Seeing as it's going to be a new year here in about... forty-seven minutes, I suppose I should do the traditional thing and reflect on the past year's adventures. It's been a... good year, I suppose? If nothing else, it's been interesting.

This time last year I was in Australia with Simon and not too happy. The first two months of the year were taken up with all that, and although I learned quite a few things and had plenty to think about, I'm not too sorry he's out of my life.

At the end of February I went to London to interview for the PGCE course, which resulted in the crushing of one lifelong dream. Still, I have lots of fond memories of London. It's actually the musicals (Les Mis and Avenue Q) that I enjoyed more than anything, though the British Museum, War Museum and National Gallery (if that's the right name; can't be bothered to check) were also fantastic, and simply being in London was in itself something I'd always wanted to do and the city was everything I'd always hoped it would be.

Since that didn't work out and I had to quickly come up with a Plan B, I settled on a return to Korea. I consider Korea my first real home, of sorts, because it was the first place I really had to sink or swim entirely on my own power job-wise and friend-wise and although it was rocky at times, I did succeed here. In fact, I did quite well. I think after Simon and then the failure in London I really wanted to feel successful and so I returned to the first place I really felt that way... though I told everyone it was for financial considerations, and that is also part of why I came back.

It took me three months to get the visa for Korea, during which time I spent lots of time alone in my room in Thailand and lots of time visiting Simon and some time with a couple of other guys, of whom the only important one is the German. When the visa was about to come through I visited Azrael in Vietnam for a couple of weeks, and I don't remember anything about that except looking at an old dead guy and being molested by the dog, but I guess it was a decent trip.

The last six months I've lived a very predictable life of working during the week and coming to Seoul on the weekends. Work has been, well, frustrating; I'm still struggling with feeling like my students aren't learning anything, and that makes me feel like a bad teacher, though as far as work goes the decks are rather stacked against me. I have two lessons a week with each class, most classes are over thirty students of widely varying abilities, the textbooks are not great, and the kids are so used to having everything translated in Korean that they just wait for that and don't really listen to anything I say. It's had its moments, I suppose, and it is really nice having a co-teacher for a change, but on the whole it's easily the least rewarding teaching job I've ever had.

Outside of work, it's been the year of video games; with first Simon and then Jordan going through games at a much faster pace than I, I've had lots to keep me busy. I spent lots of time on Batman: Arkham Asylum, Picross, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and its sequel, Just Cause 2, Alan Wake, Borderlands, Fallout: New Vegas, and Lara Croft.

It's also the year in which I was finally able to be alone and not be sad about it, and it's about time, after thirty years of not being able to get along with people. Not that I don't still get lonely, but I definitely find myself craving company less often than I used to, even being grateful for time alone, and, as a result, becoming a lot more picky about whom I spend my time with.

So that's 2010. Tonight, on the phone with my co-teacher, I told him I'd most likely stay at the school for a second year. I will be in Japan for a few days around the middle of January, and am looking forward to another trip to Europe this summer; probably Germany, France, and a goth festival in Belgium. Maybe even Holland, though that... depends. At this point there are two big question marks for the year. One is a story that I'm trying to write. It's meant to be kind of a fusion of a fairy tale and reality. I can't really explain it any less vaguely than that yet. As a base for that, I'm using the Cambodian hospital incident, and it kind of sucks to try to relive one of the worst memories of my life over and over again looking at it from every angle and trying to remember every detail, but even if it never works out as a good story, at least it's good to be writing again and it won't be such a bad thing to have a detailed record of that time. It was important.

The other question mark, and a great worry to me right now, is my eyes. In July they told me I have some retinopathy and to get checked again in six months; well, now my vision is noticeably worse and I have blind spots in it, so I'm going to get checked up next week which ought to lead to laser surgery. If it doesn't, I'll get a second opinion. Yeah, I'm scared. I wouldn't be able to do most of the things I love without my eyesight. I mean, it should be okay... the surgery is almost always successful... and if I do go blind, it won't be for years and years yet, but... well, it's scary nonetheless. Watch this space for updates, I guess.

And that's enough narcissism for one night. For one year. On to 2011.