(6) 90 in 90: Korea Heat

Korea is humid and hot. Hardly groundbreaking news to anyone who has lived in Korea for an extended period of time, but for me, its been almost two years living in Korea and I still can't get accustomed to the heat.

I grew up in Indiana. Located in the Midwest part of the US, where summers would occasionally get hot, but it was never anything that could be considered extreme. Even when the heat would climb higher in the summer, the humidity wouldn't ever become too unbearable. To me, those hot summer days were the definition of "hot" summer days.

Once I came to Korea, I learned the true definition of hot summer days. I knew what it meant to be hot.

Where I live in Korea is the central most area of Korea, only an hour away from Daegu, the largest city in the Gyeongbuk-do region. While this means that the winters are usually not as cold as Seoul or Incheon, it means that the summers are significantly hotter and more humid.

Home is still really hot in Korea

The act of simply stepping outside on a typical summer day will usually result in my body sweating profusely and my shirt becoming drenched in sweat in a record amount of time. I used to enjoy walking to school every morning, but during the summers it becomes an impossibility.

The humidity is what makes the summers so ridiculously hot. It often adds up to 5 extra degrees to the overall temperature and makes the air thick with moisture, making even the simple act of breathing a uncomfortable experience.

This makes the air conditioner and water my two best friends during the summer.  I am constantly running the aircon, making my house a cool environment that at times almost feels too cold, a much preferred alternative to the hot and humid outside. During the summer, I am constantly drinking water, even when my bladder feels like it will burst and my thirst has been quenched ten times over. I feel this constant paranoid, creeping feeling that my skin and body is rapidly loosing moisture to the heat and I am constantly trying to recover it.

This also makes school a sometimes sticky experience, as my school is an older building and the principal of the school constantly request that we run the air conditioner the least amount of times possible to save energy. I hope Korea appreciates our sacrifice, because I'm certain that both the teachers and students do not.

There are much hotter and much more humid places in the world, but for now, Korea is the hottest and most humid one I have been to yet. Maybe one day I'll get used to the humidity and heat. Maybe one day I'll welcome the sweat slicked back and soaked shirt. Maybe one day I'll embrace the heat of Korea and welcome it like I welcome other things in life that start as annoyances but eventually become routine parts of life.

Maybe one day I'll learn to walk on water as well.

*for those who ask if the rainy season that Korea gets makes the weather more bearable: no, it does not. It just makes things wetter and more humid.