It's getting colder now...

Well I'm sitting here in the apartment looking out of the balcony window at the thickest mist outside. The last few days it has been beautifully sunny and clear but as cold as anything.... Its amazing how quickly this has all snuck up on us. Not too long ago we were still wearing T-shirts to school and Rachel and I were commenting every day on how warm it still was. But slowly, a few days at a time, the warmer clothes crept out of the wardrobe, the apartment windows were closed and then double closed, and the ondol underfloor heating, was switched on, for an hour then two, then more. My walks into school of a morning have given me the opportunity to see how the landscape has been changing over the year. It has also been a, sometimes uncomfortable, indicator of the changing temperature.. During the summer the 20 minutes that the walk took was unbearably hot as there's no overhanging trees on the way to provide shade. Usually a couple of minutes down the road and I would be wilting from the heat. Korean skies don't seem to ever have many clouds. There also doesn't seem to have been any temperate middle ground. It seems like it went from very hot one month to very cold the next. No chance for an easy "cool period"!

Every morning over this last month I have had to add a little bit more to my outfit to beat the cold. First it was swapping t-shirt for long sleeve top, then adding a thin jacket. Next I added a scarf, then the jacket became a thin coat and the one top became two layered tops.. My cropped summer trousers went into a box to be sent on and out came the warmer jeans. Last week saw the woollen beret, leg-warmers (yes, they are very popular here..) and the furry boots. This week I have been wearing my big furry coat and I bought a new pair of gloves. The last thing I have yet to wear, and therefore admit it is full on winter, is my thick hat with earflaps. I was hoping to try and build up my resistance slowly to the cold, but Im too much of a cold wuss. I hope I haven't peaked to soon as there's still five weeks to go, it could get a lot colder yet....

I was hoping to try and build up my resistance slowly to the cold, but Im too much of a cold wuss.