the snow!

This winter has been relatively disappointing, I must say.

When my first semester ended 17 December, it had not snowed in Lugano at all. 

When I tell people that I go to college in Switzerland, one of the first questions I get asked (along with "do you ski?") is "Oh, it must be cold there / does it snow a lot?"

I was so disappointed to not have any snow on the ground before I left...

HOWEVER! 

There was a scare the weekend I was supposed to head home.

My friend had a flight from Zurich on a Friday and was cancelled until Sunday because of inclement weather. Luckily for me, my flight on Saturday went through smoothly and it was just a rainy, dreary day :p

When I was back in the States, there was no snow in Connecticut either!

Two days before I left, there was a crazy snow storm that gave us about 4 inches of snow, but it had melted the next day. I was starting to get upset that I wasn't going to see any snow this winter! Being from Connecticut, I'm used to it!

However, that changed on 26 January (Happy Birthday, Erik?)

I looked out my window and saw this:

It was about 1am and I got a facebook message from my friend Medina. She asked if I wanted to go downtown and take pictures in the snow. I was a bit hesitant at first, because it was 1am and still snowing.. and being right on the lake, it was a heavy, wet snow mixed with some sleet/rain. 

Still, Kaitlin and I agreed, and we all got out coats, gloves, hats, and scarves on and grabbed out cameras!

The following pictures are from that journey! I'm so glad we went, because we all slept so late the next day that it wasn't pretty anymore (the snow was turning brown from cars!) and had stopped snowing.

(Snow on palm trees - so weird!)

(I made mini snowmen and left them all around Lugano!!)

(A snow-covered road - the plows weren't out yet!)

(The scary looking Oz-trees by the lake)

(The lido on the lake)

(A snowy bench)

I am most definitely an explorer of the universe. 

(Snow covered boats!)

(I left this snowman on the wall right next to the lake.)

My friends and I went to BurgerKing the next night, and sadly, he was gone :c

The snow is still here and it's been incredibly cold ever since. 

You may have heard of the deep freeze that set over Europe, bringing snow as far south as Rome. 

Many people were dying, particularly homeless people in countries such as Poland and the Ukraine.

(However, that was not a problem in Switzerland, Lugano specifically, because it is illegal to be homeless here)

Temperatures were consistently between -10°C and -2°C which works out to be about 14-28°F

Recently, things have been warming up (hopefully for good!) Today it was +6°C (43°F) when I came back down the hill after dinner around 8pm!  It hasn't been that warm since the first week I've been back!

I'll be updating later this week with some big news.

Hope all is well with everyone.

-N