Writing at the moment seems like such a chore. Hence the recent silence. Apologies. Here is the last installment for 2010! Can you believe this year is disappearing, there is only one day left. Still too much to do before it ends. hmmmmmm. resolutions. yikes.

I am going to be all over the place with this update as I have not been awake for very long and as most of you should know I am not the best morning person. And there is no coffee in this room that I am in. This room is in a hotel in a small poky town called Asan, which is well known for its hot springs and giant spa - the town is built around the spa. A little like Aliwal North no? Anyway 5 of us girls decided that this would be a good get away spot for us to relax on our week off. It is an hour and a half train ride which is super, and we travelled through Korea while it snowed and snowed which made the landscape beautiful and bright. Snow is bright. I didn't bring sunglasses, yesterday was the pits and all that squinting has given me more wrinkles for sure.

It is gorgeous here, remote and snow covered, not to mention the hot springs in our hotel! we sat in a hot pool outside last night and chatted with snow covered rocks and icicles around us seen through the steam coming off the water. I felt a little like we were in Narnia or a secret glade in the Lord of the Rings. If a magical creature had emerged from the rock face I would only have been mildly surprised. Today is a full day at the spa, going to get a scrub and have serious sauna time. I am excited.

Christmas was wonderful here, no snow sadly, but friend filled and delicious. We had to work on Christmas Eve, it was test day for my afternoon students so it was actually chilled despite the test part - which gets finished soon soon and then we eat food and watch movies, so much fun. My one class brought an ice-cream cake for us to eat - which we did, with relish. My last class of the day is always fun and while I was setting up my laptop to watch a movie I saw that a couple of my mates were online, so we skyped home and Nats and Lungz met Jong Yung and Sao Young...they got stage fright though and after a lot of prompting from me to ask questions and answer the ones asked of them, I abandoned the idea and just chatted as though they weren't there. hahahah. that was fun, will try and do it more often so more of you can meet my students. Christmas Eve night was spent at Jamie's apartment, which is a gorgeous double storey place, and we all ate food and sang 90s songs. wonderful.

Christmas day dawned cold and bright. I emerged bundled up and ready to go. Christine and I had plans to meet at the Seoul Arts Centre to view a Picasso exhibition that is on at the moment. Well, I was mistaken, the exhibition we actually wanted is at an entirely different venue many many minutes away from where we were. So we decided to see the Versaille exhibit that is on. My My. It was glorious and a bit opulent for us, we chatted away about the history of France and the texture of the paintings and such interesting things. You know how you can be anywhere and there is an obnoxious American couple talking at what seems like the top of their lungs? Well in Korea that's not just Americans, it's all foreigners. We are loud without meaning to be. So Christine and I were reprimanded by an usher. We blushed and proceeded on stealth mode throughout the rest of the exhibit. Sheesh, it would make me sick being surrounded by so much gold and velvet everyday. Good thing I was born in Africa.

From being shushed we headed over too another area of Seoul and got lost looking for a sushi restaurant that Christine had been too one night. Places look very different at night. So we settled for another sushi place, which was fabulous. With full tummies and smiles on our faces we headed on back to my area and on to Jamie's for Christmas dinner. We stopped on the way and bought Nederburg, strawberries and cherries. We made a big South African entrance and had a merry old time with all the North Americans there. After dinner we had a little dance off in the kitchen and then took the party to a Norae bang - which, as I am sure I have explained before, is a room that you rent that has a big tv in it with 100's of kareoake songs to choose from. We sang the night away. It was rad.

All in all it has been a good festive season so far. Plans for welcoming the New Year are a formal dinner and then Norae Bang!! Or I may head into Seoul and jam it up with Christine. Will let you know which one next year;)

love you all

Z