2016

Well it is the early afternoon of New Year's Eve, and I am still alive *knock on wood* so I am doing better than a lot of people this year. I am not from, or reside in, one of the country's that chose economic or social suicide this year (U.K/U.S.A) so that is nice too.

So how was 2016?

Mixed.

I started the year with Yen in Saigon. We were there a few days before going back to Manila, and then separating (a common theme this year) with her going to her parents place and me going to mine. I went home to visit family and friends and get a new passport. It was a rough time because I still wasn't sure where I was going or what I was doing. I had assumed I would be starting at a university in March, and when that didn't happen I started looking for work for August. However, I could not go six months without work and so ended up as a supplicant at Moonkkang from April to July. Back at a hagwon...... great. But even before I left Vancouver I had scheduled an interview with a Canadian company in Guangxi. So within a few days of being back at Moonkkang I had my university job, in China, starting in September. Yen was still in the Philippines. I went to visit in June and then to stay for a month in August, where we decided to finally get hitched. We started the paperwork for her visa here, and will finish it in January 2017, before having a party for it in August. Then In September I came here, with Yen still in Manila. Great, together seven weeks this year.

Because of that fact 2016 was not as good as 2015 and certainly not as good as 2014. However, in career development it was huge. I work for a Chinese/Canadian joint venture, and work at a university. Also, being a Chinese university I am working with people from all over the world, as opposed to in Korea where I'd be working with all my old hagwon buddies. Korean hiring policies really limit new blood, so in that respect alone, coming to China has really opened my eyes to opportunities here, in Vietnam, in Malaysia, in Canada, in the Gulf etc. I have also met a bunch of new people who I really like and who plan to be here a few years as well. I was worried about losing my whole social circle that I had spent years developing in Daegu. However, the fact that everyone I went to Bham with or worked with were either leaving for Vietnam or China, home, or at least to Seoul, I was losing that network anyway. So landing here with good people about has been nice. Plus on Dec 31st it is 20 degrees outside. That is a nice change.

If I could just get Yen here I could start getting excited about the future.

So a year that started very uncertain has finished strong, and when Yen gets here next year will be complete. I think 2017 will be a more low key year, a bit like 2014 in the sense that it was a year of work before a big change. I need 2-3 years university experience to get some jobs that I really want and can settle in to. I am happy enough here to stay here to get it. I can also... finally... start to really save. School is paid for, and now I can stop using all my savings to pay for Bham and put it in to a savings account. That will be huge, and is actually one of my goals for 2017. Yen and I getting married is the other, and much more important, goal.

A few other notables this year include reconnecting with Paul in Wellington regularly, losing 10kgs while back in Daegu (what else was I going to do), and reconnecting with Tobe in Daegu.

So how does 2017 shape up, well *knock on wood* I hope to be at SCIC through the next academic year. I have a small group of good friends here. Yen should be here by the spring. It will hopefully have none of the uncertainty of 2015 and 2016. So in that sense maybe not as exciting, but hopefully a bit more relaxing.