Winter in Korea!

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Ever since mid November it has been turning into winter. Freezing cold temperatures on the walk to school, IN school, and the walk home. For my birthday, Yumi got us 3 (herself, Whemi, and I) electric butt warmers for our seats which was a Godsend! They didn't turn the heat on in the offices for awhile and so I was basically just sitting there freezing at my desk hoping to get up and teach so I could maintain some body temperature. The worst are your toes since they are exposed to the cold with indoor shoes on. I've been wearing the same 2 pairs of wool socks to school everyday since my dress socks are too thin. Thankfully Mom is sending another pair of wool snowboard socks over for me to wear because one of my two pairs just got holes in them! So the butt warmer has been keeping me alive for awhile and they finally turned the heat on in the office. It took them FOREVER to turn it on. I think once it hit below freezing they turn it on. Apparently the office lady that runs finances is crazy and very frugal then refuses to turn on the heat and also the air conditioning in the summer. A lot of people don't like her. I don't blame them.

Our main office heat is finally getting turned on everyday which is great but now the worst part is actually going to teach. Once you enter the hallways the frigidness hits you since they don't have heat in the actual school, just the classrooms and offices but then you would think the building would maintain some heat......nah. They have the windows open to get some fresh air into the buildings! So you're walking down the hall and get an awesome cold breeze from the window that is wide open! They have some weird thoughts on some things. They told me when it rains that I should really use an umbrella because it's acid rain and will make you go bald. So they all have umbrellas that they use in rain AND snow. They are always appalled when I don't use an umbrella to go to the lunch shack which is like 30 yards away. I guess I can use that as an excuse if I do go bald someday.....damn Korea rain and snow!! Anyway, back to the topic.....so they like turning the heat on but then want to get fresh air so they open the windows. Such a weird thought process.

All the kids in school are running around in jackets. The most popular are 'The Noce Face' down jackets Which translates into The North Face. The can't really say r's or th's. It took me awhile to figure that out. Apparently The North Face jackets are really expensive over here. A typical down jacket that would cost us like $300 would cost them like $550-600. I'm now the cool teacher since I had a North Face down jacket that I wear to teach in! It was that cold in the classrooms that I seriously had to wear my jacket to not be frozen and shaking. This wouldn't fly in the States at all. They still go outside for gym class and run around on the snowy, dirt soccer field.

I've been keeping warm for the most part since I wear multiple clothing layers to school everyday with a light jacket and then I bundle up with a down jacket along with a scarf, earmuffs, and gloves. Still your nose gets freezing and also your cheeks. Brutal. Apparently January is supposed to be the worst month out of the year so thankfully I'll be gone for half of it!! I plan on going to the airport in shorts and a t shirt so I'm nice and freezing and then 4 hours later, I'll be in a tropical paradise!

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