informal storytelling class to a bunch of keen after-schoolers.

The fact that we're introducing this new English program into this Korean kindergarten is a mixed blessing. It's good that we don't need to take on routines that we don't like or teach dull/inappropriate books. We were assured that we would have full say over the curriculum, choose all the books and decide on our teaching hours.

However with the "Korean way" that we are unfortunately getting all too familiar with, things aren't quite turning out exactly the way they were presented to us. The real problem is that our boss isn't always in school, and when she isn't she's generally elsewhere being incredibly busy. It's therefore often difficult to get hold of her, and her English isn't perfect so communication isn't perfect anyway.

For instance, even though our teaching hours are at a maximum of 30 hours a week (which we aren't really supposed to be teaching all of anyway with regards to our negotiations) we've been told that we have to be in school from 9 to 6 preparing. I'm particularly frustrated about this since the main proviso for us working here (opposed to, say, that school with the 2 Ronnies which we ran away from) was that the working hours would be short, potentially finishing work at 3.30 or around abouts. I think if we talk to our boss - she's a nice lady with a lot on her plate - she'll understand, but for now wires have been crossed and this is the situation we are in.

Also, since the school year starts in March, we have four weeks now where we are essentially running a trial period, just giving three lessons each a day before the two week school holiday where we will be preparing for the following year. Although this is reasonably unstructured, it's pretty cushy to be honest...as long as we don't have to be hanging around all day until 6pm!

Apart from my qualms about the working hours, at the moment we're just chilling out with the laminator and drinking tea; Lunar New Years is coming up at the beginning of February where we'll only work a 2-day week; and then we have those two weeks to do more laminating when it's the school holiday.

So all in all the deal isn't bad - I'm not particularly looking to be an excellent teacher, in fact I've rather condemned the job to a money-making means rather than my reason for existence. It's a little sad that it might not be the dream job we'd searched for, but as long as we put up with the fact that things are going to be pretty disorganised for a while, it's not high stress by any means and at least it brings the money in.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Dead Sea scrolls

Having been to the Dead Sea this summer, it was disappointing to find that that the scrolls were then on exhibition elsewhere in the world.

Now in Korea, various billboards informed us that they are currently on display somewhere in Seoul, but they took us by pleasant surprise as we went for a unassuming stroll around the War Museum to find that this was the location of their exhibition.

The display was impressive, filled with video explanations, dramatic lighting and thunderstorm sound effects depicting the excavation of the scrolls, information about various Biblical sites, relics from the ancient Middle East and stories of the life of Jesus.

Disappointingly, this was all in Korean, so regardless of the thoughtful layout, we were not to benefit from it.

We came across a fair number of Western looking people around the museum, so the museum is clearly a spot on the tourist route. One would therefore assume that there might be some kind of English explanation, especially since the display has most probably seen a good number of English speaking countries, not to mention the entrance charge for the viewing.

Still, good to have seen them, even if my knowledge of the content/context is a little hazy. One mustn't complain *too* much; after all, we are in Korea...

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Gyeongju: the ancient capital of Korea

Tiring of the busy streets of Seoul, the lack of direction and the days filled with watching films (as relaxing and entertaining as that might be), Lauren and I decided to take a mini-break out of the capital. Flicking through the guidebooks we decided on Gyeongju - as described by the title of this entry, the ancient capital of Korea.

On the four and a half hour journey down south in the comfortable plush seats equipped with foldaway table and foot rest in a somewhat dated style, I took the opportunity to read up on this cultural haven we were about to encounter. Gyeongju was the city that allowed the Silla kingdom to flourish and bring together a united Korea back in the 7th century. It had a succession of 56 kings over three centuries before internal corruption and external forces brought about its decline. The sights that we were to explore are tributes and relics of this time of affluence and power.

As we stepped out of the train station we were immediately presented with images of Gwani and Geumi – the characters of Gyeongju. Of course, we were still in Korea; city of culture or not, there is apparently no escaping the excuse for the cute. We spent the first night in downtown, meandering through the handful of streets adorned with neon signs, bars, cafes and restaurants before retreating a couple of streets over to the dimly lit back alley where our hotel was situated.

