When I first left Korea for China, I debated whether or not to change the name of this blog. As clever a name as “skorea” is (thanks Marzee!), does it really apply if I’m not in S. Korea?

Of course, as some of you may have noticed, I never did end up writing to the blog while I was in China, so whether or not to change the name of blog became a moot point.

Now I again find myself leaving S. Korea, and I’ve already resolved not to change the name of the blog. I’ll always be Skory (with some margin allowed for various transliterations) and so the world through my eyes might as well always be Skorea.

Now please allow me to give a meek apology to anyone out there who has been feeling a lack of the world through my eyes. Allow me to catch you up:

I took the slow boat to China. I studied a semester of Mandarin at the Dalian University of Technology. Dalian was fun. I lived with this guy. I made friends. I can even speak a modest amount of Mandarin, read an even more modest amount, and write a very very modest amount of it.

Missing the last two weeks or so of classes and the final tests, I didn’t quite finish that semester. China being however so accommodating to those who pay, I got my certificate anyway. I spent Christmas with my family back in Berkeley and then new year’s with the ol’school crew in San Felipe, Baja California del Norte. The rest of January involved lots of not once studying Mandarin, configuring my new toy (on which I now write), learning how vulnerable to and unprepared for avalanches I am, and following www.crossfit.com.

And then it was back to Korea, where most of my friends from last year no longer are. But I still managed to see a few old friends, and make a few new friends.

After a brief few days in Gohan and at High1, I popped over to Sokcho, and am now steaming off on the ferry to Zarubino, Far Eastern Province, Russia.