Toasty toes and toasty buns!

I'm starting to get restless.

I'm sitting at my desk at school, feeling terribly cold, and am dreaming of tropical escapes. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? But moments like these make me wonder what I was thinking when I decided to move to a country that experiences a similar winter to that of Toronto.

Well, I guess this wasn't the case always. Seoul is known to have winters where snow falls to the ground and melts away at once, because of all the pollution. But, this year, for some strange reason, we were given heaps and heaps of it, with no price tag at all. Well, maybe with a 'freeze your behinds off' price tag. Literally... you freeze if you're outside... and if you're not already frozen by the time you come in, you're guaranteed a frozen kaboose when you sit still or even lay on your bed inside.

This is where I need to express my thankfulness to two fabulous inventions in Korea.

First - Ondol floor heating. As someone who has cold feet 365 days of the year, I take full advantage of the amazing pockets of heat emitted from my floor. There's no better feeling than laying a pair of socks on apartment floor, only to wake up in the morning, put them on, and have instantaneous toasty toes. Ah-may-zing!!

Second - The bidet. Not for it's flushing purposes, because, believe me, the last thing I want is to have the toilet attack my... uh... special places. BUT, you know how in the winter you dread going to the bathroom because it's so frigid, so you end up holding everything in until the last possible moment? Well, you don't have to do that if you have a bidet! It has a seat-warming function! Absolutely serious here... you sit, and the next thing you know, you've got toasty buns!! Fabulous if you're suffering from the above mentioned frozen kaboose.

All that aside, I am looking forward to warmer temperatures. I miss traveling, and have been confined to Seoul for way too long. It's not that I can't travel through the rest of the country, it's just that I'd rather not, seeing as how everything is buried under a thick blanket of snow.

I must admit that this country is absolutely beautiful in the winter -- all the ancient gates and architecture, perfectly covered in snowy white... it's a sight that will be preserved in my memory for a long time to come. But I cannot wait for warmer days, so that I can really relish in all that Korea has to offer in terms of sights and scenery.

(I'll probably be eating my words here, once I start sweating buckets in the humid summer months.)

But until then, I will go on planning my tropical escape in February - destination to be determined.

Stay tuned.

This is a picture I took from my window a few days ago. I woke up to some giggling outside, and all I saw once I drew the blinds was this. Sadly, I don't share the same amount of enthusiasm for the cold as this lovely artist. But I am touched by the sentiment.

xo
SC

Image courtesy of StraightFromTheCurls