Gyeongju is split into four areas: downtown, the Bomun lake resort, Bulguksa (holding the main temple of Gyeongju) and Namsan (the mountainous region).

We spent the first day enjoying the crisp air walking through parks filled with tombs (see right) – large mounds not dissimilar in function to the Egyptian pyramids; magpies – the city bird of Gyeongju; and oblivious exercising elderly Koreans. We gazed at the findings in the National Museum, including articles found at the bottom of Anapji Pond – a beautiful garden created to represent utopia: constructed so that at no point is one able to view the pond in its entirety; and the Emille Bell – which a tour guide might tell you can be heard to a 3km radius if only hit lightly with a fist. We looked upon with mild disinterest at the Cheomseongdae Observatory – allegedly the oldest astrological observatory in East Asia, built with 366 bricks to represent each day of the year. Obviously their years were different back then.

Equipped only with a tourist not-to-scale map, we embarked upon walking to the Bomun lake resort. We were not, however, prepared for the 6km walk along the highway with nothing in front of us but more road – not making for a particularly inspiring walk. We eventually caught a bus for the final kilometre which rode us by the largest watermill in Korea, though with a 13m diameter it wasn’t that impressive. What excited us more was handling Walther PPKs (yes, real ones) at the local shooting range and practising our target shooting. Even better, we got to keep our paper targets as proof of our proficiency, or, in my case incompetence; I think I will have to forgo that career as a secret agent for now.

Clearly an area developed for tourism, with no tourists around but a handful of mothers with children on rented plastic tricycles, we decided to move on (by bus) to the Bulguksa region. Once we’d settled into our hostel – in which we decided we were the only guests – we wandered around the small grid of restaurants and entertainment establishments looking for somewhere to eat.

Considering the choice available to us, we felt a distinct eeriness as we barely crossed another human being on our scout. The term ghost town sprung to mind, almost as though the neon signs were flashing due to bulb failure and a stray cat might crossed our paths looking for scraps. Naturally since we’d chosen to visit in the time furthest away from peak season, we were not expecting huge numbers of tourists accompanying us through the sights. In fact this rather worked to our advantage, not having to battle through crowds, queues and groups of noisy tour buses. However the fact that we’d read that the area gets swamped in peak season implied we might cross someone, but alas, no such luck. Despite the lack of tourists, the restaurants still appeared to be ‘open’ with the owners sitting around watching TV on the off chance someone might walk in, although whether they expected to receive business or not is debatable. (Left: the empty streets of Bulguksa as the day comes to an end)

We suspected that the restaurant that we eventually chose might not have seen customers for a few weeks and hoped that the inflated tourist menu might come down a notch in view of this, but to our dismay the stated prices stood. Disconcertingly an elderly lady sat at an adjacent table and watched us eat. Her glazed look, stooped back and walking stick made me wonder whether she was indeed focusing on us, but when she came round afterwards and pointed at the leftover rice it suggested that perhaps this was her intention – to stare.


In Bulguksa temple the next morning we did come across a number of other tourists which rather begged the question of where they’d all been the night before. Regarding the temple, it was interesting to wander around and see various Buddhist monks performing their daily meditations, unfazed by the number of onlookers. From here we did the 3km hike up the side of a mountain to reach the Seokgaram Grotto: a large Buddha statue in a small temple shaped hut. It was an impressive sight but knowing little about it, it seemed like we were intruding on some kind of religious pilgrimage as other Koreans bowed down to the Buddha while we looked on, forbidden to take photographs. Still, I’m sure it’s a different story in the summer.

We arranged a taxi tour to other places around this area inaccessible by public transport. We were taken to Golgulsa Temple where the main attraction was a large Buddha statue carved out of the side of a rock – reached by a series of upward slopes and a set of poorly carved steps. Again, it felt as though only the particularly religious and diehard tourists would make the effort of the climb, yet the engraving was pretty amazing. We moved onto King Munmu’s underwater tomb, though this was just an excuse to see the beach as the ‘sight’ was just a pile of rocks out to sea. Still, we breathed in the sea air and bought some dried squid from one of the various sellers along the shore. (Right: fresh squid hanging to dry)

On the way back into downtown the bus driver of the bus we’d waited patiently for decided he was an ex-rally driver, jumped a red light and smacked into the back of a truck. Luckily no one was hurt – despite the old man at the front picking out shards of glass from his clothing – but the bus took a pretty large beating. No one seemed particularly disturbed by the incident and we all just piled on the next bus to come along.

