Happy (late) New Year!

My New Year's resolution: update this more frequently.

It felt weird this year not ringing in the new year at 241...or drinking Andre. I made do, however, and went to Busan for New Year's. We stayed on Gwangalli Beach because we heard the nightlife was better there. Instead of booking a love motel our group made the decision to splurge on a nice hotel. It was about 55,000 won ($48) per person. New Year's is once a year so why not? Our room also came with Skylounge access to see the sunrise. Koreans take their sunrises seriously, and the New Year's sunrise is a big deal. After the sunrise we headed to Haeundae Beach, the bigger of the two to fly some New Year's kites. That was the most fun thing I have done this year.

While in Busan we saw Avatar in 3D. If you haven't seen it (even in 2D), DO IT! It was a phenomenal movie. I'm contemplating going to Gwangju this weekend to see it on Imax.

At school its winter camp time. 4 classes per day. 8:30-noon. not bad at all. My roster is 25 students but i've only had a full class once. My co-teacher told me to make fun, game oriented lessons for the students, so its more or less a blast. Its so much more lax than regular class and I frequently find myslef doubled over with laughter at some of the things that my students say.

My vacation countdown is at 8 days! One week from tomorrow! I'm so excited. Wendy, who was just in Thailand bought a "First Time: Asia" guidebook and let me borrow it. Its full of things I never would've thought of. Like how big your backpack should be. The backpack has given me the most trouble. Do I invest in a quality backpack or get a really reasonably priced/sized one at the market? The minimum "investment" for a backpack of recommended size that I found was at least 195,000 won. The guidebooks say thats a good price but I'm not ready to spend that kind of money right before vacation. I ended up buying this 52 liter monstrosity (its really not that bad) for 48,000 won. Julie has the same kind and it has survived 3 10 day trips around Asia so I think it'll be ok.

As for booking and such, I booked a hostel in Hong Kong and Macau. Everywhere else I was told to just get a room on arrival. Both places are a little more expensive than the rest of SE Asia, but I was able to find a deal. 5 nights in Hong Kong cost me 51,000 won and 1 night in Macau cost me 18,000. Not terribly bad.

I feel like I have so much to do between now and next wednesday night! (I'm taking the night bus to Incheon Airport). Good thing I have the 7th and 8th off!