Let it Snoooowwwwwww

I raced into class this morning (sort of) to get all the thoughts in my head onto my blog as soon as possible. So, here's a breif(ish) version of my commute:

I woke up to snow, AGAIN, in Seoul. This was clearly the strongest snow since I've been here. I had no idea that Seoul got a lot of snow--I gather this is rare, but it has snowed 3-4 times since I've arrived a little over a week ago. Anyhow, I took off in my new puffy jacket (I couldn't have bought it at a more opportune time) and headed for the subway. Well, in the time it took me to cross two streets (which admittedly is about 5 minutes, as these are busy streets and the lights are timed for maximum pedestrian inconvenience), I had a full coating of snow all over me. I opted to walk through the mall this morning to get to the subway instead of my outdoor 8-10 min walk, which was much preferred (although I almost fell at the top of a two-story flight of stairs, which would have ended it for me).

The train ride itself was longer than usual due to the weather, but fairly uneventful. Then I arrived in Sinchon for my 20 min walk to school and the fun really started. It was snowy Asians everywhere! Almost all of them were using umbrellas which may have been nice, but also meant that each person was carrying the equivalent of 6 daggers poking out in all directions from their umbrella. I almost lost an eye several times. Additionally, they don't do any real street cleaning here so we were all trying to walk in the same line to avoid the mounds of snow on each side. A bit of levity was fortunately provided by some of the women's outfits I was lucky enough to see--the most amazing being a girl in a mini skirt and platform heels (ladies, is a platform heel a large heel that also is lifted on the toe as well, right? This one was about two inches of height in the toe and 4-5 in the heel. Awesome). She looked like she was on her way back from a long night at the Pussycat Lounge, not on her way to school. Although I have to give her some credit--I could barely get by in jeans and heavy-soled boots and here's a girl in heels. I have no idea if she made it to class or not--she surely wouldn't have been able to if she had to climb the hill I went up. That hill was predictably a big mess. Some car couldn't get up it and the fact that they try clearing snow here with brooms doesn't help anything.

BUT, I made it finally. Upon arrival, I looked like the Abominable Snowman. I literally could not see my hair when I went to the bathroom--I'd say I had an inch of accumulation on top (given that their is about 8 inches on the ground outside though, I guess I'm better at cleaning my head than they are at cleaning the streets).

OK, now it's time for class to start so I better post this. My apologies for what surely is a lower than average quality post today--I hope you enjoy it a little.