Everyone was sort of dozing off in class today. Not to mention that the people who usually arrive early arrived just before class started. They all say that it's the weather today. It's cloudy.
It hasn't often been cloudy here. Just sometimes you can't see the sky for the pollution (yea I know... "just"... It's amazing how quickly we human beings adjust). But today was a regular cloudy day which meant that it was likely either going to rain or snow depending on the temperature. In truth it ended up both raining and snowing.
I had told my roommate that it would feel like a shame to stay inside all day so we needed to do something new, and so on my way home I receive a message that reads: "I have two amazing ideas!"
As expected her first idea was to go to Suwon...
But the weather was so not made for it. But her second idea was good and was a thought that struck my mind earlier in the day too.
When we use the kitchen (the facilities are only two microwaves and toasters so the menu is usually ramen), we often look out of the dirty windows. We can see the ECC (the main campus complex), but we can also see a mountain which is also visible from our terrace in our room.
We often look up at this mountain to judge the pollution level. If we can see the tower at the top then the pollution is not too bad but if we can't then we're in trouble.
But on this mountain, a little further down from the radio tower, there is also a buddhist temple. It looks pretty from here, but we can only see the top of it.
Since we first noticed it over two months ago, we've been talking about trying to go up there some day, and today we finally did.
At first I felt a little silly for having taken my umbrella, but then as we walked up the hill towards the temple, it began to rain a little, but when we were there it was snowing and it was beautiful.
It felt like being back in Southern France, because the snow never reached the ground. It melted as soon as it touched the ground, but now, in the evening, it's a little colder and the snow has settled briefly on rooftops and the road, but it will be gone by tomorrow. Not because it won't be cold enough for snow tomorrow. It will be much colder tomorrow, but because snow is cleared very quickly here.
It's good that it's cleared quickly because Seoul is pretty much built on and in between a bunch of mountains, so there are hilly roads everywhere, and the weather here goes from a few days of warmer weather to a few days of really cold weather. If there is snow lying on the ground when the weather switched from warmer to cold, that snow turns into bundles of ice, and then the ground becomes really slippery and dangerous.
The temple was beautiful, as expected. And especially so under the snow.
Now we know what it looks like up there. And on the way we also saw a really cosy looking restaurant that we may have to test out as well. Exploring is always good.
Also... (crucial information) on the way up the hill towards the temple there was a an exercise/playground with two trampolines!
It was awesome!