Surviving Winter

I’ve been hearing from news reports almost on a daily basis that “tomorrow will be colder than today.” Today’s news is no exception. It was -10 degrees today in Seoul but of course, the “real feel” is a lot lower than that. I also thought that today was the coldest by far this winter and it wasn’t even windy.

We’ve been turning on the heater a lot these days compared to the previous winters. Last year, I would only turn on the boiler at night, usually for around 8 hours, and turn it off during the day. This winter, we’ve been using the heater from 7PM till 11AM the following morning. The government had even announced a possible blackout due to the power demand. I hope that will never happen!

How do you survive the cold weather if you’d spent more than two decades of your life in a country where the weather is just perfect? When I go to work, I wear three layers of clothing. First, I put on thermal underwear or what we call “ne-bok” in Korean. Then I wear wool pants or jeans with lining and a wool sweater. I have five winter jackets or coats but the one that I use most often is my goose down jacket as it’s thick and it’s really warm. I rarely use my wool coat since I don’t want to spend 15,000 won (almost US$15) for dry cleaning every time I use it. Of course, I always wrap a muffler around my neck every time I go out. It really makes a big difference.

The winter weather here is quite dry. At home, I hang a wet towel in our room. I had stopped using a humidifier years ago at the recommendation of a doctor . Outside, I always carry with me a tube of hand cream – I use Atrix strong protection cream. I hate static shock! I almost always experience it whenever I touch modern furniture. There is a spray that prevents static shock but I just wear a metal wristwatch and that seems to take care of it.

It’s already the middle of January and soon winter will be over. The only thing that makes it bearable (for me!) is the thought that after winter comes spring. And oh I can’t wait for the cherry blossoms to bloom!