After
causing a significant amount of damage in China and Japan, the
long awaited typhoon Bolaven finally hit the Korean Peninsula. In Hongseong, a town on the Western side of the country we are being hit hard - but
not as hard as we had expected. In the days leading up to the the
typhoon my co-teachers and students insisted that school would
not be
canceled. In fact, some of my students assured me that school
is never canceled
in Korea. However, there has been a significant amount of attention
from the media and, contrary to predictions, schools all over the country have been closed. When this announcement
was made yesterday, cheers of surprise and joy erupted from the 600+
students at my school and, undoubtedly, millions of other students
across the country.
This may be one of the few cases when working at a Hagwon (private academy) is preferable to working at a public school. Hagwon teachers were given the day off, while we, public school teachers, were asked to come in regardless of the fact that there would be no students. Thankfully, my school has reasonable people in authority and we were released at noon, before the winds really picked up.
By the time I arrived home, the
air was littered with garbage and the small tree that Josh and I had been gauging the wind strength with was now under a truck in the parking
lot. The great outdoors had turned hostile and unfriendly. We decided to weather the typhoon cradled safely in our officetel. Unfortunately, nature calls even at the most
inopportune times and we needed toilet paper.
Earlier in the week we had accidentally bought a scented variety of toilet tissue and so we had no choice but to get to the grocery store and exchange our smelly purchase. The walk turned out to be quite invigorating aside from the dirt in our eyes. It was exciting to watch the trees dance and get knocked around by the wind.
We decided to continue our adventure and head downtown for some Korean fast food and coffee. We spent the afternoon in the safety of our favourite coffee shop. The windows had been taped up so they wouldn't shatter if broken by debris from the strong winds. We had a nice view of the storm and we were even treated to specialized lattes.
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Business was slow so our barista treated us to some personalized coffee art.
Although we ended up enjoying an only slightly-stormy surprise day off, many other parts of Korea have not been as fortunate. To quote my friend, and fellow teacher Tijana Huysamen:
During Typhoon Bolaven 54 people became homeless, 10 people went missing and 4 people are dead...2 ships sank, 1 broke in half.. a Truck was overturned, a church steeple fell down, a few houses crumbled... and yet all of us in our concrete forts never thought it was that bad because of course Korea has diligent workers who literally clean everything up as it happens. Korea you amaze me sometimes.
At the time that I am now posting, the reports have gotten much worse. According to channelnewsasia.com
Twelve people were killed and 10 were missing after a strong typhoon pounded South Korea on Tuesday, uprooting trees, sinking ships and cutting power to almost 200,000 homes. |
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