Traffic issues

Seoul isn't prepared for heavy snow. People don't know how to drive in it. Many of the streets are steep and narrow. Cars don't have snow tires or chains. I saw one snow plow over the course of a week. A middle-aged Korean woman I talked to said she'd never seen one before.

This little green bus runs in my neighborhood. I stood waiting for it the morning of the snow for a good chunk of time until a Korean woman told me it wouldn't be coming because it couldn't get up the hill. The same thing happened in the opposite directions two days later. Same bus and same woman, though this time it trudged (can buses trudge?) a few hundred feet before stopping at the beginning of a hill and disgorging all the passengers.

It took a few days before the bus started running again. Fortunately, I don't especially mind walking to and from the subway. This week that walk included sliding on the ice and falling on my butt more than once.

A side note about the green buses--I'm always amazed at how small they are. Maybe as many as 20 people can fit in one if nobody minds that sardine feeling. But none of the men in my family would be able to stand up. For that matter, neither would my sister.