The Storm of the Century

This is one of the four famous palaces in Seoul. You may remember seeing pictures of it in some previous blogs. But, you may not remember seeing pictures of Hechi, the mythical creature sitting on the steps leading to the palace.

Hechi protects this beautiful structure from fire.

Hechi can be seen protecting many such buildings. In modern times, he has become the mascot of Seoul.

Hechi can be seen in many sizes, outfits, and forms.

The pictures of him that follow are all on display on the Gwangwhamun Plaza which sits in the middle of a huge multilane highway about a mile from our apartment.

In a past blog, you saw a ski slope at one end of the plaza. Here you see one of three ice skating rinks, two of the three were in operation at the same time as the ski slope.

This is the "starter" rink for little ones. This little boy was having so much fun with his poles and...skate?...sled?...hmmm.

Anyway, this is how they work! Awesome, don't you think?

This must be Easter bunny Hechi.

More experienced skaters enjoy this rink.

Maybe GI Joe Hechi or Transformer Hechi?

A third rink entertains the most skilled skaters. Keep in mind, they did the ski slope and these three skating rinks with only minimal white stuff. I guess the ice is easy(?) but, the ski slope?

How about party Hechi or Crayon Hechi?

Here in Korea, we celebrate the "holidays" until Lunar New Year which falls on February 14th this year. Tinsil and lights adorned the inside of this bus.

Now, you are probably all wondering why I named this blog, "The Storm of the Century." Let me explain. The day hadn't dawned yet on January 4th, but we got up anyway. We finished our morning preparations, put on our coats and headed out the door. As I stepped into the hallway, I noticed that there were a few friendly flakes falling from the sky. We decided to go back in and grab our umbrellas before continuing on, just in case. Umbrellas in arm, we stepped back into the hallway and started down the stairs. When I got to the bottom landing and looked outside, I decided the flakes were not as friendly as I had first thought. The ground was covered with snow. I ran back upstairs and put on some boots that had been left in the apartment from previous tenants. We were finally on our way.

The snow was several inches deep and growing. After walking down to the corner, we decided it would be safer to ride to the office rather than trying to avoid falling on slippery snow covered slopes. Several occupied taxis went slowly by, but no available ones. We decided that the bus might be a good idea.

We walked a few more blocks to the bus stop. Gosh, riding the bus must have been a really good idea, because a whole bunch of people had the same idea. We climbed onto the crowded bus and headed to Gwanghwamun Plaza to transfer to the #11 bus. We crossed the street, the Gwanghwamun Plaza, and the other side of the street to get to the bus stop, and waited. We waited... and waited... and waited. (The snow had now reached eight inches or so.) The longer we waited, the bigger the group of people waiting became. The crowd could have filled THREE buses. Our #11 bus finally came. Unfortunately, the bus was already filled to over capacity. A handful of people were able to, literally, push their way on. The rest of us didn't have a chance. We decided to walk to the post office to send some mail and warm our hands. After walking to the post office, the T-money store, and the Show store to recharge our cell phone, we walked back to the bus stop. The situation had not changed.

We decided to try for another taxi. This, too, must have been a popular idea. Taxi after taxi full of people drove slowly by. Finally, an empty taxi came by and stopped for us. We carefully made our way up the street, around two corners, and up the road toward our office. Unfortunately, this road was closed halfway up. We climbed out of the taxi, worn out from our morning adventure, and trudged up the snow covered street. It was so nice to finally reach the office, shed our winter coverings, and turn on the heater. We were soon warm and looking out the window at the now beautiful scene before us. We found out that this truly was the "storm of the century." Seoul has not received this much snow in one storm for ONE HUNDRED YEARS.

This storm eventually left Seoul blanketed in over 12 inches of snow. Now where does one put that much snow when clearing the roads?

Of course, in the empty soccor field behind our apartment. this picture does not do these hills of snow justice. If you can find the shopping card, that may help you put the size of these mountains in perspective. Keep in mind, that this snow removal happens at night, so we hear the loud clunks of dump trucks all night long.