After taking a little break from writing this blog, due to a little Christmas trip home, I figured it was about time I updated everyone on the popular converstational topic of Korea's weather conditions. Lets face it, weather is what everyone talks about, no matter what hemisphere you're in at the moment. As the world has started using the weather as a medium to communicate its anger to us (rather vigourously), people are experiencing abnormal rain, snow, ice and for the fortunate ones...sun.
The extreme ice and snow in Ireland at Christmas, which was beyond normal awful winters, hindered travel, driving and basic functioning. Under the influence of this crazy weather pattern, I in turn became under the illusion that Korea would be as cold as always but still quite stable. Alas, stable it was not.
I landed into Seoul Incheon airport on Monday January 4th to the worst snow fall in Korea in 70 years. The city was cuddled into a white blanket. The roads were indecipherable from the footpaths and road crossings were simply undeterminable. Coming from Ireland, where everything was cancelled, postponed or closed because of the weather, I became hopeful that my school would not be open.............eh? NO! It turns out Korea is perfectly capable of functioning in such conditions, much to my jet-lagged dismay.
2 weeks on and much of the snow has decided that it quite likes Seoul and would like to stay for the rest of the winter. The footpaths are still white, the parks and fields are little snow angel heavens and many rooftops are still virgin territory, waiting to receive their first footprints.
The 1km wide Han river was and remains frozen over from edge to edge. It resembles the Bolivian salt flats in some places. It is astounding to see and imagine the process by which so much water surface can freeze and not melt under the daily sunshine.
As temperatures have started to rise this week, more than likely in anticipation of another snowfall, it becomes natural to be excited by any temperature above 0 degrees. With -21 being the coldest we have experienced this winter, the spring warmth is hotly anticipated.
