Let it Snow…
The following is an excerpt from a letter to a friend of mine back in the States (With pictures added here.)
It snowed. While that may not be a big
event elsewhere, and although it would be something along the lines of a
minor irritation back home in the mountains of Northern Utah, snow in Pusan
is quite an event. This snow was the worst snow storm in Pusan history..at
least since they began keeping records. We got about 6 to 8 inches last
Saturday night.
I rode my motorcycle to work on Saturday morning. I had a lot of work to
do, so I was there until late in the evening. Around 4 p.m., I noticed a
few snow flakes falling. That was nice. Around 5:30 p.m., i noticed that
the snowflakes were still few and far between, but they were very, very
big. Around 7p.m. the snow started to get heavier and heavier. Looking
out my window, I realized that this snow storm was going to be much worse
than the regular snowfall Pusan gets once every year or two.
I finished work around 10 p.m. and left the office to go home. Leaving the
building, the first thing I noticed was how empty the streets were. No
buses, not taxis.
While I was standing there contemplating the situation, I had a strange thought enter my mind. I flashed back to my childhood and found that the lamp post next to my office reminded me of the lamp post in C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
I had no idea how I was going to get home. I certainly
wasn’t taking the motorcycle.
I walked a few minutes up the street to the bridge that goes to the island
where I live.
It was closed down. Even if it had been open, there were no
cars to take me anywhere.
I knew there was no way I could get home, so I went across town by subway
to stay the night with my brother. I woke up in the morning to clear skies
and slushy roads.
It was sort of a post-apocalyptic nightmare version of traffic. It was
difficult to find someone to get me home.
Eventually I gave up trying to get a taxi and there were no buses running. I took the subway most of the
way across town and then found a taxi willing to take me home. I had to hike up the icy driveway to my home because of a large collection of snowed-in cars at the bottom of the driveway.
By late afternoon, the roads had mostly cleared, so I took a drive to Haeundae Beach to look around. It was interesting to see snow on the beach.
There was a lone musician playing on the beach selling his CDs.
After listening to the wandering minstrel for a while, I watched the sun set and went for dinner.
