I must say, I am by no means a huge fan of snow. I've lived in Wisconsin for almost twelve years, have developed a high tolerance for it, but to me the icy roads and frozen toes outweigh the pretty scenery and skiing trips. (I've only been skiing once in my life. Pretty sure I should not have passed the bunny hill.) With the lack of snow this winter, and what I though was a zero percent chance of snow in London, I have kind of missed it. Well, the wish to have just a little bit of snow here was answered last Saturday, when I looked out the window and saw flurries of snow falling. I couldn't believe it! We were told at orientation that it does not snow in London. Last year they had their first snow in several years (five whole inches... Batten down the hatches!) and the city just shut down. This year I learned, was no different. Heathrow canceled half their flights, the tubes were delayed, and the morning after I could see snowmen dotting the grounds Kensington Gardens.
I had made plans to meet some family friends for lunch at their home in the outskirts of London, but wasn't too worried. It had stopped snowing in the night, so I figured the city would have gone into snow-safety mode, like Madison. Oh I was so wrong. It took me an extra twenty minutes to walk to the tube station, not because of the heaps and heaps of snow (that did not exist, I might add.) but the sidewalks had absolutely NO salt on them. I managed to make it to the tube stop unscathed, and luckily by the time I was back from lunch, the snow had melted and there were no more obstacles in my path. It's funny, because the amount of snow they got was basically just your average dusting for Wisconsin.
It wasn't that cold outside, but people were completely bundled up. I have to say, Londoners are kind of wimps when it comes to cold weather. It hasn't gotten down below 30* in the month I've been here (A month already... Time is flying!) and I've heard so many people complaining about the freezing temps. It's interesting to see how different regions react to weather. I'm even finding that after the few weeks I've been here I feel like I'm more sensitive to the temperatures, just because I hear people talking about them! A few people from my program were in Rome last weekend, and it snowed there too. They had their military out shoveling the streets and sidewalks, because most citizens didn't own shovels. Crazy stuff.
Here's hoping that it doesn't snow again, and only gets warmer. I'm ready for spring, and I've hardly had a winter.
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