November 8, 2011

What I thought was rain the night before turned out to be snow! I woke up to find at least 3-4 inches on the tree branches and the ground and it continued to fall steadily all day. My first thought was how I was going to cope with it given the fact that have no heavy sweater, hat, gloves or scarf. The Bandolino boots I got at Goodwill are not wide enough to allow me to wear heavy socks and I might have no choice but to wear my hiking boots with two pairs of socks. The temperature had dropped to a freezing 28 degrees.

                                                 View from my kitchen window

                                               View from my living room

I then thought about the university and its students. What is their policy when you have a snow day? Since the snow day happened immediately after the holiday, would students just stay home? Would the university notify me if there were no classes? I texted Caroline to find out what she had done and she had stayed home and notified her counterpart via text message. Her counterpart never acknowledged the message. I was supposed to go to the embassy to bring my passport and the remaining money needed to extend my visa for a full year. I emailed Tahmina about postponing it until tomorrow. She did confirm that an earthquake had taken place the previous afternoon and tried to reassure me by saying they happen about once a month, but tend to be quite mild.

I made the decision to stay home as well and texted my counterpart about not coming in. Just as in Caroline’s case, she did not respond. Two hours later, I texted her again and she confirmed having received my first message. Of course, she didn’t remember what classes I taught and I had to list them for her. By this time, I had noticed the many angry red, itching spots on both of my legs, my back and arms, some of which I had started a couple of days ago. Yoomie didn’t think they were bug bites and Ryan confirmed they were insect bites and recommended some ointment with hydrocortisone, something of course that I had failed to pack. I had no desire to get dressed just so I could make a trip to the pharmacy. Caroline offered to bring me some tomorrow.

The leftover soup tasted even better than the day before and it was the perfectly nourishing, comfort food I needed on such a frigid day. Oh, did I mention that my classroom is unheated and that Tahmina explained it was perfectly normal to ask all of my students to contribute to a fund to buy a space heater for me?

I spent the rest of the day watching movies on my laptop: “27 Dresses”, “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People” and “The King’s Speech”, the best of all.