Enter Winter, Stage Left

Well, the mild Winter of the Czech Republic has vanished under a white blanket. One foot fell yesterday and at least one more's on its way, according to forecasts. It's falling pretty hard right now.

The first time I saw snow in person I was eight. I took a great big leap into a pile of snow and was surprised by what a soggy mess clung to my bright red sweatpants. Snow is wet? I felt like the depictions of snow on television had lied to me, showing it as a wondrous white powder to flock around in. As a child you make many connections for yourself about how things work--sometimes you're dead-on, sometimes you're dead wrong. My impression of snow was that it was a "cold alert:" as in, it's so cold that a white powder has manifested itself as the physical version of our concept of cold. The fact that rain might have anything to do with it was quite beyond me.

For now, I'll indulge in this snow as long as i can: heck, I'm only here ten more days.