Weather

Before coming to Korea I had been told that the summers are hot and humid and the winters are cold and snowy. Ok, thats cool, I figured it would be just like Virginia weather...not!

It may be humid in Virginia, but at least it cools down at night and the humidity drops. Here it is humid 24 hours a day and the temperature doesn't drop much overnight. Getting up to jog at 7am seems like a good idea until I get outside and feel like I'm swimming through the air. The air is so thick that it hits you like a wall. I have never experienced humidity like this before. The weird part too, is that it may be a nice 75 degrees out, but with the humidity it will feel like 85 and I won't stop sweating. I try to tell myself that it's only 75 degrees and that I must have a sweating problem because this is ridiculous, but then I look around me and realize that even the plants on the side of the street are sweating from the humidity. (it's weird, something I've never seen before)

Along with the humidity, this is also the rainy season. That means that it rains at least four times a week, and when it rains, it pours. I really enjoy it actually...well, when I'm not walking to school that is. The walk from Heathers and my apartment to school is about a 15 minute walk. In the spring time weather it was a wonderful walk in the warm sunshine filled with rose lined sidewalks. Now in July though, it's the walk of death. If it's pouring rain outside and I'm walking to work, by the time I get there just about all of me is wet but my head and shoulders. I think maybe I should get a poncho or something...although, I don't see anyone wearing ponchos here. It is pretty funny to see delivery guys on their mopeds in full rain suits driving through the rain though. (I wonder where I could get a rain suit...) So then on the days that it's not raining, it's just plain humid outside. I have to wear one set of clothes to work, and then change out of those humidity soaked clothes into to a dry set of clothes at work. It's crazy!!! I think I'm just damp all of the time now. Especially in our apartment because all heather and I have between the two of us is one little fan and a window that opens into the back ally where there is no cross breeze whatsoever.

So far it's been a steamy hot and humid summer. At least in a few weeks we will be vacationing on Jeju Island where maybe it will be cooler and if not then at least the ocean can cool us off. Then I will dread August, the worst month of summer in Seoul, where apparently the humidity is unbearable. The Koreans say, 'oh this humidity is nothing, just wait until August!'