White Christmas in Seoul

 View of our madang

We woke up to a surprise this morning, a light coating of snow was covering everything! Merry Christmas everyone! 

Our roof

Snow and Cold

I don't usually write mindlessly on this blog anymore, but here's a little freewriting to brighten (or kill) your spirits.

 Around the corner from my house

I'm a little behind the times this year, but, yes, in case you missed it on every other blog and Facebook page from Korea, winter has arrived on the peninsula. And it's been a cold one.  We're only half way into December and I've already seen more snowfall than I've seen in my whole time in Korea over the past 4 years (albeit, there have been large snowstorms, but I always seem to be out of the country when they happen). Temperatures these low bode for a long and cold winter... or perhaps the new ice age I've been waiting for since high school.

 In my neigborhood

On day one of the snowfall I was far too busy working on my final project for my Curriculum Design course for my Masters to be out in the snow taking photos like everybody else . But... people's photos did come out awfully nicely... 

 In my neighborhood

On other topics of coldness... hanoks are notoriously cold in winter, and ours is no exception. The boyfriend bought me a new pair of fuzzy pajama pants so at least one part of my body can feel warm. Actually sleeping is the warmest time of the day since we've moved to the floor mat for sleeping. It's nice and toasty warm down there... sometimes too warm if the boiler stays on for too long. However, we usually make sure that doesn't happen. The house being drafty is only half our problem. The other half is that heating a house this big (we guess about 40 pyeong) is rather expensive. November alone was over 100,000 won, and we didn't think we even had it on that much. We're constantly playing with the thermostat and adjusting where to send the heat in the house. The cool thing about a house this big is that you can shut off (or partially shut off) the heat to rooms you're not using. So, we keep the heat in the kitchen and second bedroom to a minimum and try to heat just the living room and the bedroom. We'll see how well we're doing when we get December's heating bill... 

 Around Jongno 5 ga somewhere...

Speaking of cold and snow, however, that means it's ski season. Wednesday night we went to Konjiam ski resort for a few hours of night skiing. The conditions were great and all the slopes were open. Unusual, I think, for this early in the season here. I'm severely out of shape, however. I promised myself I'd do sit ups and stretch tonight... but have I done it? Of course not...

 Near my favorite 닭한마리 restaurant in Jongno

Anyway, I know posts have been sparse here lately. I have no excuse now that the fall semester is done and my Curriculum Design project is done. But, it's hard to get the motivation to write again after spending a whole semester glued to my computer typing up things for school. I've been craving other forms of stimulation such as watching movies, cooking and studying Chinese. Did I mention that I'm studying Chinese? Perhaps not. That will be a post for another day... because that's a good one. 

Dongdaemun Gate in the snow

The end of this rant has finally come. Oh, and if you're wondering where all these photos from the snow came from when I said I didn't go out in the snow to take photos? This is from snowfall number three... the less exciting one because it wasn't first. I walked from Jongno to Dongdaemun in the snow, but, it was kind of nice....

Aftermath of Irene in My Neigborhood

Here in Boston, we did not get struck with the devastating rain that many parts of New York and Vermont did, but we did get tropical storm force winds which did enough damage on their own and still, now 3 days after the storm on Wednesday there are still people without power in many towns. To folks (like my boyfriend) who say, why are you so worried about a tropical storm? This is my answer. These were taken on Monday after the storm had passed and the skies were blue. Again, not nearly as serious as what's still going on in Vermont, but nothing to be taken lightly either.

All these photos were taken while just walking from my house to the trolley station.

This is my  neighbor's fence (photo above and below), and that is my father's car. Now, if that branch had just been  a few feet to the right, it would have been our cars, not the neighbor's fence under a branch.

The next photo was taken at the end of my street. That is an entire tree, and yes, it is resting on the power lines.

Here, below, you have a cracked telephone pole, this photo was taken about 100 feet down from the photo above. The house in between this pole and the tree above, as far as I know, still has power lines on the ground on their front lawn.

 

Though, most homes look like these, with moderate sized branches piled up out front for someone to take away, someday.

How did your home fare in the storm?