Our final visit of the day, and indeed the trip, was a short ride out to the Namsan area where we visited Poseokjeong: an old banquet place now remaining parkland, with a small water channel where people would sit and play drinking games back in the days of the Shilla dynasty. It was pretty, but without knowing the full historical relevance of the place we felt we’d seen enough.


The train journey home was filled with idle chit chat to a couple of elementary school girls, eager to practise their English. We exchanged telephone numbers – all Koreans seem insistent on this ritual upon a five minute chat in the supermarket – and they have dutifully text to inform of their devoted English study. These maniacal Koreans and their devotion to learning, eh?


Today we headed for the Korean War Museum. It had a large section on the various wars of ancient Korea, but the main feature was naturally the Korean War. Here my knowledge on this subject went from minimal to passable, though my interest in guns and tanks is limited and thus my attention waned as the end of the walking tour approached. Still, I am impressed with Korean museums as much effort is put into making the displays fun and attractive, making the information easily accessible. I must endeavour to swot up more on the subject before making the trip up to the North, though...

Photos of Gyeongju

Friday, January 4, 2008

Lauren and Chi-Hé's skiing adventure


Despite apathy towards the 6am start, the cold and the prospect of falling over - a lot - attempting to ski down the slopes of the Jisan Ski Resort without any instruction proved to be far more entertaining than originally considered.

After bombing it down the first time, toppling over several times and taking out three men having a chat in the middle of the slope, things could only get better. By the end of the day we considered ourselves proficient at not falling over, which was excellent. The weather was sky high at 8 degrees all day, and to top it all off the ski rental shop gave us free socks. Doesn't get a whole lot better than that.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Seodaemun Prison

This morning Lauren and I braved the icy winds in attempt to get to the Seodaemun Prison. 

Not knowing much about even why it was there – vague thoughts of the Korean war came to mind – the tour that we were taken on shocked me far more than I believed myself possible of getting. Having had images and films of the holocaust thrust upon me and the rest of the world since an early age, going to say, Auschwitz, was less than a surprise, and although horrifying in any kind of moral sense, the shock value was subdued by prior knowledge of events.

Admittedly the Japanese invasion of Korea is so far removed from Western culture that it is unlikely to be high on any history syllabus, and so I am less surprised to learn that I knew very little about it, save a few hazy recollections of stories I might have heard at home with my grandmother having lived through it. But hearing how Japan refused to take any responsibility for the invasion, let alone the torturing of the political prisoners (of which there were graphic representations) – “comfort women” still rally outside the Japanese embassy every Wednesday to this day to pressurise an apology – made me wonder whether there would even be such a museum in Japan to relay their version of events.

The prison has been moved out of Seoul for practical use, and what remains is a preservation of part of the original buildings used during the invasion. It is a well laid out museum, with several mannequins acting out torture scenes as they would have been done in the torture rooms, representations of cells, torture instruments and “wall coffins” – self explanatory upright boxes, in which Lauren had the (dis)pleasure of being locked in for a minute. There was a video of the testimony of the only two remaining survivors of the prison after Korea was liberated, fully pulling at heartstrings as the final words were, “Japan, apologise”.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Happy New Year!

After a week in the UK suffering some intense jetlag, I arrived back in Korea in time to see the new year in. Since I’d not properly got over the time difference at the other end (indeed my attempts to do so were futile) alongside the fact that my flight this end got in at midday opposed to late at night as it had in England, I was able to get a good proper first nights sleep and eradicate any grumpiness that might potentially have followed.

