Sophia says …
I used to scoff at people who couldn’t handle the cold. These people from Arizona, Florida, and Texas who bundle up the minute the temperature starts with a 6 instead of a 7.
My family visited Arizona over Thanksgiving break one year and I can still remember how everyone layered their parkas over sweatshirts and sweaters while we were outside in shorts. My very own aunt is one of these people, except it is made worse by the fact that she was born and raised here in Minnesota. She lived through 20+ Minnesota winters, but after having lived in Los Angeles for the past decade, she now cannot handle our frigid Minnesota air.
Before moving to college, I thought I was going to be experiencing the seasons much the same. Prague is situated only a couple of latitude lines above Marshall, and it appeared as though the city saw all four seasons. However, I soon realized that nothing compares to a Minnesota winter. While temperatures dipped below freezing that first winter abroad, they never got anywhere close to zero. And with no wind to speak of, the actual temperature and the feels-like temperature remained the same — something that is never the case in Minnesota.
I spent all of last January complaining about Prague’s gray skies and reasonable temperatures. I got called crazy and insane for yearning for colder weather, but the gray fog really got to me; you’re usually squinting from the combination of sunlight and snow here.
I can also count on my one hand how many times I woke up to snow on the ground that first winter in the city. While the rural areas of the Czech Republic generally see more snowfall, that winter was mild for the whole country. This winter has been much improved; we had about three days of continuous snowfall in December (even in the very center of the city) and got enough to cross country ski in early January. Temps were consistently below freezing, and I even got to ice skate on some ponds.
But none of this prepared me for my first step outside the MSP airport. Four degrees with a windchill below zero. I had lived all 18 winters of my life on the blustery Minnesota plains, and yet just spending one winter in a more temperate climate was enough to make me weak.
I spent the first week home with thermal leggings under my jeans and two pairs of wool socks on at all times. The winter I had spent months mourning was here, but I wasn’t ready. In theory, I knew flying back to Minnesota in the middle of January would afford me all the worst parts of winter. In reality, it was so much worse than I remembered.
It took me about a week-and-a-half to fully adjust to the below zero temperatures, and that was after having spent almost my entire life living through them.
So, I cannot judge those poor people of Arizona, Florida, and Texas for their scarves and mittens, because temperature is truly relative to what you know. And it is surprisingly easy to forget.
