Well kids, when I was young we used to have to walk to school for a mile in the snow, barefoot, uphill both ways!!

Although not entirely true (I had shoes on and there were no hills to be seen), I did get my first experience of a white London today. I woke up as usual not expecting anything special (in my room with no heat...), yet when I opened my curtains and saw everything white and tons of snow still coming down I was instantly excited in the way that a South Carolinian gets about the magic that is snow. After this intitial reaction of magic, it suddenly dawned on me that in London, snow is not quite so magical.

If you are living in South Carolina, snow is sort of like Christmas; it comes once a year with great anticipation and a state-wide holiday is declared for the day. If there was even a chance of snow we would wait in the morning in our pajamas until the last minute possible to see if they would announce school cancellations and cry out about the injustice of it all if school was not cancelled. At Furman we would stay up all night claiming anarchy and refusing to do our homework until the last minute possible because we knew snow was coming and class would be cancelled. If we decided to go to bed despite the anticipation we would sleep with our phones so that as soon as we woke up in the morning we could call the "snow hotline" and find out if school was cancelled (and then proceed to speed dial the number until the official decision was made and we could fall back to sleep). Heaven forbid if a perfectly good snow experience was wasted on a weekend!

So waking up with this mentality and seeing loads of snow, I suddenly realized that snow is quite different here; I walked to class in the snow and sat in class all day as it snowed... somehow not quite as magical of a snow day. While it may seem counterproductive that the state shuts down because of snow, maybe we south carolinians know that everyone just needs a break once in a while! Yes, we could go out and go to work and school like the rest of the world does when it snows, but what's the fun in that? Instead, if it snows South Carolina essentially goes on strike. Now, I am in a country where tube strikes happen weekly and student protestors raid government buildings and they won't go on strike for snow but instead decide to be productive members of society?! no fun at all.

Despite the school, it was nice to see all of the snow- though I'm just hoping it doesn't get in the way of Mark coming down this weekend for Christmas in London!