Goodbye snow!! Hello snow?????!!!! Argh.

I am really not impressed. I left Canada and actually said, "Goodbye snow!!!!" on the way to the airport. Flight landed at the Incheon airport at around 4:30ish... to SNOW!!!! The recent snow fall in Korea is the heaviest since they started taking records in 1935 (and who knows how long before that). Took a while to get home - plane had to wait for snow to be cleared at the gate, the bus was super slow, dragging a suitcase through the snow is NOT fun (at least it wasn't too cold), waiting for a taxi for 20 minutes only to get one who doesn't know how to drive in the snow (do any of them???) kinda sucks (this one didn't seem to want to go any more than about 15 km/h and kept going on and off the gas making the whole car rock, making me feel quite ill) , and then a super cold apartment that still isn't warm. I got home, turned on the heat, curled up in a ball under my blankets with a heating pad and went to sleep. Woke up after a few hours. The floor is a bit warm but it's sure taking its time.
Back to work tomorrow. Ugh.

winter in Canada

I'm back home in Canada for winter vacation.The last time I was home for Christmas was in 2005!!!! Too long.I love snow. Everything looks so beautiful when covered in snow and frost. [Hercules]Christmas day we took the dogs for a walk down the road.[Lily][Ivy][There are 4 dogs in this pic (the 5th, the little one, was left at home). I love that one is jumping over another. Good timing?]
It was a nice clear day, about -15 Celsius. Not bad.[Moi!! :) in my new jacket]I love snow.... except when I have to drive in/on it. NOT fun.

Snowboarding in Korea

I went snowboarding a couple of times this winter. I had only been boarding once before, many years ago, so I am still learning. It scares me, but I love it!! (I'm scared of heights and speed!)The first outing (January 25th) was to Vivaldi Park, which is a couple of hours north east of Seoul. As we had someone driving, we left very early and returned the same day in the evening (though in hindsight, we should have made plans to just stay there for the night).The resort was not very busy (due to it being the Lunar New Year long weekend), which was great since 3 of us were beginners. The hill has 12 slopes and the snow was great. It had been snowing so it was all fresh and it continued to snow on and off when we were there.The menu at the cafeteria had us rolling on the floor - the item at the bottom of the menu says, "Squid three dual beam blows". Ummmm. What is that? The Korean says it is Osambulgogi, which is a pork and squid dish. I suppose the "three dual beam" refers to the samgyupsal, which is 3 layer pork belly (similar to bacon but cut thicker).

Everything shuts down for an hour at around 5 for the hills to be freshly groomed before the evening skiing, to mark the end of the half day lift tickets.The evening time was great. With the lights on, it was easy to see and there were a lot less people. Quite peaceful, actually, though they do have Korean music playing all day from loud speakers on the lift posts.
I'm not very good at boarding. I know I don't do it right. I do it my own way. I don't turn properly. Actually, I don't turn at all. Instead, I keep switching my front foot - regular (left forwards) to goofy (right forwards) to regular to goofy, zig-zagging my way down the hill. I tried doing a proper turn once... resulting in a fractured tailbone - OUCH!!!!!! Still getting over that one (couldn't sit or really walk without being in a lot of pain for the first couple of weeks after). Didn't stop me from going again, though. Went straight back up to the top of the mountain for another run. But after that, I decided I should get more comfortable with what I can do on the board rather than trying anything new, since I don't want to hurt myself any more before my big trip. I NEED to be able to sit properly (long flights and bus rides almost every day will not be fun if I can't sit for long) and have to be able to carry my pack and such.The second boarding trip (February 8th) was to Bears Town for a morning of boarding. We got up really early and took a taxi to the hill (because of where we were at the time, it was much easier to do that than to go to one of the bus pick up points). Bears town is fairly close to Seoul, just to the northeast. Bears Town is a fairly popular place for day trips from Seoul.It has 11 slopes and is fairly easy to get to. When we went, though, it wasn't so great. Pretty much the entire hill was ice covered in man made snow, which was pretty much tiny little balls of ice. If you fall, you hit hard, and keep sliding for quite a ways. It is hard to get up as there is nothing to grip. Several times I had to slide a ways down to find a spot to grip. It is much harder to board on ice, as there is no resistance and the board just wants to fly out from under you. My legs certainly got a good workout trying to keep me up!! I fell a lot more this trip than I did the trip to Vivaldi Park. My tailbone survived - when I fell I purposely landed more flat on my back rather than on my butt. I did manage to hurt my elbow, though. sort of hyper extended it. I was feeling that for the following week. It is okay now for the most part.
I wish I could have gone some more but as I'm out of here next weekend, I don't really have time. Too bad. I'll have to wait until next year.

cold

Kinda glad I'm not there! :P I just hope that Korea doesn't get the same effects from La Nina!

Coldest winter in years, Environment Canada warns
Updated Fri. Nov. 30 2007 1:00 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
The weather phenomenon La Nina will bring Canada the coldest winter in nearly 15 years, Environment Canada warned Friday.
Environment Canada's temperature forecast shows the majority of the country will experience a "temperature anomaly" of below-normal temperatures through the months of December, January and February.
Much of Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and parts of British Columbia and southern Ontario will also see above-normal precipitation.
David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada, told The Canadian Press that the temperature and precipitation abnormalities are likely the result of the weather phenomenon La Nina.
La Nina, meaning the little girl, is the appearance of cooler-than-normal waters in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean.
"La Nina is thought to occur due to increases in the strength of the normal patterns of trade wind circulation," Environment Canada's website says.
"For reasons not yet fully understood, periodically these trade winds are strengthened, increasing the amount of cooler water."
These cooler waters result in wetter-than-normal conditions in the northern hemisphere and changes to the jet stream over North America.
"The shifted jet stream contributes to large departures from the normal location and strength of storm paths. The overall changes in the atmosphere result in temperature and precipitation anomalies over North America which can persist for several months," Environment Canada says.
In the past, La Nina caused drought and floods around the world. It also whips up more hurricanes in the Atlantic.
The effects of the weather phenomenon have already been felt in parts of Western Canada. Earlier this month, a fierce storm dumped nearly 80 centimetres of snow on Whistler, B.C. over 48 hours. The massive snowfall prompted management at the famous Whistler Blackcomb ski hill to open one week ahead of schedule.
With files from The Canadian Press

masks

Many Koreans wear face masks in the winter (and sometimes at other times of year). They look like surgical masks. I have heard different reasons for them: the pollution, the cold air, viruses and such, etc. Many of the kids wear masks with cartoon characters or fancy pictures on them on them.

Ricky :)

More from Chris' Christmas Party..

Here are SOME of the videos from Chris' party.
Stacey's song:
Dave and Kath's song:
Chris' ode to everyone:
a visit from Santa:
a visit from Santa cont'd:

To see the rest of them, check out my other videos on YouTube, under my id: silveroses69. There are also a few videos there of some of my classes at the kindy.
I didn't get a video of all of Chris' songs. To see more, if you want, check out Jared's videos from the evening on YouTube id: kiwiot. Or do a search for "Chris's Xmas Carols" in YouTube.

Snow on the roof

[my neighbor's roof on Sunday]

SNOW

As if Chris ordered it, it snowed the night of his Christmas party. It snowed A LOT! It was still snowing today for a while. It probably won't be around for long, though. Although, I have been told by several Koreans that Korea is supposed to have a very cold winter this year, with lots of snow. We shall see.

me in the snowsnow on the treestrying to catch a taxi
(we never did find one that would take us home)April in the snowSNOW