Hello everybody back home and abroad, yes I am still alive and kicking. So sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated my blog. So much has gone on in the last months I will try and catch you all up to speed on everything that is going on in my wild and crazy adventure they call life. So here we GOOOO….

Korea was where I left off and its seems so long ago now, but to make a long story short Korea didn’t think too kindly of me working in Korea teaching without my proper paper work. So when I went to apply for my actual visa they denied it and I had only another week left on my holiday visa so I decided to head back down to Australia to figure things out.

I had already arranged a vacation to Thailand a couple weeks later so I didn’t really think much of it but an extension to my vacation. It was with a heavy heart that I left Korea, I really loved it there: the people, the friends and co-workers I had become close too, and all the delicious food! It was an abrupt end for my time in Korea, especially since it was finally starting to get warm. But as always I just took it in stride and started my next adventure…

I spent 2 amazing weeks in Thailand, and spent over a month back in Australia before I left again to New Zealand. This time it wasn’t all play though, I was on a mission in New Zealand.

I had to leave Australia to apply for my working holiday visa that would allow me to work and travel in Australia for up to a year. The weather wasn’t so great but the few nice days that I got were spent hiking and exploring the cities.

I spent just over 2 weeks in New Zealand, traveling around spending most my time in the city of Christchurch which was my base, which everybody around the world knows by now after the 2 devastating earthquakes that have hit city, the last one being so recent.

Here is a picture of mine on top of the famous Church in the middle of the city when I was there and what it looks like now after the earthquake. I hope any friends and fellow travelers that are still over there are safe. After the 2 weeks I was granted my Visa and booked my ticket back to OZ.

When I returned to OZ I picked up 2 jobs. One was a morning job at a café and the second was an evening job at a Balinese restaurant. I worked both for a while then dropped the evening job when I became full time at the café. Abby and I were able to find some time to take a few weekends off, one of the trips being a 3 hour road trip up the coast to Hervey Bay. We spent our time whale watching, watching the Aussie PBR (Professional Bull Riding), and some time camping on the beach.

So After I had been back in OZ for about 2 months I worked at the café full time until Abby and I left Brisbane to come back home. Abby was coming back to do her medical elective back in Chico with a Orthopedic surgeon. While I was coming back for one of my best friends CJ’s wedding Oct. 30th.

It’s a long flight back from Australia, but we knew we were home when we got into LAX and over the loud speaker we could hear instructions where to go by a person with a strong Mexican accent. “We were home….”

The first week of being back in the states felt like a blur. Abby only had 2 days to get unpacked and repacked to move down to Chico and start her elective. While I was busy getting stuff done for the wedding like: getting my suit sized up, going to the rehearsal dinner, watching the Giants win the World Series (whoop, whoop), and many other wedding party duties… The big day came and went for CJ and Jessica. The wedding was amazing, so many familiar faces showed up and it was great to see a lot of old friends and meeting new ones.

Before Abby and I came home we thought that being home for 2 months seemed like a long time but in reality it went by way too quickly. Thanksgiving came and went this year swiftly as our Carpenter Thanksgiving had our lowest number of attendees this year with only 36 showing up because of a big storm that hit that weekend.

But we made due and there was plenty of food for everyone as usual. As the weeks went by, I spent most of my time: cutting wood with my dad, golfing, hunting, going on road trips, and seeing old friends.

Highlights of the trip back home had to be: Going down to Marysville and duck hunting with Abby’s cousin Michael and catching the Kings playing the Mav’s that night. The next week going down and watching the San Jose Sharks play and meeting up with our Erik and Brie our friends from Brisbane. CJ and Jessica’s Wedding and all the shenanigans that went along with it. The Giants winning the WORLD SERIES!!!

The Oasis ugly Christmas party, 2nd year in a row. My sister finally getting engaged ;). New Years Eve road trip to San Fran with Abby, Kenny, Spoon, and myself. Flying down to Phoenix to see some old friends and watching the Heat play the Suns! (best present ever!). Another highlight of my trip was meeting a good amount of Abby’s relatives.

I was very fortunate to meet and spend time with all the relatives that I did meet. I can see why Abby has turned out so amazing. Mostly the biggest highlight of all was seeing all my family and getting to spend the holidays with them all. It’s very rare that I get to spend so much time at home with my family over the holidays and I had missed it considerably.

Like I said though, the time came and went faster than I had expected it too and before we knew it Abby and I were back in LAX waiting for a flight that would take us back half way around the world. That wait lasted a little longer than we thought with a 4 ½ hour delay so we didn’t end up leaving LAX tell about 2:30 am, which was terrible because the pub closed at midnight. So we had to suffer for 2 ½ hours before we were able to get on our flight and sleep.