Thanks!

Well happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends (yes, they exist) and I hope you're having a good holiday. I felt a bit sorry for my American co-workers who I had some dodgy Korean canteen dinner with a few hours ago. Not what they would be doing back home, I'd imagine. I've been enjoying everyone's 'thankful' status updates on facebook today, possibly because I'm in a bit of a sentimental mood these days. No particular reason. No particular reason not to either. My classes are all going really well and we're coming to the end of term so I don't have long to go before I'll be back home catching up with friends and family. I'm also really enjoying the musical side of things these days. Dead End Friends is going well for us. Our gigs have been pretty tight and we really had the crowd on our side last time out at FF. Our next gig is on Saturday night at Woodstock in Itaewon. It's at midnight so, although it's late, we hope to have a good crowd. We'll be belting out two sets including four covers we haven't played live before. If you're in the area, it'd be great to have you join us. To be honest, it isn't just gigging that's going well. We are rehearsing well and still getting to know each other and gel as a band. At the minute it's all good craic and we're getting on well. How long before the inevitable handbags I wonder...?

My dissertation is coming along quite well. I have to submit a draft literature review on Tuesday so I'll have to spend at least a portion of the weekend being sensible... Somehow I'm managing to work at it at least a little every day. For any of you out there contemplating doing an MA, or with a dissertation looming, I highly recommend Succeeding With Your Master's Dissertation by John Biggam. I'm reading it alongside my other research and it's really keeping me focused and making clear what's important in attempting to get as high a mark as I possibly can. It helps that the reading itself is pretty interesting and that my teaching schedule isn't taking up too much time. The problem is that I'm not spending enough time studying Korean so I'm just stuck in a rut on that front. Those of you engaged in the banging-head-against-a-brick-wall process that is learning Korean might find this interview with an American fluent Korean-speaker interesting. It could even be a bit of an inspiration! I'm hoping so..

I'm heading into Suyu now to meet Tom for bit of grub so I better sign off. Just wanted to write something as I have been falling out of the habit recently. Hope you're all well and I'll try to write again soon.