Well folks, we survived our first typhoon. There wasn't much to actually survive here in Busan, thankfully, because it actually hit the other side of South Korea. We did, however, get quite a bit of rain, a lot of wind, and we seemed to lose our beach for a day due to the high tide and big waves.
I took these pictures from our condo on the 5th floor. The wind was so strong that it took quite a bit of muscle to open the window. Even though I know we're safe here, I couldn't help but think how happy I am that we're up high and have another 11 stories to go up to if the need ever did arise.
This is what it looked like when we woke up Tuesday morning.
About mid day, it stopped raining and a sliver of sun shined its head on us, so out came people on bicycles, people lunching on the sea wall, and people cleaning up the trash that washed ashore. Oh, the birds came out too to eat whatever they could find that didn't make its way back in the water.
It wasn't long before another wave of yucky weather came with even higher tides that reached the sea wall. There was a time when I couldn't see any sand. Talk about a complete difference from how it looked just four days ago with all the people and umbrellas!
Here's what the beach looked like the day after all this yuckiness. Back to normal. Woo hoo!
Trash was piled up here and there that had washed ashore during the storm.
The police car was out patrolling the beach. Every now and then, from inside my condo, I'd hear its sirens going off, and I'd look out to see the men getting out of their little cart to tell people to come back in closer from being out in the water. I'm not sure if they didn't want people so far out due to the recent storm or if this is something they're going to do from now on since the lifeguards are no longer on the beaches for the summer. Who knows. That's Korea for you. There are just some things we can't explain here, and this seems to be one of them.
Oh, and I have to leave you with this little nugget. This also survived the typhoon....the crazy lady that sits on THIS bench every single day. Well, except for the time she walked up to us on the beach and offered the boys some candy. Yes, I'm serious. With all the stuff she carries with her, I'm inclined to believe she's homeless, but, again, who knows. Some days she's silent (like she was when the umbrella was covering her face below). Five minutes later she starts yelling who knows what in Korean really loud to her invisible friend. And that, my friends, is why I've named her Crazy --- as in, "Hey babe. We saw Crazy at the beach today."
