Cold in Korea

It's cold, cold, cold here in South Korea right now. If the frost on the windows wasn't any sort of indication, the frigid outside and the numbers from the weather websites I follow certainly confirm it. In fact, per Yonhap News (in English of course), Record cold snap grips Korean Peninsula.

As of right now, which is 10:52AM here in Korea (that would be 8:52PM in the EST time zone) the temperature is -15 °C and the high is -2 °C. Last night's low temperature was also -18 °C. Needless to say it's extremely cold. 
The bus is a welcome change from the cold temperatures, but we still do a lot of walking to and from certain 
places due to our location. We've also run into issues of frozen pipes downstairs in the school kitchen due to
the temperature. Fortunately, our boiler seems to be doing well enough that we get water for showers and have
water for the upstairs plumbing. It's the little things.

Speaking of little things, a McDonald's opened up near us (a few blocks walk away) which we've visited once
and will probably be frequenting since it's convenient, in addition to being cheaper than back in the US. We think
the quality is better too. :)

Another little thing, for me anyway... I tried these prize machines back when we first got here, but only recently 
have I actually played them more. Basically, in the bottom left corner there is a rod with a white cap on the end
and you use the pink joystick on the left side to move it to the right or left and then use the big white button to 
raise the rod upward from wherever you moved it horizontally. Then you cross your fingers and hope that it
pushes your desired item to the back to drop down at the bottom for you to take home. 

I have come to greatly enjoy these games because they're cheap, have entertaining things in them oftentimes, and 
they're just kind of fun and something kind of neat to do when there isn't much else in winter. I even won this cute 
little husky (also known as Brownie) for 2000won or two tries. 

Otherwise, we've visited the foreigner bars around here for Western food, but have been inside much more. Our
current pastimes? Video games, reading, browsing various websites (I'm on Pinterest a lot lately), and going out 
for things we may need or want. Someone posted a picture in the local Facebook group with the text "Apart 
from drinking, there is absolutely nothing to do here" and it is a sentiment that I feel is pretty accurate. That said, 
if skiing or snowboarding is your thing I know that is something to do. With the frigid temperatures lately I think I
prefer to stay inside though!

On a final note before we head out to do a little bit of shopping. I was given this adorable card(??) by one of my students, James, for the new year. It is adorable and sweet and I will have to get a better picture of it.

Otherwise, I hope everyone's 2013 is off to a good start! We're off to trudge into the snow to pick up a few things, including lunch (and if I'm lucky a play on those fun games, even if it is cold).