Winter Blues

Paris had another bout of snow last week. I am about done with winter here. I am told by the Parisiens that this winter's been especially bad. We had a low of -7°C this season and that was the first week of school. The regulars probably remember a complaining post back then too. But seriously... the black ice and slippery roads apart, I have other complaints too. I am bored of my winter wardrobe and of not wearing open-toed sandals/shoes. Yeah these are frivolous issues... but they do exist. The only thing I see myself in is my variety of sweaters, sweatshirts and jackets. And its gotten boring to me more than anyone else. And the cold weather and dreary climate outside have a way of making your spirits gloomier too, brightened only by the occasional hot drink. And that's not sustaining enough. If that's not enough the barren tree branches don't call for any cheer either. The literal bright side of this is that finally the daylight has started extending past 5:30pm. For a period in between, I was leaving home in complete darkness and returning in darkness as well. And the only daylight I caught was outside my cold office's window which was minimally comforting. I guess I didn't complain much about much harsher Cincy winters because I didn't have anywhere to go to. My life was encompassed around the 1km radius of UC and home and that's all I saw. Everyone I knew lived near me and we had a blast in each others well-heated homes n such and barely skipped the UC perimeter. We even saw movies and everything in the big screen of ERC 427. That was life there. Life here has the potential to be a bit more happening. There are places that we'd like to go, things we'd like to do but we find ourselves modifying plans in keeping with the sad weather. The good part is that the lament has struck in the latter part of winter and the snow is slowly melting away to admit Spring. Soon, it'll all change.