New Year, New Post.

A huge dump of snow has fallen in Oxford this past week. Most people I have talked to said that they haven't seen this much snow in England either in over a decade, and some even say their whole lives. We got about a foot of snow on Tuesday night and although we barely made it home from the conference we were attending, once we did get home, we were perfectly happy to be snowed in. This post has 3 parts.

1. Beauty
2. Beauty dampened.
3. A thought about a Bear.

1. Beauty

I have never seen Oxford so beautiful. The snow magnifies all the majestic peaks and divots in the breath-taking architecture that this city has. I have posted a bunch of photos on my flickr account if you want to browse through. We made sure to go downtown that first day, glad that the buses were running even though most of city was shut down (over 200 schools in the area were shut down for the latter half of this week!). We just knew it would be picturesque and plus we both love the snow! Unfortunately, we don't have our snow gear so we have to suffer with lots of socks and our wellies. NOTE TO SELF: don't call your snow pants, snow pants. They are snow trousers. You are basically telling people you forgot to bring your 'snow underwear'--they probably think we have such a thing in Canada!

2. Beauty dampened.

Fell on my ass. Yes, beauty slightly dampened. Last night on our way to a friends birthday (yes, all the snow is still here four days later, but now there is lots of ice too) , I slipped on some ice and fell flat on my hip...at least I thought that for that was were the shooting pain was, but today my hamstring is all swollen and painful. Anyways, embarrassing yes, but more importantly, painful. Advil is my best friend today, and hopefully I am not too black/blue this week (although I don't bruise easily so I doubt it). Needless to say, winter wonderland, less wonderful. But I still long for it to stay......it makes January so much more bearable with snow everywhere.

3. A thought about a Bear.

It's been so cold everyday here. -15 at one point, but about -5 most of the time. I enjoy it because that means the snow won't melt, but I just really feel sometimes I should be hibernating. At least until spring. My energy is low, my motivation is low, it just seems right to cuddle in my bed and not get out. Is that so wrong? I feel like the world would be a better place, if during the winter months the cultural norm was that we slept more...at least a rule that we shouldn't be up if it's dark out (which here is a lot...the days are short--sun up at 815 and down at 415...it's pretty crazy, but we are at the same latitude as Edmonton). I really long to be a bear in hibernation these days. Not depressed or anything just want to embrace winter for what it should be: hibernation time!