California Girl Gone Cold!

It has been a while since I have written on this blog but what other to reason to write an entry than to talk all about the SNOW!

Five months ago I was sitting on Adam's doorstep talking to my brother on the phone and all of a sudden my phone beeped! I had just received a new email. It was the email I had been waiting for since I decided to try for the JET Programme, it was my placement email. As I read every word out loud to Adan there it was in bold lettering SAPPORO. My first reaction was cool, I am being placed where my favorite Japanese beer is made. Adan's reaction was a little different, he chuckled. He then proceeded to tell me that Sapporo was on Hokkaido, the ALASKA of the United States. My reaction immediately changed, I started to freak out. I am a California girl to the core. I like sun, food, beaches, taking walks late at night and not having to wear a jacket. My winter outfit consists of a pair of jeans, a long sleeved shirt, a leather jacket and a scarf on those really cold nights. Right away I thought maybe this move to Japan is not meant for me. Yes, it is just weather some of you might think but weather is a big deal to a girl who lives for the sun. While I have lived in extremely cold weather before in Japan, Holland, Germany and in Italy, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back to that kind of lifestyle. Well, as we all know I did.

On October 25th I was checking the weather online because the day before the weather had been perfect and suddenly the weather dropped. Sapporo weather is not reliable, it's hot one day and the next it's overcast but there it was, the word SNOW! It said that on Oct. 26th it would snow for the first time. My reaction was ok, let's do this. We all knew it was coming those darn snow bugs had been warning us for a month. On Tuesday morning I wake up and the sun is completely shining. I'm talking to Adam on Skype around 6:20 A.M and I am describing to him how beautiful it looks outside, then all of a sudden my kitchen got dark. I look outside again and realize in the far mountains there is snow on them.  I describe to Adam how the sky all of a sudden went from being really bright to darn to pure white. He tells me that's what snow weather sounds like. Then literally out of now where it starts to pour snow.

Once I am done getting ready for work I run outside to grab my bike. I figure this will probably be the last time I will be able to use my bike, which is what I was really dreading. I have come to love my bike and I like riding it everyday. As I ride to the subway I am getting sprinkled with snow. By the way, I have never been as cold as I have been today in maybe over a decade. My commute to my new elementary school takes around 2 hours and 45 minutes and when I get there I realize where I am. I am in those mountains in the boonies where there is snow on the tips. As I am walking from my bus stop to the school there is no sign that it will continue to snow, I was wrong. Through out my entire day of teaching I can not take my eyes off the windows. It starts off slow and quiet and continues all day getting heavier and heavier.

By the time I am walking back to the bus stop at the end of the day I realize this isn't going to stop. As I stand there waiting for my bus I look across the street at a ski slope, it is so beautiful. The hills are filled with beautiful red, orange, green leaves and white snow. This is going to be a long 6-7 months of winter and it will really take me out of my comfort zone but it will be an interesting change. I look forward to: learning how to ski or snowboard, manning up to this cold weather and most of all to Adam moving here on December 27th when he will keep me warm in my cold apartment :)