Oh, Korea! We meet again.

A few weeks ago, I came across a new opportunity to link me back to Korea. I have been sulking a little recently about blogging and my lack of writing over the past few months. I arrived home from Korea about 6 months ago, just as summer was starting to kick in. This past summer, after being away from Toronto for so long, was epic. I caught up with friends, spent lots of time with family and did lots of excursions to remind me why I love Canada so much and how happy I was to be home. As much as I love Toronto, it was great to go up to cottages and spend weekends up North, out of the city. It has been an amazing home coming.

Saying all that, looking at my blog archive window, I had one entry in June, one in July and none in August. Part of the reasoning behind that was because my summer was so jam packed and there was barely a minute to spare to focus on my writing. But part of it was also because for a long time, my blog was so deeply entwined with my life in Korea, that it lost a little bit being back home. How does one keep up a travel blog, when one is no longer really travelling? I struggled with this for a while. Do I change ALEX ON THE LOOSE, to ALEX IN THE CITY? Do I start up a whole new blog now that I am back in Toronto?

Technically, I am still writing for The Korea Blog, for my second year. I wasn't sure how to make that work once I left Seoul. My mission turned into "finding Korea in Toronto". Over the past 6 months I have really enjoyed learning about Korea within Toronto. But somehow, my blog wasn't thriving (translation- Alex was lazy). I made some great new friends at the Korean Consulate, I was invited to some great events they organized, I took part in the Korean Film Festival, I met another local blogger that is part of The Korea Blog (her name is Cindy and she has a great Korea-centric blog too, www.lifesanadventure2.com ). Also, I am always on the hunt for good Korean restaurants to check out.   I love Korean food and miss it so much. I've had a few opportunities to introduce some of my friends to Korean cuisine, who were just too intimidated to ever brave an authentic Korean restaurant.

Now this brings me back to my introductory sentence. A new opportunity, Korea related. 2013 is the fifty year anniversary between Korean Canadian relations. It is a big year and the Korean Consulate has many different events planned to celebrate and educate and promote Korea in general. A few weeks back I read about a contest they were holding in order to select 50 bloggers to be part of everything going on in 2013 and tell the world about it. The writer inside me got very excited. Yet another wonderful opportunity to connect me with Korea. Living in Toronto, I already have the advantage of proximity to such a huge part of the Korean population, so basically culture, food, music.... it's all at my doorstep.

So autumn has arrived, and with it I have infused myself with fresh incentive to get back into the swing of writing and blogging and do what I love to do (notice all the new September posts in my blog archive). I can't wait to get my posts rolling again and really hope I make the cut to blog for Korea in Canada! HAPPY READING!!