Snow Day in August

Shakespeare had a good one about snow and writing: 
“As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.”
— Two Gentlemen of Verona

Well, nothing says “you now live in the other hemisphere” quite like massive snowflakes speeding past your window on a late morning in August. They melted by the time they hit the rooftops or the puddled pavement, at least here in our neighborhood, but they meant business and they fell for four straight hours and even longer in the neighborhoods closer to the Andes.

It makes me realize that I will now have a summer birthday, as will my husband, born just two days after me back near that illustrious dawn of the ’80s. What will we do?! We won’t have to make a rain plan. (My mom will recall the three years in a row, was it, that we had to rely on dining room table Bingo to entertain my grammar school buddies?) But now! Well, we can get tan in February if we want to. We can BBQ. We can make the most of the outdoors and all the pony rides and bounce houses that go along with those summertime birthdays that always made me a little bit envious. 
But I also have to be honest. I like my winter-minded soul. I can’t deny the comfort I get from a day like today, when the calendar has smiled on you and you can be inside looking out (read: your class has canceled due to another round of protests). It’s cozy and it’s wintry and in many ways it’s me. Sure, I can stake out a spot on the beach with the best of them, but I never really minded when the fog rolled in or it was time to put up the hood. Or in this case, time to fling open the sliding glass door and breathe in the freshest gulp of Santiago air yet.

Something about the snow makes you feel like a kid, doesn’t it? And I didn’t even grow up in it. I guess I’m so tickled because I haven’t seen it drift down live like this since I lived in New York, a stage of life that is officially many more years removed from the present day than the actual number of years I ever lived there. Now, other cities have or will be my home for far longer than New York ever was, or Boston before that. But it’s a delightful surprise to be back in a place where a snap to the air can turn to soft gratings of ice and you literally have to stop whatever it is you’re doing and head to the window, open it if you can, stick your hand out, and try to catch those giant one-and-only’s falling from the sky.

That’s pretty much it for today. I just wanted to share these pics and let everyone know that it got cold enough in Santiago to snow today and turn this expat’s world upside down all over again. And whether it’s warm or wintry, I hope it’s wonderful wherever you are.

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