Snow.

February 11th, 2010. Laying here praying for a snow day. It started snowing yesterday afternoon and continued through the night. Normally, this would practically guarantee the day off, as Korea's not generally equipped to deal with extensive snow removal, but there are mitigating factors. The first is the snow itself. For most of the day yesterday, the sky poured down small, wet flakes that lay heavy on one another. It snowed for hours, but sadly only amounted to a few centimetres. I was disappointed enough to taste it, pasty in my mouth. Disappointment is pasty. However, it continued all night and there are now substantial inches. I've told my disappointment to shut up, and am now cultivating a healthy tension between hope for a snow day and bracing for work. The other factors working against me are time and the Korean work ethic. As I'm writing, I can hear the desperate scraping of no less than six snow shovels outside my window.ª I can imagine my boss (a "formidable, if diminutive" woman) standing inside, watching. Arms folded, lips pursed, she silently wills her worker bees (mostly made up of her extended family) to work faster, ever faster. And it's only 9:30 in the morning. They have until 1 in the afternoon to clear the roads. Sigh. But! Lest you should think my cause without allies, the fight is far from over. It still snows furiously, hopefully discouraging both the shovelers and the parents of the drooling, laughing little balls of grabby-grabby and fart-giggle we call "students." Every SUV heard sliding around the roads surrounding my apartment, barely avoiding the toddlers playing with their cold, wet, brand new toy that falls from the sky and melts in your mouth, is a blade slipped a little deeper into the chinks in the armour of "going to work today."

And there is also my will, for as the diabolical Mrs. Kim stands watching, quietly demanding that God stop shaking his hair out, I stand across the street and up a storey, looking out my own window, singing-- chanting really, "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."

ªMy boss, Mrs. Kim, as well as owning the hagwon at which I work, owns a kindergarten, located outside my window.

Today's Postscript: We didn't get the day off that day after all. BUT, it's been snowing for 3 days straight, literally, no exaggeration. Went skiing in 2 feet of powder yesterday after getting the day off. Scary driving, awesome skiing. Back home safe and enjoying the blizzard. Check out the pictures below.

Outside my window yesterday morning.


The little shadow near the fence in bottom left is the side of Greg's car. We drove out of there 20 minutes after this picture was taken. We're awesome.