The pictures here were taken about three weeks ago when Seoul and its vicinity enjoyed a surprising amount of snow that stayed for a few days, long enough for children to get some delight while parents met transportation and housing difficulties. The snow was, however, a time for at least one family to spend time together and build a snowman that looked surprisingly like the Cheju Island harubang (traditional grandfather stone - pictured) with its bulging eyes.Ice-skates would be a needless expense as ice is rather uncommon for any length of time. However, shoes and boots work perfectly well, especially when father gets some out-of-office exercise and drags his screaming daughter across the ice in zippy play.
The time to play with children - as is evident by parents and their offspring in parks and public places - is until the children reach middle-school age. After that time, seeing parents and children together gets to be rather uncommon. Part of this is due to the "education hell" that children compete against through high school in order to get good grades for enterting a prestigious university. But until that time, kids can enjoy time spent with their parents and 눈설매 (snow sledding) is a favorite for the little kiddies.
I couldn't resist posting this picture because it just shows how uncommon a big snow is and what means of snow removal must be used. These two "snow removal" vehicles are little more than toys but they had to do suffice. The smallest one in the foreground could barely move the little scoop of snow as it just couldn't get traction on the tiled walkway.
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