Rained OUT.

I didn't make it to my cooking class this morning.

This was on my walk to the nearest subway station this morning...those are cars.  In the water.

Although last night's decision to skip yoga was a bit on the wussy side (a steady downpour for hours and a missing umbrella) the reason for today's skipped activity was no fault of my own.  My suspicion is that I arrived on the scene shortly after it transpired - a few Korean girls and I ended up standing under an awning and taking pictures, one of them pausing to pull off her flooded rainboots and emptying them into the street.

The girl with the rainboots...notice the biker on the left.  I thought, "Well, that's ballsy!"  And then...

...once the water level reached their bike seat, they turned back.  Oops!

 When I had first started trekking in the direction of the subway station I continued into water up to my knees, considering the thunder as I rationalized that surely no lightning strikes could hit the ground in this forest of tall buildings.  Besides, I had a cooking class to get to!  Then my father's voice popped into my head...something about the possibility of damaged electrical lines and water not being a good mix - about the same time I noticed the flooded cars and buses.  I guess I'm not always the most observant person.

It's wet here in Seoul.  *insert good 'ol Minnesotan accent*  Makes ya' want to come visit, eh?

Darn.  Giggling at my foolishness, I retreated back to the awning - and was rewarded by one of the Korean girls who started a conversation with me using an impeccable British accent.  Adorable.  Everything about her was adorable - from the accent to the fantastic rainboots.  As we watched the very drenched, thin line of people coming from the direction of Hanti Station, one man noticed my foreign face and very considerately filled me in on what he had seen...no going to the subway - water up to chest level - and why yes, he would of course take a bow for the silliness of his drenched appearance (he was soaked head to toe).  A smile, a wave, and he was gone.  

How cute is this?  Some random Korean kids were posing for each other for pictures...so I took one, too!

A note on the rainstorms here - they feel different.  (DUH, Ricki - everything feels different here.  You're in Korea, for frack sake.)  But still, imagine the really heavy rains we get in Wisconsin once or twice a summer, when the raindrops feel as big as dimes, the sheer mass of water coming from the sky is a little awe-inspiring, and the streets fill to curb level and ponds form in the corn fields.  The kind of rainstorm that would have sent Grandpa Cudnohowski running for a bar of soap and heading outside to get clean.  Now imagine the intensity of that rainstorm lasting for 14 hours with some kick-butt thunder boomers thrown in, and you've got my most recent bit of night and day.  

As it's lightened up a bit outside of the coffee shop I'm writing in, I'm off now to buy a new umbrella.  And maybe I'll have to find me a pair of those fancy rainboots, too...