Snow Day!

As I was washing my face this morning to prepare for work, I heard a knock on my door. I answered it, my face still white with soap, to find Andy smiling down at me. "I'm about to make your day," he said excitedly. "Lauren [our administrator] just called me and because of the snow the bus can't pick us up, so there's no school today."

It had been snowing, presumably, since before I awoke at 10 that morning; by 12:30, it was still going. After Andy's announcement I took a quick look around outside, without my winter coat but still chilled in three layers, and guessed that there must have been four inches of snow on the ground already. It was amazing--more snow in one place than I'd seen in my whole life! Andy's friend Mike, who is visiting from Oregon for a couple of weeks, said the same thing. Even Jay, our Korean friend from Chungju, commented that the city's never seen this much. As I watched cars crawl down usually-busy streets, I felt almost like I was back in San Antonio: If it even ices over, that entire city shuts down. This was beginning to look like a relaxing free day, full of updating pictures, blogging, and watching the snow fall.

As I later sat in the PC bang uploading pictures to Facebook, Andy called to invite me for some football. He said that he, Brandon, his friend Mike, and Jay were going and I was welcomed to join them. I told him I wasn't quite dressed for it, as in anticipation of work I had decided to wear my nice wool skirt and insulated high-heeled boots; but it sounded like fun. Though I don't really like football, I told him I could at least throw some snowballs at him. When he called back as they were leaving, I decided that, dressed for the occasion or not, it was a worth-while excursion, and headed out to join them.

The snow was deep as I arrived--I sank nearly to my knees just crossing the field to them! It had stopped for an hour or so in the afternoon, long enough for me to finish my chores and walk downtown. But it started up again as I left the PC bang and made my way to the elementary school field where the guys were. It continued to snow the longer we stayed, not quite blizzard-fast, but not like simple flurries. Mike commented that it felt like he was getting hit with mini-snowballs just standing there. As we left, we estimated that it had snowed somewhere between five and six inches that day.

We played around for about an hour, throwing snowballs and the football back and forth. I didn't catch the ball but once, choosing instead to play with God's naturual toy. I asked Andy to take a picture of me making a snow angel and shouted triumphantly each time my snowball hit its mark. Jay snow-plowed us all, rapidly throwing handfulls of powder knee-high and upward, as we tried in vain to ward off his frantic attacks. It felt like someone was stopping hard on his skis right into my face. "I love snow!" he exclaimed passionately.

In the middle of our frolic, three Koreans crossed the field. I'm unsure what they were up to, but as we passed the football around, one shouted, "Pass me!" We threw the ball a few times, then the suggestion was made to form a game. If everyone played, my high-heeled, skirted self included, we'd have four against four. Jay joined his compatriates and it became the Koreans against the Americans. The Americans led the game, with 14 to 7 when we called it quits. I ran around a bit with them, enough to lose my camera briefly in the snow, and tried once to catch the ball or tackle whoever had it. Though I didn't play very well, I marveled that my first real football game was played in the snow in South Korea, instead of dry, flat Texas. I was the only girl that afternoon, but I didn't mind. I felt like one of the guys, oddly included like I was growing up with my brothers.