The Year in Review

For me, 2006 started in Turkey, with Kate, in Taksim square in the middle of Istanbul, surrounded by dozens of turkish flags and portraits of Ataturk, the national hero, ranging in size from a normal poster to the size of a large building, and thousands of Turks wearing Christmas hats (they're a little confused about the difference between chirstmas and new year there). Two months of teaching, studying for my external master's subject and wading through freaky blizzards, Kate and I left Istanbul on the first really warm and sunny day we'd had in months, to spend a few days in Belgrade on our way to our flights back to Aus.
I arrived in Aus the day before uni started, and plunged straight into the heaviest study schedule I had had since about 1998. I spent most of this semester tied to my (new!) laptop, or popping down to Sydney to see Kate, or collecting Kate from their airport when she popped up to see me. Despite our intentions not to spend all our money on airfares, we saw each other at least once a month. On one of her trips up to see me, we delivered my Uncle's car up Gladstone - via Biloela to see Jess, the only primary school friend I was still in contact with, and a morning around Benaraby, where I spent the first 9 years of my life. I hadn:t been back there in about 7 years, so it was interesting to see what was different - and what wasn't! I also managed to catch up with my best friend from my childhood, Kelly, after losing contact about 15 years ago! We were actually in Gladstone to deliver the car to my Uncle and family, who were getting off my parent's boat after a sailing holiday from Brisbane, and took their place for a week of sailing up to Keppel Island and on to Yeppoon, where Kate and I caught a bus to Rockhampton to fly to our respective homes again.
Back in Brisbane, I survived the first on-campus, full-time semester of my Masters in Education (TESOL) at QUT - just - and left just a few hours after handing in my last assignment, flying back north to Hamilton Island to meet my parents again on the boat, this time spending two weeks recovering from the semester and sailing around the Whitsundays, and then up to Townsville. I was back in Brisbane for 4 days or something, before flying to the Denmark, via a free night in a 5 star hotel in Korea, followed by another free night, this time on the floor of Stansted Airport outside London.
In Denmark I met Kate, whose flight arrived about 20 minutes before mine. We met at the luggage carousel, which was nice. We had 4 days in Denmark, attending a fantastic queer festival, before we had to leave to get to the UK in time to start work for Lines language school in Cold Ash - the same summer school I had worked for the previous year. I made such a hit this year with my student blog that I was asked to write an electronic communications program for them next year, and be the teacher in charge of the technological side of english teaching.
Kate and I had planned to spend 6 weeks in the middle east after 4 weeks work in the UK - visiting mainly Tel Aviv, north Israel, Lebanon, then Jordan, Syria and Egypt. Unfortunately, this war broke out between Israel and Lebanon, and it looked like syria would join them, and as that made our incredibly expensive airfares (which we hadn't actually bought yet) not quite worth the much reduced travlling we would be able to do. So we did 6 weeks work instead, and then headed for the much more stable Iberian pensinsular, via a couple of nights in Edinburgh, and spent 4 weeks or so hitchhiking around, in and out of Spain and every country that borders it (France, Andorra, Portugal, Morocco and Gibraltar). I caught up with friends and ex-colleagues all over the place - Stephanie in Edinburgh, Diana in Barcelona, Birgit in Portugal, and the Hebrards in France (the family I stayed with on exchange when I was 16).
After a few days recovering back in London, Kate flew back to Sydney, marking the end of our 18 months together (and, often enough, not together). After another couple of days relaxing on Ralph's couch, I left London for another single night in Korea before going on to Tokyo to start work again. Working for Westgate wasn't exactly hard, but it lacked variety a bit - I saw the same students every day, and taught the same type of lessons, which began to get a little dull by the end.
After Japan, I flew home via Seoul, spending 4 days there, staying in a lovely hostel that felt more like staying in a friend's house, hanging out with a guy from the Domincan Republic, and occasionally seeing one of Seoul's few sights. I also did a trip to the Demilitarized Zone on the border of North Korea, which was fascinating. And I will write something on my travelblog about it soon. Really I will.
I arrived back in Australia after only 6 months away, with the plan of working and Studying here in Brisbane for 6 months. So far it's going well - I've got a job at QUT International College that starts next week. I was interviewed only 3 hours after stepping off my early morning flight from Korea, but due to a great recommendation from one of my lecturers, I was iffered the job on the spot. This has meant that I've been able to have a serious holiday this week, as I don't have to worry about where my next paycheck will come from! In the 8 days since I arrived back I've been such a social butterfly that eaten dinner at home only once, and that day we ordered pizza. I've had rather a lot of lunches out as well, actually!
Christmas was fun - spent at family and friends' houses, and tonight I'm going to a pre-midnight party in New Farm, then the mad partyers can go out in the Valley, while those of us who aren't insane enough to attempt to enter a club on New Year's Eve will move on to Rowan and Klaus's place in the Valley, which I think will become my home away from home! It's their fault for having a home cinema and cable tv...
Here's to next year being as exciting as this one!