꽃샘추위 Winter is Jealous of the Blooming Flowers

There is a story here in Korea to explain why after the first few warm days in March there is always a spell of three to four freezing days.

The story goes that in the spring when the flowers start to bloom the cold of winter becomes envious of the beautiful flowers.  It is so envious that it fights to come back but of course there is no beating spring and the warm weather wins finally giving an end to the brutal winter.

Come On, Let’s Tell It Like It Really Is

Before my little adventure in Korea I did have the smarts to ask what the weather was like in Korea and even look it up.  My findings were that the weather was very similar to that of New England.  No problem, the naive little me thought.

The truth is, yes, I am from New England.  Yes, I have lived in the cold most of my life.  But no, saying the winters in South Korea are comparable is an understatement.  The winter here in South Korea isn’t bad, it is downright brutal.

This is actually really hard to explain because as far as amount of snow goes I think New England probably wins out easily.  The thing about Korea is the cold is a cold like I have never felt before.  It’s biting and I feel it in my bones.  It is painful and on some days I just run home from work to escape it.  My colleagues and I take a taxi ever night instead of walking the literally 10 minute walk home because the cold feels unbearable.

My IPOD when fully charged will play for hours at school or at my apartment but many mornings this winter when I step outside it goes from a full battery to “no battery available” within five minutes.  Maybe I am wrong but there seems to be no other explanation than that it just won’t work in this cold.

Perhaps one of the reasons this winter seems even longer and harder is because I am ALWAYS cold.  At my school, along with all of the schools my friends work at, the heating is not central and instead there are heaters in each classroom.  The schools are also not insulated.  What this means is that I arrive at school and immediately turn on my heater.  Within about 10-15 minutes my room is actually toasty but ONLY my room, my co-teachers rooms and the teacher’s office.  None of the halls or unoccupied rooms are heated.  The bathroom is not heated and we have all actually started holding it until pretty much explosion because the idea of using a bathroom that is the same temperature as outside is downright painful.  In the bathroom they leave the sink water running at all times and I am not positive but I think it is because they are afraid of the pipes freezing.

Koreans also don’t quite understand the concept of maintaining temperature.  If I leave my classroom for any reason, like let’s say I have a 30 minute break between class, someone from the office staff will come in, turn off my heater then leave with the door open.  When I arrive back at my classroom it is then the same temperature as outside and it takes at least 10 minutes to get the heater going and the room to starting to warm up.

Sometimes my students wear their coats in class.  They whine over and over, “Teacher, Teacher, cold,” but I don’t have a solution for them.  All of the foreign teachers wear multiple layers everyday.  The worst part of it all is being able to see your breath in between your classes and sometime in your class.

The lesson of this winter will stay with me forever.  Once I am back in North America I don’t know that I will ever complain about winter again.  This one is bad and you don’t quite understand exactly what a bad winter is until you teach English for a year in South Korea!