Byeongsan Seowon, Andong

Byongsan Seowon, a school for Confucianism was founded in 1563 and moved to it's current location, several kilometers from the Andong Hahoe Village in the year 1572. It was an academy dedicated to the study of Confucianism  and was founded by local scholars.

The day we went was very misty and a little rainy. We took advantage of the weather to get some beautiful shots of the local scenery.

Then we found a path that lead to the Hahoe Village and thought it would be a good idea to walk, we figured we'd arrive at the end of the 4 km walk around dusk. We though it was flat, and at the time it wasn't raining. Turns out, after a bend in the road the path went up into the hills. Then it started raining. We realized we weren't going to make it back before nightfall, so we turned back.

Before getting in the car, we hung around the riverside, in the rain, having a little fun. It's a great area just to see the sights. And the best part is, there are no entrance fees to enter the Byongsan Seowon. It is accessible by local bus from the Hahoe Village or by a quick drive up the hill by car.

TOPIK tests and Cherry Blossoms

It's that time of year. Cherry blossom season and time to take the TOPIK exam....

 

Finally, the much anticipated day of the TOPIK exam arrived. I found the test site at Kyunghee University without problem thanks to bumping into a friend from my Korean class on the way there. The entrance was a buzz with people selling pens, pencils white out etc., people selling text books, and lots of people giving away free stuff. I scored some awesome red/black pens. I've been meaning to buy a new red pen for a while so it worked out perfectly. 

After getting into the test building I had to find my classroom by looking up my registration number on this chart along with the other hoards of testers. 

I made it up to my classroom and got myself settled down. I had read on other blogs not to bring any stationary supplies to the test room, but looking around everyone had white out, pencils, pens, pencil cases and I felt a little self conscious. I almost didn't bring my pencil case with me, but I figured just in case I would. I had no white out and I was feeling a little nervous looking around seeing so many other people with it. Finally the test administers entered the room at exactly 1:40 and started to explain the rules. 

• Put everything into your bag and take the bag off the table.

• Take the battery out of your cell phone (and iPhones must be securely off). If a cell phone goes off during the exam it's big trouble
• Mark the test with the black computer marker only, except for the writing portion of the exam. For the writing test, you may use the black computer marker if you like but as it would be messy and hard to correct errors you can use your own ball point pen or pencil. 
• If you make a mistake you can correct it with your own white out tape. Liquid white out is not allowed. If you don't have white out tape you can raise your hand and the admins will lend you theirs.

 Then at 2:00 exactly, a bell rang to start the exam. Unfortunately, our test administrator started to walk around checking IDs after the test began. This was a huge distraction. At one point he got to the guy in front of me and started speaking really loudly for several minutes about how the photo on his registration paper was inappropriate and he was unable to verify his identity because of it. Finally he told him that they'd discuss it more after the test was finished. And then told the guy "don't worry, take your test and don't let this distract you..."... like I'd be able to do my test well after being yelled at that my photo was invalid. They need to check IDs before the test begins, not during the testing session.

Anyway, the first 90 minutes was grammar and vocab/ writing. I feel I did about the same as I usually do on grammar and vocab, which usually hovers around the 45-50 point mark. I think my essay was good enough (though I wish I had had time to proofread more), but I was thrown for a loop because this time the points for the  문장 만들기 and 빈칸 채우기. The 문장 만들기 was always 6 points each and the 빈칸 채우기 always had 3 questions which were 6 points each as well. On yesterday's test the 문장 만들기 questions were 7 points each and on 빈칸 채우기 there were only 2 questions, 8 points each. Good news, though, I think I finally may have gotten a 빈칸 채우기 problem right, which has never happened before. Bad news is I think I got one if not both of the 문장 만들기 wrong, so it probably equals out. After that, we had a half hour break before starting the listening/ reading.

I think I did alright on the listening, as I usually do, though under the stress of the testing conditions I don't think I did as well as I have in practice. My biggest problem was the reading. I think I may have gotten 75% of the questions that I had time to answer correct (I've improved a lot in this area in the past week or two, something just clicked in my brain) but I'm still a really slow reader and I was only able to do about 18 of the 30 questions before the time was up. I just filled in the rest of the bubbles and am hoping for the best.

