Snow Day!!

We live in southern China which is about equal, weather-wise, to southern America. I would say we have a similar climate to North Carolina; insanely hot in the summer, and quite cold in the winter. But snow is unusual, especially as this winter temp’s have been in the upper 50’s, lower 60’s since October.
But we’ve had a cold spell and we awoke to snow the other day. Most student’s have never seen snow before so everyone was going crazy. I went to the track and saw hundreds of kids playing in the snow.
The snow also gives then an excuse to get a little “physical.” PDA is not the norm here and anything more than holding hands in scandalous. But with snow in your hand, the students can disguise affection for playing. So you could see many boys eagerly trying to smash snow in the face of the girl they liked. Hey, whatever floats your boat.

Of course as snow is an oddity here, it can cause many problems. Since my school is an agriculture university there is a lot of bamboo around the campus. And much of it is rare, or unusual bamboo. The snow was too heavy for the bamboo and it was breaking it. So workers had to go out with long poles to try to shake the snow off so the bamboo wouldn’t break.

Umbrellas are also the accessory du jour in China. If it is sunny, you carry an umbrella, if it is rainy, you carry and umbrella, and snow? Well, time to take out the umbrellas again.

The snow lasted the whole day and left a good covering. (Not like New England, but impressive for southern China.) The next morning we all woke to a shimmering, white world of crystal. The road was covered in ice (no snow plows here) which made for dangerous biking. Ryan skidded several times (on purpose, he said).  But the sight was quite beautiful. This is a picture from the morning commute with the sun just coming over the hills.

None of the buildings are built for cold weather or snow. There is no heat in the classrooms, or hot water (which makes washing your hands a type of torture). But the most dangerous thing was the stairs. All the snow had drifted in making them slippery and ice covered. I almost fell a couple of times and students clutched onto each other for support.

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…