So… did you notice it’s cold?
Or as the well-spoken young lady at the bus stop said, “It’s cold. It’s cold. It’s cold. Oh! It’s cold. It’s cold. It’s cold. It’s cold. It’s cold.”
But cold is OK with me: see, I’ve actually found a few things about Winter that I actually like.
1. Miscommunicating with my wife. On the same day, my lovely wife will describe the weather as “It’s really, really cold! Better be ready, or you’ll have a bad time!” and I will describe the weather as “Yeah, it’s a bit cold today.”
So that when she tells me about the weather, I overdress… a lot. And when I tell her about the weather, she underdresses. A lot. This is just entertaining, and leads to some fun teasing.
(the best part? my mother-in-law overstates the cold at exactly the same rate as my wife)
2. The opportunity for chivalry: I always advise every male I know to carry an extra pair of mittens, or a scarf they don’t need, when they meet their lady-friends in Korea, because there’s a saying in Korea that “A fashionable woman is cold in the winter” (as Wifeoseyo translated it to me). Because I always have some extra warm-gear in my pockets, I can give them to her at the drop of a hat, and dear readers, she loves it.
Chivalry, you see, is not quite dead yet in Korea, as far as I can tell.
3. Ondol.
Them heated floors are so, so, so great. Back in Canada, the thing I hated most about winter was having cold feet… but here, I almost never do, because of the lovely heated floors. Thank you, Ondol: you have improved my winters by 200%, just on your own.
4. Jimjilbangs.
The perfect (heated floor) place to go warm up in a hot pool.
And here’s the best jimjilbang I’ve been to in Seoul: right next to Yonsei University, called “Hanbangland” (I scanned their business card once: here it is.)
5. Balgan Naebok
The long underwear section in Korea is awesome, because it’s so egregiously unfashionable: the long underwear there is called “bbalgan naebok” (빨간내복) or “red under clothes”
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