Summer Nights...

are getting less comfortable! At night and in the mornings I could get a nice cool breeze going through my apartment, due to the fact my apartment wasn't surrounded by buildings and it sits up on a hill away from the rest of the city. Unfortunately, my cool breezes are losing out to the rising temperatures of Korea's most formidable season: summer. Just like a North Carolina summer, the humidity forces temps into uncomfortable stickiness. Just standing still you sweat and feel like melting into a pile of goo. The people who say Koreans don't sweat are crazy; I see--and smell--the evidence! Imagine that one if you will...

With the rise in temperatures also comes monsoon season. From June to late August we see a marked increase in rainfall and thunderstorms from the shifting winds in Asia. These aren't your garden-variety thunderstorms, however. We're talking constant rain, all day, for days on end. Rain that falls so fast and so hard it seems like a sheet of water is pouring down. You can't see anything more than a few inches in front of you. Drains can't funnel off the water fast enough so flash flooding quickly brings this city of 1.5 million to a grinding halt. Last year I was privy to a Noah's ark feeling when the taxi I was riding in with a friend began to float on the street as the rainwater rose higher and higher. It was halfway up the car door before our driver decided to take another route to downtown. (And that was just the beginning of the taxi ride from hell...)

I am prepared for the monsoons, I've got my umbrellas and rain boots to wade through any rivers Mother Nature will throw my way. Let's just hope that none of my taxis will turn into boats this summer!