In Korea: no white until after labor day

Rain pours down on the Korean peninsula from late June to late July during what Koreans call jang ma, the Korean rainy season. With violently pouring rain, humidity, and forty-minute body-to-body subway rides, it's not the best time of year to come to Seoul.

July becomes August and the weather takes an immediate and dramatic turn. Sunshine, blue skies, and intense heat have replaced gray skies and rain, though the humidity lingers. A new season of Korean weather, bok nal--the hot days--has begun. The first ten days of bok-nal are notoriously awful, so awful that many manufacturing companies--including Korean car companies Hyundai and KIA--close down rather than continue production at much slower levels.

And, in these first days of bok nal, I set out for work in a freshly-laundered white dress shirt. I start sweating the instant I step outside. It's thirty minutes on the subway and fifteen minutes walking. With those last ten minutes hiking up an extremely steep and extremely poorly-paved hill, I'm drenched in sweat by the time I ring the doorbell--not dripping, drenched. It's seeped through my shirt entirely and I look like I've been just come from a wet t-shirt contest. I walk in met by a dozen or so women and the giggling, the teasing begins.

Lesson: Do not wear thin white shirts during Seoul summers. If the rain doesn't get you in June or July, your own body will betray you later on, unable to withstand August heat.