I Don't Get... Open Doors and Windows in Winter

My father prided himself on how long he could hold out before the family bitched enough to fold to turning on the heat in the winter. Korea takes this pride to a whole new level.

Yesterday was a very pleasant winter day, for February, that was disguised as a normal spring day. Temperatures were somewhere around the mid 40s. The sun was shining and morale

 was high thanks to the winter heat wave, relief. Upon walking into my school at 1:00 PM I find the heating is on full blast. Which it really didn't need be but was. Its not the fact that the heat blasting on this day perplexed me as I entered but more so that it wasn't on days in November when the temp was 6.

Turns out that Korea simply does not turn on the heat until December.

Students and teachers during that time wore coats and scarves while they were at school. Some classrooms were lucky enough to have a small portable heater, but not all. For two months now there is one student I have yet to see without his long black coat and neck warmer.

OK, I get the whole, 'Lets be thrifty' mantra. Everyone survived, we saved a buck, and the environment won out. I can roll with it, I understand. Until, that is, when December comes round and its open season for the heating units. During dark and harsh winter days with the temperatures in the Baltics outside, and the heat finally on, one can find windows open not by just a crack to let in fresh air, but by full extension and double doors pried wide like a church welcoming parishioners on Sunday.

I don't get it.

Too, hallways in the buildings that separate the businesses are not heated, as well as the entrances, stairwells, and bathrooms. Yes, bathrooms. As such, nature waits for me until I get home.

Turns out that traveling and living abroad not only supplies you with new experiences and stories but also new pet peeves.