Rain

It's wet season. I have seen some sun since I've been here, and always when I'm in a classroom, but the sky has generally been monotonously grey and ominous. What's mildly irritating is that it's rained both days of all three weekends since I've been here, so whenever I've been out looking at/for stuff, I come back clammy and unfulfilled. Can't say I've seen Seoul in the best light yet. Literally.

This was the demoralising view from my window on Saturday morning:


Today, I boarded the subway intending to go one stop to Nowon, because I hadn't been there during the day and sober yet, and it's just on my doorstep. It was actually even a bit sunny when I left. Umbrellaless, on arriving at Nowon I saw the rain tipping down and stayed there on the nice dry train. So, plan B. Except I didn't have a plan B, so I kept sitting. I eventually ended up on the other side of the city at the World Cup stadium. This:


Plus, it worked: it wasn't raining here! Not much anyway.

Koreans really loved football for four weeks in 2002. It's still popular, but the interest has subequently waned, meaning there's little demand for a however-many-thousand-seater stadium. So they made it into another mall. I walked around it, thinking I might be able to have a look at the pitch or something, but unless I missed it, you can't. I did walk around the concourse surrounding the stadium, which was nice as it was only raining a bit, and for the first time pretty much ever in Seoul, I was all alone. Grey, wet solitude! Look!



The upshot of all this climactic inclemency is that I have a bastard cold. My health's not exactly been complimented by the lifestyle either though. Alongside eating lots of spicy food and junk and few vegetables, realising too late that I'd eaten month-out-of-date noodles was quite unpleasant. Couple this with the regular needless all night benders that I'm slowly getting used to here, means that I'm glad I brought all the drugs with me... Mmmm Strepsils.

Oww, negative talk. OK, it's mainly the weather that's causing this mild ire. Despite all that complaining I'm still enjoying it all. This could change: from Monday for a month the older kids are on school holidays. This means they still come to us in the afternoon, but also in the morning, so we all have several extra classes to teach every day. Overtime though. Think of all the lovely wons.

Lastly, spare a thought for all the people at Seoul mud festival this weekend. I can't decide if lots of rain is good or bad for a festival of mud.