Snow place to run

You may recall that a few weeks ago I posted a lyrical ode to spring, which I was sure was about to knock on our collective metaphorical door. (If you don't recall, feel free to go look it up; I'll wait here.)

Well, much as I did, Old Man Winter headed to Korea to prove it's not too late to make an impact. I looked out my window late Tuesday evening and gazed in wonder at lovely wet white snow covering the trees and the park across from my apartment. The snow kept falling overnight and we ended up with an inch or two of the stuff.

The forecast on Wednesday called for more snow not quite warm enough to be rain, followed by rain not quite cold enough to be snow. When I got to school, I canceled cross country due to sloppy, icy sidewalks. (That, by the way, was not the usual challenge when I ran with our team in August in St. Augustine.)

I have a little balcony alongside my classroom, and the view Wednesday morning was gorgeous.

(The mountains in winter are so much more beautiful dressed in white than brown.)

Incidentally, right outside my classroom I can see the world headquarters of Hyundai/Kia:

That is not something I anticipated a few years ago when I bought that little Kia Optima.

The best thing about the snow, though, may have been the way it covered the reason I don't spend my free periods, even in nice weather, sunning myself on my balcony...

...the school is kitty-corner from the Seocho-gu recycling center; what you are looking at here is 20,307 full garbage bags. Even they are almost pretty in the snow.

After lunch, I went for a little walk; it turned out that we had The Perfect Snow: completely melted off the sidewalks and streets, ideal for packing, and covering every tree and swath of grass with a... um... snowy-white blanket. Note to self: come up with a fresher metaphor before anybody sees this.

So I canceled the cancellation of cross country. I'm glad I did. It was a beautiful day to run.

It's not exactly really genuinely authentically cross country; it's only on Mondays and Wednesdays, only one of the kids can run a half hour, we don't have anything resembling an actual course, enough people for a team, or any schools to run against, and I keep gaining and losing people from week to week and day to day:

(Deep breath...)

Timmy came out but isn't passing anything so he can't keep doing it, though he showed up dressed to run on the first day he wasn't allowed to and I had to tell him he couldn't..
Booyoung (the girl who's the one real athlete-- see previous paragraph) was failing math last week and this week forgot to get her approval form signed. (All the teachers have to sign that the kids have C's or better or they're disqualified for the next week.)
Jee (boy) had to quit because his mom insists he take TOEFL classes instead.
Ecllid (boy) is the only one who comes out every day.
Laura said she wanted to but now is too busy with study.
Geoff, the principal's son, went out once and decided that screen golf was more his style.
Hanbyel (girl) just joined.
Sheelin (girl), Jenny, and Lanie, BFF's, wanted to join, but only to walk, but Jenny couldn't get her mom to agree anyway, but, oh wait, she did. I insisted they run at least a little, so they do for a few minutes before gossiping and giggling the rest of the way. I'll try, as with all the others, to get them to run a little more each week.

(Whew! Breathe!)

So I think my roster, in the first three weeks, has numbered 4, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. I think. I think I think.

As long as anybody comes out, I can help build up their self-esteem and (ssshh...) get paid overtime for going out running, which I would do anyway. Among the teachers, my friend Chris has been meeting us each day, which leads to giggly "Helllllooo, Mr. Fontanaaaa" from the girls, who think he's a dreamboat; Susan came out with us once; Nikki and Lauren have said they will. It may turn into a nice little community-building thing.

And meanwhile the run yesterday, in the park and along the creek amid great swelling mounds of pure white snowy snowy snow, was just. really. nice. So very pretty.

Okay. NOW I'm ready for spring. Tomorrow, please. Play ball!