The First Snow in Seoul

This morning, I saw tiny specks of ice scatter outside my window. Naturally, I was really excited.  The first snowfall of the year made it feel like Christmas was coming soon. More importantly, though, it brought me relief. 

After my blog post in November, the weather became surprisingly warm...almost to the extent that my friends and I joked that Spring was already here. The temperature stayed in the range of 11.3℃ to 8.3℃. It was worrying, because it actually seemed like the rest of nature had also skipped Winter. Flowers - famous for coloring February through April in shades of saffron and lavender pink - appeared in the middle of November. In small numbers, Forsythia and Azalea bloomed. It was surreal to see tiny flowers and buds beside snowflakes. Now, it finally feels like the winter holiday season has arrived. With the thermometer pointing below 0℃, I'm hopeful that the seasons will go back to normal. 

Here are some pictures I took today. The photos in the beginning don't show any snow but scroll down for the ones that do!

If I had seen this a few months later I would have been really happy...
instead of worrying about what would happen to it

Clumps of green and yellow

Can you see the buds up there?

"Caster Sugar", remember?

The next pictures were taken at Yangjaecheon.

Quite deserted

Try comparing the depth of water shown in other pictures
of the skipping stones in previous Yangjaecheon posts!

For those who have been waiting for my posts on climate skepticism ("Skeptics and Deniers"), I'm sorry for the delay. I will be uploading a post this week - an analysis on the book 'Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years" and the science related to some of the content in the book.

Winter Knocking On Our Door

Last week came the first snowfall of the year. Sitting inside during Korean Literature class, I barely knew what was happening outside until someone squealed out loud. All students' heads turned toward the high windows and within seconds, several had already gone to put the blinds up all the way. It was pretty surreal; the tiniest ice flowers danced down, reaching the surface below with such lightness. Flakes melted the moment they touched the glass our foreheads were pressed against. One disappeared before my eyes like a dream, only leaving a drop that slid down in its wake. *

I tried to capture that special moment onto a picture - the burst of childish excitement and buoyant ecstasy. But the flakes were simply too small to show up clearly...and besides, our teacher had already hollered at us to get back to our seats after his own brief instant of sheer wonder. 

Below are  photos taken recently that embody the mood of the coming winter. One was taken by my friend on the day of the snowfall -  who amazingly took a picture at the very minute the sky turned sepia!

* This reminds me of the story of Bentley - the man who discovered and photographed snowflakes for the first time. From a very young age, he was greatly interested in snow. Using the microscope that his school teacher mother had given him, he attempted to take pictures of the snowflakes. One of the hardest things was capturing them onto film before they melted away. Still, in the end he succeeded in his life mission, and presented to all of humanity the microscopic beauty that had been utterly ignored before. What Bentley said about snowflakes goes well for many other things in life, I think: "No two snowflakes are alike."

Taken by Hyo Jung Ryu

It wonderfully paints the change of seasons. 

You can see snowflakes if you look closely! 

A photo taken hastily on the way out. 

Snow sprinkled on the top of the bike shed. 

Snow among the late autumn leaves

The last of the Ginkgo seeds tumbled onto the ground

An upside-down leaf-chandelier?