2k13 - Yearly review!

So it's nearly the end of 2k13.... my catchphrase can no longer be used! It's crazy to think that I have spent this full year in Korea....and even scarier to think that I won't be spending the next full year here...

When I look at how fast this year has gone.... the next few months are going to FLY by, and as excited I am about coming home, I'm also not fully ready for all this to end... so if the next few months could go nice and slowlyyyy that would be greaaat!

But yeah, let's review 2kthirteeeeen!

 January

The first two weeks of January were spent doing our Winter Camp. ( Around the world theme)
I then said bye bye to cold Korea and said Hello to The Philippines where we spent our time in Boracay and El Nido, eating, drinking cocktails and watching Velvet TV!

What's a chicken gonna do with all that money?

 February

Remember that time you nearly killed Courtney in El Nido in the dodgiest hospital EVER - sorry about that...
After someone reluctantly boarding the plane back to Korea we needed a big girls night to help lift our spirits.
We also headed to Herb Hillz and had some fun sledding into tractors and concrete walls...

March

St Patrick's Day in Busan <3
Annnnd the weather started to improve..which meant that it was time for the festivals to start, we kicked off with Holi Hai and the Crab Festival

April

The festivals continued; Green Tea festival, Strawberry Festival and a Sea Parting Festival!
I also headed to my very first baseball game!
I had a St George's Day party at my house with Victoria Sponge cakes, scones and cucumber sandwiches!
I also ran my first 10km race!

May

We started off the month my going paragliding!
The next weekend we did a barefoot 'run' which turned into a walk - with a cocktail at every km!
We spent a long weekend in Geoje for  Buddah's birthday.

June

I had four days off work - so we popped to Tokyoooo!
My school transfer was REJECTEDDDD
The rest of the month was filled by going on a Noodle Tour, celebrating Canada Day in Busan and visiting Pohany with Finney!

July

This is when we started to realise that a lot of our friends would soon be abandoning us!
 So it was filled with 'the end is coming' night outs, Seoul, Busan and lazy afternoons tanning by the pool!
 We went to see Cirque du Soleil Michael Jackson Style, did a Scavenger Hunt around Daegu and Mudfest 2k13 happened!

August

This month was split between tearful goodbyes and excitement over my two friends from home coming to visit.
We headed to Seoul, Busan and Jeju. I took them to a Apsan, a baseball game and gogo's.

September

A few more heart breaking goodbyes. I'm looking at you, Meabh & Michelle and Linh & Emily!!
 We then went to our first weekend of the new intake people - to Korea Burn. WHAT A MAJOR FAIL!
I had theeeee best time there last year - but drowning in my tent didn't live up to the same level as last year.... 2012 - 1 2013 - 0
But I made it to Inje to go Bungee jumping this year yay!  2012 - 1 2013 - 1

October

We spent Halloween in Busan and watched the fireworks! <3
I also spent 4 days in Japan, checked out Universal Studios and the sights and sounds of Osaka.

November

We checked out the Autumn colours at Seoraksan!
Celebrated Thanksgiving and went on a skiing trip!

December

December has been filled with festivities and Christmas nights in...and wine...lots of wine!
Also...... WE NOW HAVE A HNM IN DAEGU....YEAH YEAH YEAH!


Let's make 2014 a good one... I'm not ready to throw 2k14 around just yet! <3

November - Surprise Birthday Parties, Seoroksan and Snowboarding! (1 year 3 months)

Where oh where did November go?!! Is it seriously December alreaaddyy?!?! It'll be Christmas before we even know it <3

The month of surprise birthday parties

Ryan kicked us all off with his 25th Birthday at a very nice Italian Restaurant by Suesong Lake! We all got dressed up then headed downtown for a few drinks before heading to Seoraksan at 5am the next day....... unless you're like me and decide that staying drinking is the best option....

Next on the birthday list - Roger. We headed to TGIF and hid in a room with a glass door..... this was a bit less of a surprise haha....... but we all managed to eat a good amount of food (even if I maybe had to wait 100 hours for my Quesidila!) Thennnn downtown followed by some norebang....which somehow ended in a beer fight....moral of the story...don't fall asleep in a Norebang!

Seoraksan

So after staying up most of the night, I headed to Seoraksan in a slightly still drunk still half asleep kinda way..... and I was looking forward to sleeping for the 6 hour journey! Howeverrrr that was not on our agenda....some people wanted to stay up partying on the bus from 8am. Wahhhh! But whatever, I can sleep when I'm dead......... (aka 9pm that evening)

We then had a very nice stroll around the area and took lot's of nice Autumn photos.... we then took the cable car up most of the mountain (yay for being lazy)!

We then got to do the fun(ok, terrifying) part - we got to climb to the peak of the mountain - going up I felt unbeatable - it felt like we were on top of the world, literally...... but then I hadn't thought about getting down... It turns out I'm not as brave when attempting to climb down a mountain and had to borrow a few peoples hands.... but I made it down...

Next an awesome Braii which was just what I needed, then the party carried on into our room....the 1 hour sleep in over 36 hours then started to hit me..... on minute we were playing Kings cup.....the next minute it was 7am and I was in my bed.....

We then had a COOKED BREAKFAST.....with beans <3 <3 and made our way back to Daegu!

Girls Night

3 hours in a norebang with some interpretive dance moves and Sean Paul!

