We experienced our first snowfall in South Korea on Friday Dec. 9. Earlier that morning Jonathan had mentioned that the weather seemed to have gotten a bit drier and he guessed we might have snow soon. By mid-morning we were doing our best to teach while the flakes steadily fell outside our classroom windows. It snowed off and on throughout the day, but no snow ever accumulated on the ground. The next Friday was dreadfully cold. Jonathan and I were
visiting a nearby Buddhist temple with one of my religion students when the first flakes started falling and by the time we got back to our apartment the snow was sticking to the ground! We took some pictures to document the experience and hoped the snow would stay this time. But by the next morning there was barely a trace left. "Must be a weekend thing," we started commenting to each other. But the third time was the charm. This Sabbath morning we woke up and found a good two inches of snow covering the parking lot and playground below our apartment! We spent a couple hours traipsing around Cheonan in the snow, reveling that winter (the kind with cold AND snow) had made a real appearance. I'm sure most of the people who saw us snapping pictures left and right thought we were crazy tourists, but we wanted to make the most of the large snowfall before it, too, disappeared, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Amazingly enough, this time the snowfall wasn't just a weekend thing. It stayed overnight and we had snow for Christmas as well! Since then it hasn't got above 0 Celcius for long enough to melt any of it so we still have snow, although it's mostly ice now. Here are some of the pictures from our snowy walk.
 |
| Snowy car |
 |
| Dr. Seuss trees |
 |
| umbrella |
 |
| Mystery shot - Ali |
 |
| Winter slide - Ali |
 |
| Snowy playground |
 |
| Bikes with snow - Ali |
 |
| Numbers - Ali's idea |
 |
| Our apartment complex from afar |
 |
| A random fake rock |
One thing we've wanted to get pictures of before we left Cheonan is the monument to Yu Gwan-Soon. She was a student from Cheonan who organized a demonstration for independence from the Japanese occupying Chungcheongnam-do (South Chungcheong Province) in March 1919 when she was 16. Both her parents were killed by Japanese police during the demonstration and she was arrested and imprisoned. While in prison Yu Gwan-Soon continued to protest for Korea's independence and she died on October 12, 1920, reportedly as a result of torture. Her last words were,
"Japan shall fall... my fingernails may fall off, my nose and ears cut off, my hands and legs broken. I can bear the pain. But the pain of losing my country, I cannot bear. That I only have one life to give for my country, it is my only sadness." Read more about Yu Gwan-Soon
here.
 |
| The statue of Yu Gwan-Soon |
 |
| The whole monument - Ali |
 |
| Snowy flag - Ali |
 |
| The other side - Ali |
 |
| A big Christmas tree |
 |
| A waterwheel outside a restaurant |
 |
| Reflections |
 |
| Strange wall |
 |
| Satellite man outside the Korea Telecom building |
 |
| A pretty Eastern European lady |
 |
| Slide |
 |
| A gazebo near our apartment - Ali |
