For this Florida native moving up north and facing a winter seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. I know it has been a "mild" winter in Pennsylvania, but to me it seems like winter will never end. Even though it has only snowed a hand full of times I have learned some valuable lessons on how to survive a true winter!
I still turn into a little kid whenever we get snow! Before moving up here I have only witnessed a real snowfall about 3 times. It is so magical and beautiful to watch it fall. There was one evening before Christmas when Mark took me for a drive to see the snowfall... It was so enchanting to see the ground covered in pure white snow and the houses lit up with Christmas lights. All I could think about is how I have been deprived of this beautiful sight for my whole life.
Whenever there is a snowfall I have a deep desire to start a snowball fight! One important lesson I have learned is to not throw a snowball at the person holding a snow shovel. You will be owned. This should be common sense, but all I could think about was throwing snow at my husband and had to do it. I immediately realized what I had done and ran for it, but he was determined and dumped a shovel full of snow on top of my head. I still think it was worth it :)
Everytime we have a snowfall I am reminded to walk carefully because there might be black ice at every step. Unfortunately this is a hard concept to grasp for a girl who never had to worry about anything freeezing to the ground. There have been several occassions where I am rushing to go somewhere and almost bust it on a sidewalk. Thankfully I have only had this actually happen to me once and no damage was done.
Now when I lived in Florida I would hate it when it got "cold." When it got down to the 50s I would say that it was freezing outside. Now when I go outside it is literaly FREEZING! Now I feel that I am completely justified when I say that I am freezing because chances are I REALLY am. The concept of it being freezing outside and then living in it has been an interesting one to learn. For instance, I had to scrape ice off my car a couple of times before I realized I must wear gloves while doing this. I would start to use the ice scraper on my car and then quickly regreted not wearing gloves, but would be too stubborn to stop and put them on. Afterward my hands would be burning because they were frozen just like the ice that was frozen to my car. Like I said most of these things are common sense to people from up north but for a southerner I have to learn the hard way.
The final shock of living up north is the new fashion I have been introduced to. Down south if I wore a scarf it was solely for the purpose to enhance my outfit, but now I wear them as often as I can to keep myself warm! It is striking to see how many people up here wear shorts or skirts in freezing tempatures. Mark says, "Girls think about fashion over function when putting together an outfit," and I would have to say he is 100% right. When we are driving around town I have the urge to roll down my window and tell girls that it is FREEZING outside and they need to put warm clothes on (I quickly have to remember that I am not their mother and do not need to tell them how to live their life). Don't you worry whenever I head out and it is below freezing tempatures a take the necessary precautions and layer, layer, layer.
This winter has been a good winter to transition into so far. My time up north has been enlightening and fun. When I do something that is clearly common sense to a northerner I have to chuckle at myself and store it away for future reference. I have no idea what the next couple weeks of winter have in store for me, but I am more prepared for the worst than I was a couple months ago!
