Asia Update #23 - Snow

It snowed on Sunday. Started some time during the night and didn't stop until late afternoon. The papers said we got about 8 inches in Seoul, though I would have guessed that it was a bit less. I spent the morning tromping around and taking pictures. Figured I could catch the stillness that snow brings with it, plus find some sanctuary from the hordes of tourists who are normally there. Turned out I was partially right…

This is the second time I have shown this pagoda on my web site (the first was in my first update). I had to fight my way to get a picture of this. Turned out that many other people had the same idea about the stillness, so the normal tourists were replaced by a horde of amateur photographers. There were literally dozens of people around this place with cameras. Theirs looked much more professional than my little point and shoot digital deal. The best locales were covered with cameras on tripods (plus their owners and gear bags). And it was hard to get a shot without anyone else showing up in the background. But I did get a few shots and this one seemed to be about the best.

The one above is from the palace located close to my apartment. I thought this one showed great contrast between the colors of the palace and the grays/whites of the snow covered hill. This palace is being restored and definitely has very recent paint on it, making its colors stand out even more than the other palaces. And it isn't as well known, so it is much easier to have the best photo vantage points place to yourself.

By the way - my standard jogging route takes me all the way around this palace, including on a narrow footpath through the trees on the hillside. Guess I have to wait for the snow to melt some before I use this route again.

Turned out to be one of the largest snow falls on record. Seoul sure doesn't seem to know how to handle the snow, given that I didn't see a single snow plow while I was out (though I did see a single sanding truck, but it wasn't sanding at the time). Most of the secondary roads are just packed down snow (more like ice now than snow).

Received a new AM/FM/Cassette/CD player as a gift from my company. Well, I did have to pay $20 for it. And it wasn't something I really wanted. Kind of funny, thinking back on it. Raychem Korea gives gifts to its employees on Foundation Day (the anniversary of the day that the company was formed in Korea). I heard about this, but figured I wasn't getting one because I am really a US employee. The person who ran this gift giving was the Admin Manager. We don't have a similar position in the States, so I still really don’t know for sure what his duties are. But one of them is to find out what the employees want for a gift, and arrange for it. But he doesn't speak English that well or he is afraid of me or something, so he never asked me. Somehow or other he decided that the radio was the one for me. Maybe it was the most expensive option, so was fitting of my position? Maybe the girls in the office felt I need a CD player (I have an AM/FM/Cassette player, but no CD player except my laptop)? For whatever reason, it was chosen as my gift and I was given it. Then I was told that it was over the budget for gifts, so I owed about $20. Oh, the final kicker is that I can't take the radio home with me when I return to the states - it runs off of 220 volts.