It's like Iowa!

The weather was gonna be cold, I knew that, but who would have figured I'd be living through the coldest winter in decades here in South Korea - how exciting!

It kind of reminds me of growing up in Iowa most winters when it was ridiculously cold, extra windy and usually a good powdering of snow from time to time, just to keep everyone on their toes.  Unlike those fabulous days of my childhood, the snow doesn't really amount to a whole lot here & it's usually morphed into some sort of ice patch within a day or so.....it's funny watching people slipping and sliding down the sidewalks.

There isn't much belief in scooping the snow, just let it pile up, get packed down, become ice and eventually it will melt away.  I have seen a few parts of town where they've thrown some sand down to help melt the ice but that's about it.  So, yeah, it's pretty much been a super record breaking winter with plenty of cold, wind & snow for everyone.  Which is probably why I had a terrible cold on Fri as I battled the weather to wander out of the neighborhood (dong in Korean) & see what I was missing.

There is usually lots of joy and excitement when everyone sees the snow falling as it seems to be a bit of a rarity.  There were even a couple kids building a snowman on the roof of the building next to my school.  My director James said if they usually only get snow three times a winter but we had snow three times in the month since I've gotten here....looking forward to more of the white stuff!

I'm really glad I brought a few books along, since the internet has been pretty sketchy and questionable the past couple weeks, I've had plenty of time to do some light reading....finished two Clive Cussler books and a Chris Kuzneski.  Fortunately, I've got another Cussler, a Randy Wayne White and 'Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,' they should keep me occupied a few more weeks.

By the time I finish the books I should be celebrating my first 'official' payday - I've been told they literally pay you cash & to bring a large bag to carry the money home because the largest bill is the 10,000 won, keep in mind, I'll be getting a month & a half's worth of wages plus some overtime which should put the grand total of more than 3.2 million won (3,200,000).  For those of you struggling with the math right now, 1,000 Korean won is roughly $1 USD.  Think about it this way, I'm making $3,200 & it's paid in $10 bills, that's a ton of cheddar!

I'm looking forward to having a little money to spend on traveling since I've really not done any exploring at all since I arrived a month ago.  There are a couple friends I'd like to see in Seoul and 'a friend of a friend' just arrived in Daegu (about 20 mins south of me) this past weekend, so I should probably be a American,  meet up with him & share the wealth of knowledge I've acquired in the past month!

Oh yeah, I am officially a Korean Alien Resident, too.  Which means I can do everything any Korean can except vote and I got a sweet little ID card to verify it....although I don't think it's good North of the DMZ.

That's it for this one, just wanted to let everyone know how cold it was & what a great time to be here for record breaking temps!  I'm gonna do a blog on my students as well as driving this week if the internet continues to be up & running!

Until then, be warm (I really appreciate Florida winters much more now), be happy & be awesome!!

mista A