Winter is right around the corner. Today we reached the record low temperature in Seoul. October is usually a warm and sunny month, but this month has been cold and rainy. It feels more like Wisconsin than Korea.
I like the fact that the seasons are all unique in Korea, but I am in no hurry to rush into winter. I would like to enjoy the fall for at least four or five weeks more.
Although I don't want to be stepping in snow today I know that snowfall in Korea is beautiful and it isn't too much trouble. In Seoul it is usually the wet snow that falls in the morning and is gone in the afternoon.
These pictures of newly fallen snow are in front of our house when we first moved in. It was a magical time. The building and the yard are no longer there. But we still get snow and our kids still love to play in the snow and so do I.
The last picture is from a hike I took in the fallen snow. I began to fall in love with Korean snow. Where I'm from in the states it begins to snow in September then by December it snows very solid until March. We know the Spring is near when the snow starts melting. It's a beautiful fragrance in the land but it is way too late and way too cold and the winter was too long.
Korean winters get only a few flakes unless you are in the deep mountains. It's enough snow to know that there is such a thing as winter but not enough snow to make everyone's life complicated for three months.
Winter begins in the end of December. Usually Christmas is the first time we see snow and then it snows off and on until Ground Hog Day.
I remember Ground Hog Day as a kid in the Chicago Public school. We would watch the ground hog on the news and hope for spring to come near. In Seoul that day is basically the end of winter. It's a mild winter here, but it is still winter and I'm still not looking forward too it. I'm enjoying the last bits of the Fall.
The University next door is having a Fall festival at the open air theater. Today people are sitting outside enjoying the music and freezing their butts off. I'm sitting inside my house enjoying the music and drinking a cup of cinnamon black tea.
Yesterday I collected Gingko tree fruit and will crack the nuts today and eat it. Those are pretty potent little guys filled with anti-oxidants, flavonoids and terpenoids and anti-inflammatory. It's enough to boost my day. Maybe enough to keep me going through a Korean winter.
Seasons will pass, but ours is the moment to enjoy today.
Here is Taeyon enjoying her weekend no matter how the weather is.
