Much of January and February I seriously deliberate avenues of escape from Seoul; winter is just so chillingly oppressive. (This year I applied for a transfer--highly unlikely because I'm at the bottom of the priority list, explored on-line buying a house in Hawaii, and dallied with retirement options!) For a good part of March I remain ambivalent about Seoul's potentially redeeming qualities. And then spring springs! Although it emerged a week to ten days later than it did last year, I returned from spring break to a Seoul fully arrayed in springtime regalia: delicate cherry blossoms in palest pink flutter in the breeze; blooming tulip trees landquidly drop their petals--thick and heavy, white or dusky rose--on sidewalks and patches of grass; forsythia splash and spray arcs ablaze in yellow; tulips cluster in crimson brilliance. My heart thrills, and hope floats again with the promise of spring.
Springtime on an army garrison.
(Somehow, though, in the flurry of preparing grades before spring break and then decamping to Singapore and Cambodia for ten days, I missed the daffodils...because I distinctly remember there were daffodils my first spring in Seoul!)
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