Hilary Meets the Land of the Morning Calm

Yesterday, Seoul had its heaviest snowstorm in several decades. Here is a full article by the Korea Herald. Apparently the 25.2cm (roughly 10") was the most snowfall they have had here in here in 41 years, and the second biggest storm since they started recording snowfall back in 1937. To me it looked just like a normal snow storm, but here it wreaked complete havoc on transportation.



My morning classes were canceled since there was only one of my kindergartners who made it to school, and our administration made a decision to cancel afternoon classes as well. In all I only taught two 40min classes and then got sent home. Our morning classes for the following morning were also canceled.

Unfortunately, snowdays here are nothing like the ones back home. As a kid I remember doing victory dances before going to bed upon weather forecasts about major snowstorms, and come morning, leaping out of bed and impatiently waiting for the school closings to get to the 'C's where I hoped to find my school's name. Early closings were always full of excitement as the bus spun its tires up freshly snow covered roads.

Here however, nothing good comes without consequence it seems. We have been called into work this Saturday for a FULL day of teaching in order to makeup the time lost Monday and Tuesday. I had a dentist appointment scheduled and an overnight ski trip planned, and I'm sure all my coworkers had their own plans as well, but we weren't given a choice and have been told to cancel them. I find this quite frustrating, and it really has wiped out my childish giddiness about snowdays! I certainly will keep this event in mind when I start shopping for my next contract!