So for those of you that are following Lauren’s blog in conjunction with this one, (if in fact you are following this blog, and haven’t chanced upon this entry as a one-off), you will be familiar with the notion of MegaTV. Not yet set up in my own apartment, I’ve been taking the opportunity of rekindling my *long lost friendship with Lauren via the means of copious numbers of films – old and new – that are on demand at the press of a button. It is most exciting. Since “live” Korean TV isn’t at the forefront of our list of needs in Korea, having menus upon menus of TV series and films (English and Korean alike) is far more convenient than having to decipher online TV guides and hoping you’ll stumble across
something vaguely worth watching every time you switch on the box. *week

Now I was warned before I left to go to England for Christmas that I might not want to come back again. At the time I thought, “Nah…I’m just going home for a holiday; this is my home now,” but in reality with the inter
mingling feelings of extreme tiredness, festivities (or lack thereof) and the prospect of leaving the boyfriend at home for months on end, I did start to ponder some of those existential concerns that one occasionally admits oneself to.

However, after several days pottering (sub in moping) and taking mid-afternoon naps, on seriously considering getting a “real job” I realised that applications and interviews are not things that I am sprinting to get ahead with – and thus the purpose of the “gap year” became more evident again – and that Ian, my boyfriend, is still studying and thus even if I were to be living in the same country, it would be unlikely we’d see a whole lot of each other anyway.

It is so that I essentially wasted my intended holiday in the UK by partaking in the aforementioned activities, namely moping and napping, contemplating the nature of my future and getting stressed that I barely had any time to enjoy myself. Totally counter-productive, I am aware. Nevertheless, the positive side of these thoughts has meant that I have come out on top; I am now revitalised in mind and body and content with my current position in life, a
nd of course it was lovely to see my friends and family at home. Excellent.

It is at this point that I realise I am somewhat rambling, and brings me on my next consideration: is this blog an excuse for a personal diary, where I recall my thoughts and, god forbid, feelings of my year abroad and potentially beyond – in which case perhaps I should spare the eyes of those that might read for the intended purpose of this place: to merely relay events and observations so that I might save myself from repeating the same story over and over to those genuinely interested, and those with a pretence interest. Regardless, I am indulging the former and it is this realisation that I bring myself to turn to the latter.

Last night Lauren and I had a most enjoyable evening negotiating the crowds of half the city to get to the Bosingak Bell. It was nice to be wrapped up warm in the -5ºC heat, taking in the lights that engulfed the manmade stream in a palatial manner, revelling in the multitudes of Korean couples, friends and families dressed up in matching coloured capes (with ears on the hoods, of course), avoiding the sparks of hundreds of people setting off their own fireworks openly sold on the streets New Year Celebrations Marred by Accidents, and striking up conversation with the excited policemen that had clearly been recruited just for the occasion to appease the raucous crowds.

The atmosphere was magical *gag* as the streets were littered with smiling, rosy cheeks and sounds of “Happy New Year!” that rang as clear as the Bosingak Bell itself. Or maybe that was just to us, since the majority of the crowd was probably speaking in Korean. Oblivious, we lit our heart shaped sparklers sending policemen coughing and forbidding the next round, but won over the hearts of a couple of high school girls, sparkly eyed at the beauty of our gunpowdered delights. Or maybe that was just the reflection in their eyes from the dazzling bright light.

Either way, they were pleased when we gave them our spare ones, which then brought on the cheek of some chavvy Korean girl asking if she could have one too. We didn’t have any left, and er, we weren’t free sparkler venders, *rolls eyes*. Still, she had her fun as some guys came round taking polaroids with regular, un-heart shaped sparklers, glosticks and animal hats to anyone who would give them money. On an initial 400 won asking price we too indulged their trade, but didn’t have the energy to argue when they’d accidently knocked off a nought on the end of his price. We got one of the cameramen at the televised event to take our picture, which became slightly more than a bit weird when we practically got our own photoshoot out of the asking. Still, maybe some nice pictures to follow if he ever emails me back…

And there we have it. A nice evening of dancing and fireworks as the clocks struck midnight, followed by chaos as we were shoved this way and that toward the exit of the mass of people. Luckily someone had decided it was a good idea to run the subway late that night and we got home safely and easily.

So maybe in the spirit of it being the first of the year an’ all, I should come up with some of those resolution-y things that people like to make. Hm.
  1. Be good so Father Christmas might visit next year. Oh wait…
Yep, on second thoughts, that’s getting a little too personal, even for me. Maybe resolution number one should be “Deal with feelings of emotion and refrain from turning to sarcasm to bail you out”. So on that note I bid you goodnight, and a very Happy New Year!