Seoul Winter - the Good, the Bad, the Good...

Thanks, Charles, for welcoming me back to Seoul winter!

When I looked up average precipitation and temperature in Seoul, December didn't look that different from January. Things were a little cold when I left for Japan toward the end of December, to be sure -but it was dry, and I thought, "I can handle this winter!" I came back to a bit of snow on the ground. Fine! Pretty to look at, and the cold still tolerable.

Then last Sunday it snowed throughout the day. So pretty to watch from my 15th floor apartment.

The next day, Monday, I went out with my friend Mi Kyeong to lunch and a movie. We sloshed through the snow and it was fun.

Then came - the slip! Still only early January, and I already took a spill. 2 days later, when I had had enough and sought out a doctor, I ended up like this:

Xrays did not show a break but I'm to wear this for the next 4-6 weeks. We'll see how that goes. For now it actually feels great having this thing encasing and protecting my sore arm - I think I shall sleep tonight.

While having lunch with Mi Kyeong, before "the spill," she taught me an expression: "pul heng chung ta heng" (불행중 다행): something like "out of misfortune comes fortune."

And so it proved true. I found a great "international clinic" at the hospital associated with Yonsei University -right on my walk to school. (The hospital has a great reputation but an unfortunate name, it seems to me - Severence Hospital!) Everyone speaks English, was friendly and helpful, took care of me right away... and the best part was that I met a fellow sojourner - an American woman, exactly my age, experiencing exactly what I had been experiencing - the isolation of not having women friends our own age. She finished her appointments, then stayed with me through my exam and xrays, went with me for coffee - it was great! Yeah, she's American, and I'm here to meet Koreans, (and actually one of the great things about Kyong Mee is that she is close to my age -her kids are grown too - but my Korean is still so elementary that our ability to talk about things is still very limited) - but oh, I did enjoy being with Mary Lorna today.

And now - the sidewalks are slick with unmelted ice and school starts tomorrow and I have what used to be a half-hour walk (I'm giving it an hour now so I can go s-l-o-w-l-y) each way - I just hope the good fortune remains!