Ch ch ch ch Changes

It has been more than a month since my last post and what a month it has been. Jisan was one of the craziest weekends of my life (who knew that Suede were still so good?) and the bunch of us that went down did a lot of drinking, laughing, and shouting of random obscenities. What could be better? The week that followed was a lot of packing and tying up of loose ends. It was horrible leaving Korea. I loved it there and I have left a lot behind. I want to sit down and write about it properly someday, but I can say for sure that it'll be a long time before I'm 'over' Korea. Thankfully, I'm not too far away...

From Korea it was Barcelona for a major bout of reunions. Charlene and her boyfriend, Stephen, surprised me by showing up on the Friday night and we had a great few days with Rachel, who kindly put us up at her place! There was a bit of a Seoul reunion too, with Kevin, Jo, Jim, and Rhiannon all in town. Way too much to write now at the end of a long day, but it was epic. Barcelona is a must if you're looking for a quirky, laid-back and affordable European city to kill a bit of time in.

Home was great but there just wasn't enough time to fit everything in. Lisa was an angel helping me out with visa issues and the like in Dublin before I surprised Mum and Dad with an unannounced visit that I think my Ma might still be recovering from! Roisin's wedding in Sligo was absolutely brilliant. Definitely made me less cynical about the whole event and I got to catch up with a few old faces, most notably Kirsta who is headed back to Korea for a killer job this year herself. Roisin is one of those special people you meet once in a while and, on the evidence of that weekend, she likes to surround herself with more of the same. The only down side was that Annie didn't make it over. She was in Africa at some meeting. Come on Winterface, sort it out!

Other highlights from home were the long drives around Inishowen, beers with old friends, and an epic late-night jam with the one and only Sean Furey. You can't beat being home. Soon enough though, it was time to hit the road again and pack the bags for China. I haven't been here for two weeks yet but I simply don't know where to start in telling you all about the place, the job, the people, the quirks, the stories... Considering the fact that I've been up since 6am, it's 9:35pm now, and I have it all to do again tomorrow, perhaps it'd be better to leave it for another day. I just wanted to check in, say hi, and get the old blog back in action.

It's Always Sunny When You Study

Think about it: whenever you cast your mind back to writing essays/getting ready for exams, how's the weather outside? I don't care if you're from Ireland, Canada, Korea, or wherever, I'll bet it was sunny - in your mind at least. I've been trawling through the research methods chapter of my dissertation today and, you've guessed it, the weather is beautiful outside. Children are playing in the river six floors down, people are texting me telling me to come join them for outdoor beers/cinco de mayo/whatever fun they're engaged in, having a life whilst I'm cooped up wrestling with this monster! So here I am, giving myself a bit of a break, thinking back to better times not that long ago.

Only a couple of weeks ago I was on holiday in Singapore and Malaysia with a girl from work called Christine. It was a really good trip especially because it was full of 'firsts'; my first time snorkeling, my first night safari, my first time riding a scooter, first time having my ears candled, first time having a tour of a Mosque, first time visiting a rubber plantation, and my first time being robbed on holiday... I'm not going to bore you with the details of everything we saw/did, but it was a great trip and I would recommend Malaysia to anyone. It's not the cheapest destination in the vicinity, but we met so many nice people, spent time on a beautiful beach which we had pretty much all to ourselves, experienced the beauty of Melaka, and the humdrum of Kuala Lumpur. Singapore was... just ok. I think you have to go just for the experience (and to hear the fusion of English, Malay and Cantonese), but it's a very plastic place with so many tourist traps and gimmicks; none more than the 'night safari' offered at the Singapore Zoo. We had a good time, but we made the right decision in only staying for three days.

A huge part of travelling is who you travel with, and I've certainly had my problems in that respect in the past. Considering the amount of times people have pissed me off on holiday, the safe bet is that it's me who's just bad at travelling with people. Funnily enough, even though I have only been working with Christine since March and we are very different people, we actually bounced off each other really well. She is very similar to me in that she wants to keep active and see plenty without going overboard and turning the trip into... a job! We did have a few drinks pretty much every day that we were away, but it was all pretty civilized - most of the time! I still haven't uploaded my pictures (which are pretty much all of Christine, as hers are pretty much all of me!) but, with this dissertation hanging over my head, I'm sure to use it as a delaying tactic sooner or later.

It looks as though my next holiday will be with the family in Barcelona in August. I had been hoping to get over there anyhow because Kev and Jo are working there at the moment and my sister, Rachel, will be there too; so this is just perfect. It'll be our first family trip together since... I actually can't even remember! Speaking of family, my sister Charlene is now officially a movie star! Ok, not quite, but she has got her first film role since graduating from LAMDA last year. It has taken a bit longer than she would have hoped, but it's a start, and no-one has a better temperament to handle what could be a bumpy road ahead than Charlene. Emma and Rachel are both nearing the end of exam periods at the moment and I am, as always, extremely proud of the lot of them.

Time to get back to the grindstone. I hope you're all having a good day be it enjoying the sunshine in Korea, voting for AV in the UK (don't tell me you can't understand it...), reacquainting yourself with our staple diet of rain in Ireland, or eating Skippy in Oz. You know who you are...