Travel Log Korea from the begining and onward
Currently in South Korea.... Join the list by mailing korea@saradevil.com .
| Much to my surprise and delight, we had a very nice
snow day here in Daegu this week. On Wednesday it really started to come down. It started with some light flurries that those of us who came from the midwest derided as being, "nothing" but it did continue to come, until eventually the city of Daegu, which rarely sees any accumilation was suddenly covered in about three inches of snow. Not much to the snow conesuirs of Indiana or Chicago where a good winter might dump a few feet, but enough to really mess things up in Daegu. The first sign of trouble came when Keesan was too busy on the phone taking calls from parents who were not sending students that day. Students were disappearing left and right because the roads were to hazardous to drive. Then the bus drivers came up to talk with Kim about the poor conditions and students who took buses were not making it to class that day. My students from my youngest class were very excited about the snow. I was informed immediately upon their arrival that they had walked to school in the snow because the driving was really bad. I was a bit confused by all the the talk about how bad the driving was, as it did not really seem like all that much snow, but I figured it out when I walked home around 2 am. As I left the school, I noticed first of all that Daegu, which is surprisingly dark for a city, was glowing like Chicago after a snowfall. And there were people everywhere. The roads had not been plowed, which was, as it turned out, not surprising because there were no plows. Daegu almost never gets snow, so there is no back up emergency snow system in place. Even though it was really early in the morning there were allot of people on the street enjoying the weather. I saw a large group of Koreans, as I walked past Donga, whipping snowballs as hard as the could at the Donga crosswalk. I kept hearing a thump, thoomp, but I didn't realize that it was the sound of snow really impacting with a building until I got closer. I continued to walk among the falling Koreans, who were having allot of trouble walking in the snow, in search of the wily Dok-buki that I knew I could find if I was willing to walk for it. The snow was still falling and there were many people rolling up balls of snow as large as they could make them for snowmen. I did manage to find one Dok-buki place open and was informed by the Koreans there that I must be careful not to hurt myself in the snow. I smiled and thanked them, and fortunately my Chicagoian snow skills have served me well as I have not fallen down yet, despite the ice. As I walked home up the very large hill to my apartment I passed Koreans on the way down rolling more snowman balls, and was surprised by the very effective taxi stopping method being employed by several young koreans. Taxi's were pretty much refusing to stop for anyone on the extra slick roads, so some younger koreans waited in the middle of the street for a cab and then pushed a snowman down in front of it, essentially getting the cab stuck in a snowblock. They then boarded the cab while a friend who lived within walking distance removed the snow. I thought this all fairly entertaining until I realized I was cold and finished my own treck up the hill. Snow is so beautiful when it falls, and by the time I got home my cheeks were rosey, my eyelashes had snowflakes, and my hair was encrusted with partially melted snow and ice. The next morning was even more interesting as I now had to make my way down an ice encrusted hill. There is no rock salt it seems because it is very expensive so nobody uses it. I walked and manged not to slip, but I saw quite a few cars finding that they were quite stuck in there parking spot, wheels spinning on the slick but finding no purchase. As I finally descended the last part of the hill and cut across the street to school I noticed several shopkeepers using dustpans to try to move the snow out of the way for customers. In Daegu the sidewalks are all fairly new and quite sturdy (they have to be with people driving on them) but they all include a fancy decrotive marble tile strip right down the middle, which, in the snow and ice, has made the middle the sidewalk an unwalkable death trap. Since there is no salt the sidewalks are right now almost unwalkable with encrusted ice everywhere. It's been fun. My favorite snow sight so far was spotting a snowman outside of a hair salon. The salon use coloring brushes to make hair, old rollers for the eyes and mouth, and on the stomach they had stuck a sign that said deep. I found that for some reason especailly amusing. |