Thanksgiving(s)

Thanksgiving number 1 was at Buy The Book - the place where we went for Canadian Thanksgiving, as it was as amazing as ever! But you can always do with a second dinner.... so we had another one on actual Thanksgiving!

Snowboarding

We headed to Welli Hilli resort, went for an afternoon and evening snowboard..... I was hoping that I would be at the same level that I was at the end of the last ski season - but I seemed to be back to being new again.... I took some nice falls.....but had an awesome weekend, and standardly didn't wake up for the morning ski the next day!

Other Bit's and Bobs

I made Toffee and Chocolate apples and we had a mini Bonfire Night at GoGo's!

Pizza and film night at Courtneys - which just turned into Pizza and Pizza night <3

What's coming up in December

CHRISTMAS
Tom and Adam's 30th
Lot's of other Birthday's .....INCLUDING MINE WOO!!
SantaCon

It's that time of year again......let's get excited about VACATION!! 50 days to go!

Okkkk so it's maybe still 7 weeks away....... but it's getting cold and we have a long semester ahead with no long weekends so winter vacation planning makes me happy!!

Haha slighhhht exaggeration - but seriously looking forward to some sun!!

I have finally decided that I'm going to spend three weeks in Vietnam. I was originally going to look at going to a few countries to maximise the countries that I have visited in Asia....but then I realised that I really just wanted to chill.....and I got cheap return flights

We now pretty much have our plan sorted as to where we want to go...

11th-15th Hanoi

We will first head to Hanoi where we will visit Halong Bay and Tam Coc.

16th - 18th Hue

We will then take the night train to Hue the former capital of Vietnam. Temples, tombs and palaces await us here! The weather will also be much warmer than the north...yay!

19th - 22nd Hoi An

From Hue  we will then take a 3 hour train ride to Hoi An. Here is our first 'Splash Out' Hotel. We will be staying at Sunrise Hoi An Beach Resort which just looks amazing! We can also check out the My Son ruins from here.

22nd - 24th Da Lat

We will then fly to Da lat - which is described as a mix between Vietnam and The French  Alps so that should be interesting

24th 27th HCMC

We will check out the capital city and spend a 2 day tour of the Mekong Delta

28th - 2nd Mui Ne

This was the most difficult decision of my trip as I had to decide if I wanted to spend my last week going to  Cambodia with my friends or to spend a bit more time in Vietnam. I decided that I was going to want to relax for one more week - so I booked myself in a 4.5 star hotel and will finish my vacation in styleeee!

This one was a little bit pricier than the others, especially as it will be just me in the room. But this is how I feel.....

Sooo yeahhhh,you could say I'm pretty excited!! We have so many things coming up before then so I know it's going to fly by...but right now it seems so far away!!

October - Osaka, House warming and Busan Fireworks (1 year, 2 months)

Osaka

The first school week in October was just a three day week for me so off I went to Osaka! Not everyone was lucky and had to go into school on the Friday..... So yayyy for me! (And Marie)

Yay for me!

 So on the Friday we spent all day at Universal Studios - 9am - 8pm. The park was celebrating Halloween all month, so we could go on the rides at night time and watch an amazing zombie performance!

People visiting the theme park had taking dressing up to the extreme, ahhh Japan :) and I started to get very excited about our Halloween trip (a whole three weeks away).

We ate a LOT of Western styled food and met Hello Kitty so I would say it was a very productive day!

That evening we then went and checked the area close to where we were staying and then chilled back at the hostel.

The next day we decided to try at look at things a bit more Japanese-esque than Univeral studios....

Isshin,Bone temple

Tsūtenkaku 

Osaka Castle

Joypolis

Umeda Sky Building

As you can imagine - this was a super busy day - and we nearllllly didn't have the energy to go out....but of course we did. We headed to Pure nightclub which was 1500 yen all you could drink. We didn't feel like we were getting drunk but the amazing old school music and 'girls only ' sections made up for that! Butttt then as soon as we left to walk home - we all realised we were pretty drunk and make some questionable supermarket purchases! 

House warming 

I had a very delayed Housewarming this month. I headed to Costco to buy some sushi and cookies  (everyone knows that's the best recipe for a party) and everyone came round. Donuts, crisps and beer were shared.

 Then approximately one hour after everyone arrived (can I point out this was 9.15pm on a Saturday night) the police were called to stop the party. I would have understood if we were ridiculously loud (I'm not saying we were quiet...but we were not LOUD) or even if had been an elderly person in my building complaining - but it was a 20's something male....... I can see that you are a fun person to be around.....

But yeah, anyway we moved my roof party to Sugar Joes roof party and continued from there! Before we knew it, it was 2am and then I was playing Beer Pong in Bombay Lounge and thennnn eating KFC.

The day after the party Nina, Paudi, Winnie and Adam came round to chill (eat the food that was left over) and we then had a walk around KNU area. I LOVE living in my new area - the location and vibe is just so much cooler. 

Halloween

We headed to Busan to check out the Fireworks festival which I missed last year due to the rain........and to celebrate Halloween.

I loved seeing the fireworks and the amount of kids / adults and families that wanted photos of us in our costumers was AMAZING. I went as a 'Zip Faced Zombie' and everyone put lots of effort in and I think we all looked pretty cool!

I love that AutoAwesome has given me two heads

Other bits and bobs

I went hiking with school

I carved a pumkin

We won a prize

I finally made some Old el Paso Tacos

What's coming up in November 

A trip to Seoraksan
Saving money for winter vacation......