From left to right: Me, Kiel, Laurie, Woody, Anne-Marie, Alicia and Bill.

The Hitchcock Birds. They were big.

Doug rolling his ball...

Koreans building a snowman

Poor kid, this is her childhood toboganing experience!

Just arrived at the "snow hill"

Toboganing

Today was the warmest day in a week; the sky was clear, the sun shone, there was no freezing wind. So after brunch at Anne-Marie's -- man she invited a lot of people over! -- we drove 20 minuites, into the hills to go toboganing.

Small problem, there wasn't much snow, but no matter we tried anyway. A few Korean families were building snowmen and chucking snow balls at each other, all excited. Even I must admit, it was nice to see snow on the ground again, to hear it crunch under your feet and see stretched white before you. 'Twas perdy.

Before toboganning we hiked up the hill, I saw some ice crystals and big ass scary Hitchcock birds, three deer booting along together. I took lots of pics and post some.

The weekend went by so fast! Tried partying Saturday night but it was a bust. Doug took us to this small party where I didn't know the people and afterward to Agave but not much was going on there and I wasn't feeling it so home by one a.m.

Haven't heard back from the travel agents about my Thailand ticket so I'm thinking that won't be happening; just have to find ways of entertaining myself here on this rock. Doug is all excited because he's going home to Australia for a month the bugger. Woody and Laurie are taking off to the Phillipines, Anne-marie is going to Bali (but not until late February), Jeremy is flying back to Quebec for a visit, and other people are going to Seoul and Japan...basically at least half of everyone I hang out with will be gone. Oh, well, they'll all be jealous when I'm on my one year sabbatical ;) What's two weeks of boredom anyway?

Did I mention I've been going to the pool at the Ramada hotel? It costs 10,000 won each time, a little expensive but worth it, because the pool is big and clean and has huge glass windows from floor to ceiling, filled with the choppy, blue ocean. And after my laps, I go into the "dry Sauna" hut and sweat, reminds me of lying on beach in summer and is super relaxing.

They have a full on sauna (or jimjibang), but I'm not down with entering the nudist colony just yet.

I guess I was tired after snowing it today, because after lunch I crashed for 4 hrs. It's 8pm now, and I just woke up...oops.

Micky D's at 5 a.m.

"Wanna spend New Years Eve with me?", Paul. Tempting, he is pretty cute, dontcha think? But for once I was a good girl. Whoda thunk it.

Erin, me and her boyfriend of 6 years.

Me, Anne-Marie and Lisa.

New Years Eve

Sunrise peak didn't happen, mostly because it was too cold for everyone to stay out in the snow all night long and no one was getting up at 4 am to drive an hour to see the sunrise. Surprise, surprise.

Instead, I went to Erin's house. She cooked a kickass meal with chicken, stuffing and the lot. Kendra, Jay and some other people showed up. Was nice and mellow. I left at 11pm and headed for the Agave. It was busy but not crowded. All the gang was there but the people from Seogwipo stayed down there I think, went to that new restaurant called Gecko's.

I drank Vodka and pinapple juice all night, so I got a little drunk but still okay since I stayed away from the whore shots. ;)

And thank God I did because the New Zealand guy asked me if I wanted to spend New Years "with him", and I had the good sense to politely decline. Even so, everyone was kissing everyone -- on the cheek anyway, at least. Gab and Danilla, ever pesisted trying to get Anne-Marie into a threesome which failed yet again. Lisa and Justin broke up ( a few days before and she was pretty bummed). I worked the crowd, tried to get Joey but failed again. Kissed scottish Tom again (bloody hell), and the New Zealand guy (both very briefly).

At 5 a.m., we found ourselves, yet again at McDonalds. As soon as I stepped out of the taxi I realized I left my purse at the bar. Called the owner but they'd closed. Turns out Dawn picked it up and two days later she dropped it off at my apartment, all things accounted for. Lucky me.

It snowed a lot and we had to wait about 10 full minuites in the cold for a taxi home. Needless to say, spent all of New Year's day in bed "napping". Woke up at 6pm, cleaned and played a game of chess with Doug before retiring for the night.

Today was our first day of classes since November. I lucked out. Teaching from 9am - 12pm and that's it! 3 hours in the morning all this month and I even get to go home! So, I just got back from the gym, replaced my hard drive and bought a blender and it's only 3pm! Whoo hoo!

Think I'll take a nap now and then make some supper. Tried to quit smoking but I've had a few ciggy's, albeit they taste like crap, a result of my one and a half day fast.

Happy New Years everyone!