Winter. It's a hard time for everyone (unless you are living the envious life of forever sun and warmth). And Korea is no exception.
Every so often I get asked what winter is like in Korea, so I decided I'd make a list diving into the unpleasant bits about winter here (because, to be honest, there really aren't many positive things that I can share going into month three of winter).
Admittedly a lot of these probably apply to many places around the world.
But I can only say that I didn't experience these things where I am from which at least makes them not universal.
With that said, here are my seven woes of winter in Korea:
1. Forever dry.
Winters in Korea have been the driest periods of my life. It doesn't matter if you use a traditional air heater or not--your skin will always be a dry wasteland if you do not go the extra mile.
When I spent my first full winter in Korea I noticed that a lot of my coworkers would use facial mists (something I had never thought about even existing before outside of those old-school fan bottles we'd use in the summer to keep cool--though facial mist is apparently now a global thing?) and a lot of rooms had fairly big humidifiers.
Back home I would have considered things like that a luxury (as usually just moisturizing every so often would be enough for me). But here? They are pretty much a necessity. I moisturize my face fairly heavily before bed and only use my floor heating at a low level at night and my face and throat are still as dry as the Sahara by morning if I don't use my humidifier.
2. Forever cold bathrooms.
Never expect to have a warm bathroom experience in Korea during the winter.
Finding a warm (or just slightly chilly) bathroom is like finding treasure. Why you ask? Because at home, you likely have floor heating and at work/businesses there are likely individual space heaters.
Central heating is not an across the board thing.
This matters because without this kind of heating the bathroom is almost always neglected. With floor heating, the heating mechanisms that are used to heat a room are never placed in the bathroom. I'm not 100% sure why but I simply presume it is because the water from the shower would ruin it anyway (which is also why you can't put a space heater in there, either).
So your only option for keeping the bathroom warm is to keep the door open at all times--which wears out your door more and also makes it take longer to heat the rest of your apartment. So if you don't mind the extra costs and you don't actually own your place (i.e. you don't care about long term damage) then I guess this is pretty avoidable.
The cold bathroom in the workplace, however, is not. Almost no businesses use floor heating in their establishment. Besides major stores/department stores (which always have central heating from what I can tell), most places rely heavily on individual space heaters for each room.
Even if they have a central heating system a lot of them will try to use their space heaters as much as possible. And, as I said before, you can't really keep a space heater in the bathroom.
This is not the only reason why the bathrooms are cold, though.
For some reason (which I presume is about air circulation), it is a very common thing for bathroom windows to be left open no matter what season. So if there is a window in the bathroom you are very likely to be greeted with an icy breeze.
3. Going through different temperature zones whenever you go from classroom to classroom.
Remember the whole rant about the space heater usage in #2? That means that not only every room can be a different temperature, but the hallways can, as well.
This is something I have had to deal with at pretty much every workplace I've had here in Korea. The hallways especially tend to be colder than the classrooms. And if they forget to turn the heat on in your classroom beforehand? Well you'll just have to spend the first half of class shivering.
So it is not uncommon for people to just keep their coats on for the entirety of class (though this habit also leads to some students complaining that it is hot when the heat is on rather than just taking their coat off...yes, I'm talking about adults too).
4. Investing in a space heater--and not because your place doesn't have heating.
Since I'm on the topic of heat up time, let's go back to the topic of floor heating. Admittedly they are super nice. There is nothing quite like the feeling of having your feet warmed directly by the floor (like I can totally understand why people would sleep on the floor with these things).
The catch, though, is that floor heating takes FOREVER to warm up on its own. So if you just get home you can't expect it to give you relief in the same amount of time as central heating unless you left the floor heating on while you were out (which would frankly be expensive if you are out more than a few hours).
So if you don't want to freeze in the meantime (or totally empty out your bank account on heating), you need a space heater of some sort.
Just run it at the same time you are warming up your floor heating and turn it off when the floor is capable of keeping the place warm on its own.
5. Increased probability of a taxi driver trying to overcharge you after midnight.
It is not secret that taxi drivers in Korea, especially in Seoul and other major cities, have a habit of overcharging after the subways and buses stop running (especially if they think your destination is too close to be worth their time).
This sort of thing is illegal but still happens often. Especially during times of harsh weather condition because they know a lot of people are more desperate to get home. There are some taxi drivers that have no problem watching you freeze if you don't want to/can't cough up the extra cash.
6. Walking with your life on the line.
Okay, not literally. But still.
Most Korean cities outside the mountains seem similar to my hometown in the fact that they don't really seem to deal with snow/ice well. Whether this is because they don't know how or because they don't want to spend the money on extra man power is not something I can answer. The difference between my hometown and most cities in Korea though is that nothing shuts down just because of a bit of ice or snow.
So you are kind of just left to do your best not to slip and fall on giant ice patches or get hit by a car that might hit ice that hasn't really been dealt with. Or you can just get in trouble for not going to work. Up to you.
I went to university in the mountains so I manage but I have seen sooo many Koreans slipping and falling on the ice on the sidewalks in my time here--often taking their friends down with them.
Mind you that I think the reason why it seems like they're not that great with dealing with snow/ice removal might be in what they use. I don't know what it is, but it doesn't look like the salt that I remember seeing back home in most cases. But one of my students long ago claimed it was better for the environment *shrug* I just decided to take their word for it.
7. Frozen vomit on the streets.
Another well-known fact: Korea has a huge drinking culture here. What often follows after a night of binge drinking? Yes. Vomit.
Even though I no longer live in Seoul, I still live near a drinking hotspot so I still get my share of playing "dodge the street vomit." In the winter, though? It freezes to the ground. I really do feel bad for the workers who have to clean that up....
Bonus:
Now that I have effectively ruined your appetite, I'll end on a positive note with one thing to look forward to in winter: Winter street food/seasonal foods.
Winter street food in Korea is boss (well it's actually pretty boss during any season, but still). My favorite?
Hottoek (호떡).
It's kinda like a pancake style bread with filling (typically a sweet filling of things like brown sugar and nuts--or something to that effect). Whenever I eat one of these all my winter woes suddenly don't matter.
What are your winter woes where you are (Korea or abroad)? Share them in the comments below!
Take it easy,
