Joel: So....I suppose it's out with the old and in with the new. With Luke leaving on Friday and the pair of us back to school to start our Winter Camps this week, it really feels like the end of one era and the beginning of a new one. In the two weeks Luke was here we had a proper winter holiday and ushered in 2007 in a truly unforgettable manner. On NYE, the city centre crowds were setting off handheld fireworks for five or six hours solid - an awsome spectacle. The smell of sulphur was equally unforgettable. I think it was Barry who asked me if George Bush had recently passed through. A top night.

I'm absolutely made up that Luke had such a fun time staying with us. It's been brilliant to have him here. Our ski trip is also my stand-out highlight. I wish I'd been able to video Mr Haynes as he bombed down the slopes. I ate a bit of snow myself on numerous occasions but never at such speeds and never to such comic effect. I feared the worst a few times times only to see him rise from the snow, shake off the flakes and head back up for more. Amazing resilience! I'm laughing now just thinking about it.

Our Nore-bang marathon was also a bit special. Egged on principally by Sam, who wouldn't let us go home after three hours and convinced to stay another one, we set sail on a journey through some of finer moments in musical history. Rakhi dazzled us with some Stevie Wonder, I shrieked out some Radiohead and Luke let rip with the Whitesnake classic "Here I Go Again On My Own". If you've never heard Luke sing, believe when I say it's a unique experience.

The trip to the Ice Festival was pretty cool. We must have picked the grottiest guest house in the town but for one night we coped. I was a bit disappointed the discover the ice-soccer was to be played on ice-skates with a puck and furthermore, they had no skates to fit me (damn little Koreans!) but the sledding was superb and the whole experience was very memorable.

Last night, Rakhi took me out for a meal to the nicest restaurant I've ever eaten in. The "Top Cloud" sits in a glass case perched above Jongno tower in Insadong, perhaps the most striking building in Seoul, and the views over the busy, neon-lit city are extrordinary. It's also the first place I've been to that has NOTHING Korean on the menu. Not even Kimchi. There was a jazz pianist and accompanying band and both the food and the company were incredible. It was a fantastic and unforgettable Christmas present.

Tonight we're going to send off our final forms for the teaching positions in Thailand. It seems like a very similar job to this but it's such a vastly different place, I think it would be a great experience. And with a four month contract, if it doesn't work out, it wouldn't matter too much. We've decided now that we're definitely leaving Korea at the end of our contracts. We've crammed so much into this year that I think another year here would only be a disappointment. I suspect it would feel a lot more like a permenent situation rather than the working holiday it feels like we're on at the moment. And I don't want to be so far from home for another whole year. I've vowed to be back in the UK for the Christmas period next year. Defo!