Spring has Sprung!

Just wait till you experience spring in Korea

All year long I heard from staff and my new-found Korean friends that spring was an amazing time of year here in South Korea. Well, their claims were true. Come March I sure enjoyed the welcome-warm temperatures and the blossoming trees were enough to stop me in my tracks.

One Sunday afternoon I hopped in the van with a few staff from TCIS to drive along a well-known stretch that is famous during spring time. From Daejeon, we drove east toward the town of Okchon and then through the mountains along the river, eventually leading to Lake Kum-gong. We couldn't have asked for a better day -- it was shorts and t-shirt weather and the blossoms were in full bloom.

In many ways the afternoon reminded me of the drives I used to take through the Colorado Rockies when living in Denver. Koreans love to fish just like North Americans but they know how to do it in style... just check out this fishing shack along the river.



There are other differences from my drives in Colorado as well, most notably in the small towns we visited along the way, construction of buildings (an example of a mud house shown here), road signs (self-explanatory even if you don't read Korean), vegetation and the lack of Mexican restaurants =)




It dawned on me into the afternoon that Koreans often work their fields by hand... something you rarely see anymore in the west. The rural areas of Korea are still very much agrigarian where older farming methods are mixed in with the new. You can easily see a tractor and a hand cart in the same field! Click on the next image to enlarge for a better view of the person working in the field...




And what's a Sunday afternoon drive without stopping at a picnic area for lunch? The 'shelter' would not exactly prevent us from getting wet if it rained because it was constructed of branches and logs, but it sure fit in nice with the surrounding.

A Week of Firsts

Within one week at the end of February I was able to experience two weather-related 'firsts' here in South Korea. These were not earth-shattering events by any stretch of the imagination but I found one day's weather surprisingly refreshing and the other truly interesting. In fact, when I heard the explanation I kept saying "how interesting" =)

Last week I experienced my first snow in Asia. Regardless of where I've been this winter -- whether here in South Korea, Malaysia, Czech Republic or Austria -- I haven't experienced any snow. Well, last Tuesday morning I woke up to a two inch layer of white stuff (manna from heaven) and it sure was beautiful! The kids at school were beside themselves making snowmen and thrashing each other with snowballs. The kids knew it would be gone by afternoon so they made the most of it during the morning hours. Sure enough, by the next day it had vanished and is now a distant memory.


Then today on my walk around campus, I thought something was different in the air. It seemed foggy but it wasn't moist. It seemed like it was ready to rain but there were no clouds in the sky. Not being able to put my finger on it, I put it out of my mind until a Korean in the tech department informed me that the weather service issued 'yellow wind' warnings for today. Since I don't have a TV here in Korea, this was the first time I had even heard of it.


In essence, what the Koreans call 'yellow wind' is actually a strong wind that picks up sand dust over the Gobi Desert then makes its way through China picking up pollution before dumping on numerous Asian countries. In fact, I've heard these winds can survive a 5-7 day journey and even impact North America! Yellow wind occurs because of deforestation and when the winds pick up during the warm spring temperatures in the months of March and April. Literally, there is a yellowish haze in the air that makes it difficult to see clearly. On days like this I'll see many people walking around with face masks (more so than normal) and today I was inclined to join them. It isn't that I can taste the sand but my throat is just a little more dry and gritty.

Here's a picture of a yellow wind day in Beijing China. It was nothing like this here -- the haze was much more subtle.


Anyway, just thought I would let you in on what I found interesting here this past week. I heard it's been a snowy winter for those of you in Canada so maybe we can arrange an exchange program... I'll swap you some yellow wind if you send over some more snow? If you're interested, give me a call and we'll set something up.