Monsoon

It's officially monsoon season in Korea. That means I carry my umbrella every day and wear my rain boots every other day. I've stopped checking the weather forecast because I just assume there will be rain at some point every single day.

Yesterday was the worst storm I've experienced in Korea. I stepped out of my apartment and there was at least an inch of water gushing down the street. No exaggeration. I got to the bottom of the street and there was probably 4-5 inches of standing water already. From my door to the taxi stand is about a 5 minute walk, and even with an umbrella, in those short 5 minutes I got soaked. Soaked. Good thing I didn't spend much time on my hair.

It rains a lot here but there is never thunder and lightning. I've heard thunder twice in a year and a half. The first time was about a month ago, and the second time was yesterday. I was standing outside waiting to cross the street and there was a huge crack of thunder. Everybody around me froze, like they had no idea what was going on and were afraid to move. I just smiled. Then there was some lightning and I think I heard a woman scream.

I took the train to Busan for church yesterday. This is what the train tracks are supposed to look like:

And this is what they looked like yesterday:

We sat there for 45 minutes. I think maybe the conductor was waiting for the water to recede, but that obviously didn't happen. Eventually he just went for it and we were fine.

And while I was on the train this was happening in Busan:

This is the main road right in front of our building, and this is my pastor and 2 others wading through at least 3 feet of water. Thank goodness that was gone by the time I got there, because I might have just turned around.