Returning to Seoul to pick up my things and cat from Alex the Brit and Blake, I had a few days to kill before returning home on the 19th. This gave me a chance to see some friends one more time before I left and catch up on some rest form the trip. As the week came to an end I got ready and headed to the airport on the 19th, only to realize that I had made a terrible mistake on my flight times and that I had missed my flight. I had been so wrapped up in getting Goah on the plane from Japan to Toronto that I had forgotten about the flight from Korea to Japan. After running around the airport like a mad man for a few hours and having all the flight be too full to change, I had to buy another ticket in order to make it home for Christmas. In retrospect, I could have waited until after Christmas, but I really didn't want to.
Either way I had to change flights, and then deal with getting the cat enrolled on a new flight, which was a pain because they were only taking pets "in cabin", so I had to buy a new carrier for Goah. The new carrier looks like something Paris Hilton
would have, but it did the trick and we got home just fine on the 20th. Though carrying her through the airports and onto the planes was quite an ordeal, as everyone thought I was just a weirdo with a huge pink purse.Home safe and sound, I took a couple days to rest up, because the jet lag coming from east to west is atrocious. Timing was perfect, because everyone was starting to gather for X-mas things, and that allowed me to see all of the family and hand out gifts in one big group instead of trying to make a million trips around town. It was great to see everyone again, and share my stories. Over the Christmas holiday I spent lots of time with the family, and we even had all of the kids and grand kids at Mom and Eds for dinner, which hasn't happened in a long time.
After Christmas past, I went with a group of friends up to Bryan Q's cottage for New Years. Again it was awesome to be around so many of my friends that I hadn't see min so long, and have a chance to hangout, share my stories, and party with them. There was lake hockey, tree chopping, fireworks, and even an incident with a burning electrical blanket that I dealt with when nobody else thought it was an issue. Unfortunately, while I was at the cottage, Goah got sick and had to go to the vets and when I got home to a $600 vet bill, I was not impressed. We aren't sure what happened, but believe she got into the X-mas poinsettias. The result was us having to syringe feed her for a month while she slowly got better, which came in waves f good and bad.
During the month of January I pretty much stayed at home all day, until Gavin would get off work and we would hang out. There wasn't a whole lot going on since I had no job and was just starting to look for new job openings in Korea. On the weekends however, I did head out to do some ice fishing with my dad and uncle Ken. It's really the only time of the year when they have free weekends ,with roofing and everything, and we all really enjoy just getting out and sitting on the ice for the day. With the mild winter we were having, it was tough to get out in January, because the ice wasn't fully formed until near the end. I also had the chance to get out with some friends for lunches and dinners, that I hadn't had a chance to see, such as Genie Bailey and Caitlin; as well as getting up to Adam and Lisa's new place in Waterloo.
In February it was a lot of the same, sitting around during the day, taking care of house chores, and trying not to get too bored. We did some more ice fishing
, and Gavin took me to his friend Dana's cottage over the February 12-15 weekend, for what they call Snow. It is something Dana and her friends do every year, and it is just a gathering in the winter to play some games and have a party up north. It was a great time, and Gav and I definitely brought the party. We played wizard sticks on the first night, which resulted in some hurting stomachs the next morning; and then beer pong the next night. The rest of February was pretty relaxing, with the Superbowl, some hanging out at Mike's, and the exiting of winter.March was a good month. As the weather warmed, I had the chance to get out and do some work with Ken, which was nice because I got to be out of the house and do some hands-on work that I missed while away. Gavin and I got up to Mike's a couple more times, and to Jen Laporte's for a party night. I also, took some time during March to build a new cage for my iguana, Iggy. He had outgrown the one I was given by Rob and Becky a couple years ago. His new cage is built out of the wood from my loft bed that Gavin and I built in University.
I had most of it together by myself, and Gav came over to help me finish it off and move it out of my room and into the space at the bottom of the stairs. Also in March, we started doing some more work on dad's garage, trying to get the ends closed in with a board and batten style, and soffit and fascia around the rest. It really made it look sharp, the more we got into it, and we only had one mishap, when I fell off a ladder and gouged up my arms and legs on the junk around the bottom of the ladder. We thought it was pretty serious at first, but once I realized I didn't break anything, we had a laugh about it and got back to work.As march closed out, April brought with it a slurry of roofing jobs, which I did my best to help with. As time had been moving along, I had found a job that would get me back to Korea, but the start date was still in the works. Not knowing when I was going to be starting was a pain, but it gave me time to help Ken by taking the guys to work and made me a little money f
or when I wold return to Korea. At the start of April, we had a going away party at Gav's after working on dad's garage on the Good Friday before he and Kyle left for their Europe vacation the next week. We decided it would be a good idea to play wizards again,
and had lots of friends over to join. The party got good when we started getting close to wizard status and playing beer bong and other drinking games. It was good to see many of the people that showed up, though I don't remember the end of the night. Russ, Michele, and the kids were down that weekend, so Saturday and Sunday I spent around the house with them to get in as much uncle time as possible. We had a trip to the airport on Sunday before an Easter egg hunt and a family dinner. It was fun to watch the kids run around like we used to at Nan and Gump's every Easter. 
After Easter, and with Gav off to Europe, I spent most of my time working and getting ready to head back to Korea, though I still didn't have an exact return date until the week before they wanted my to be here. I got a call, well actually it was an email, on Friday the 16th asking me to be in Korea the following Friday. I had to tell them that it was too short of notice and we settled on the 27th, which meant I had to leave Canada on the 26th. I spent the rest of my last week, still working during the day and then getting around to see my family and what friends I could at night. On my lat weekend I went to Guelph for Jen L's and Courtney M's double birthday celebration, and had a chance to meet a bunch of their friends that I didn't meet the last time I was there. On the Sunday I came back for brunch with Ash and dad before going home to finish packing for my 7am flight on Monday the 26th. Packed and ready to go, cat and all, Ash, mom, and I went to the airport early Monday to see me off.The plane ride was the same as always long distance rides........long and somewhat boring, given the movie choices this time around. I arrived at 4pm on the 27th, and got to my new school, where I would spend my first week of training by 8pm.
Coming up will be the continuation of my life in Korea. Take care everyone.
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