But, the lovely part of the TOPIK was being at Kyunghee University in time to catch the cherry blossoms. It's a marvelous campus and I wanted to wander around more but I didn't have time. I'd like to go back if I have some time. I was told by my Saturday Korean teacher that this place was much better than Yeoido because there are lots of beautiful scenery but with way less sightseers. 

But, it seems to be a local hot spot anyway for catching the seasonal flora.  There was a bit of traffic on campus and lots of people who probably weren't students wandering around with cameras and pizza boxes looking to enjoy the afternoon.

So, if you happen to be around Hoegi station on line 1/ Jungang line, make your way over to Kyunghee University and check out the cherry blossoms before it's too late!

Spring Skiing Weekend Getaway

This weekend was the last weekend for skiing on the Rainbow ski trail at Yongpyong, so to enjoy our last weekend of skiing for the season to the fullest, the boyfriend got us a condo for the weekend right next to the hill. Now, before you go thinking we dropped tons of money into this thing (because for ordinary folks, it can be over 200,000 a night at these places) let me first explain that the boyfriend has lots of friends with connections. After a call to one friend who called to another friend who called and reserved the room, the price dropped down to the membership price of 80,000 won per night and then down again to the off-peak season rate of 65,000 a night. Heck, we got a two bedroom condo with a full kitchen and two bathrooms for only a little more than a love motel (but without the special packets that those lovely places provide as was introduced by the Qi Ranger this week). We rolled into Yongpyong just after 11 pm and crashed in our room, planning to wake up early to hit the slopes as soon as the slopes opened.

I woke to this sight. Yes, on March 26th there was new layer of snow and all the trees were transformed into 눈꽃 (nun-kot, or snow flowers).

We hit the slopes after a breakfast of kimchi jjigae a la boyfriend and due to the considerably excellent ski conditions (and the fact that the cafeteria on rainbow was closed) we skied all day with only one quick break to split a hot dog. And somehow I didn't feel tired and I didn't feel hungry and I didn't want to stop and take a break. It's one of the best days I've had out there.

After all that, around 4 we retired back to the condo, ate Jjapagetti (instant jjajangmyon) and passed out for a few hours. We were woken to the sound of the phone and the boyfriend's friends invited us out to dinner.

Samgyopsal, doengjang jjigae and bokkumbap later and we rolled out of the restaurant full up to our ears. We spent the rest of the evening watching TV and relaxing and trying to digest our dinner.

Early the next morning we arose again early to hit the slopes once again. This time we didn't fool around with the gondola, we took the dirt road right up to the bottom of the Rainbow slope. We had to meet a friend in Seoul at 5pm so we knew it wasn't going to be a long day of skiing and we wanted to make the most of what little time we had.

Unfortunately, the full day of skiing on Saturday left me pretty sore and exhausted for Sunday. Two runs in and we both had to go in and take a break in the cafe for a bit. Two more runs, and another break. Actually, by 12:30 I was quite ready to call it quits. The snow conditions were a bit icy, perhaps from the rain from last week and then the winter like temperatures this weekend. I didn't enjoy the skiing as much and my muscles were weak from the day before.

The boyfriend took one last run down Rainbow 2 slope, which is the hardest on a good day, and today was closed and had not been maintained in a week. I chose the easy route, thankfully, or it would have meant another hour waiting for me to get down.

We made it back to meet our friend just in time. From where we were in Sillim we could see Gwanak Mountain in the distance, and yes, it too was covered in snow. With this week's forecast showing highs  in the high 50's- low 60's (15-20˚C ish) it's hard to believe that there was so much snow to be seen this weekend.

Apparently, Rainbow slope will be closed for the rest of the season, not due to lack of snow, but due to lack of seasonal help as the skiing season draws to a close. Presumably some trails on the lower mountain will stay open for a little longer, provided there's snow to be had. Lift tickets last weekend were only 10,000 won, so if you're interested in spring skiing in Yongpyong, it could be a very economical time to go. And, as this is the coldest region of Korea they have the best snow for the longest of any other part of Korea. But, of course, it's still spring skiing. Love it or hate it.