Today was the first "snow day" at Notre Dame in over 10 years. The University has brain-washed it's students into believing that school will never close because of the weather. So I must say that I have lived through a rare event: a Notre Dame "snow day."
It wasn't just any old winter day in South Bend either. True there was snow on the ground and most places it was higher than my knees, but it was sunny outside. There was no (seemingly never ending) cloud cover that prevented the Vitamin D from hitting my skin, entering my body, controlling the calcium absorption in my intestines and keeping my bones strong and unbreakable.
It turned out to be a beautiful day: sunny, snow-white, restful, and fun.
Now it is the evening and it has started snowing. It isn't the blizzard conditions that we had last night but, instead, it is beautiful snow falling slowly in large flakes that stick to my nose and eyelashes.
This brings me to a comforting thought: romance and love.
My Calculus TA, Yen-Chang Huang, took the first 20 minutes of our first class to tell us his life story. He told us where he is from: Taiwan.
He told us how many years he has been a graduate student at ND: 5.
He told us what he was studying in Mathematics: i dont remember.
And he told us why he came from the tropical climate of his home to the cold tundra-like climate of South Bend, Indiana: he
thinks thought that snow was romantic.
He got this idea from the movies that he watched back home in Taiwan. He described a scene from a movie that he watched to us that developed this ideology.
The description went something like this:
"Sow u know win da man and da woman are outside in da end a da movie, riiiight? riiiiiiight?"
"Weeell, u know win day kiss da snow starts falling and ahhh u know its soo romantic!"
Yes, it is true that winter and snow bring out a romantic feeling in most people. But, there is also the frustrated/mad/upset feeling that blizzard weather brings which counter acts any good feeling that the winter once gave you.
I have experienced both of these feelings in the past 24 hours. Walking back to my dorm last night in a windy snowy storm (that some call blizzards) and trudging through the ever-increasing deep snow gave me an upset feeling for a few moments. However, that was soon quashed by a good feeling of accomplishment - that I was conquering a bone-chilling, frost-biting storm. But, this evening, I saw a beautiful, calm, still snowfall. A snowfall that one would associate with a romantic scene.
It gets me thinking about romance and love. A fun thought to entertain.
It is something that is, easily, within my reach.
After all this is Notre Dame. Anyone can find Our Lady. Now all I have to do is find "my lady." Which will be harder since she won't be gilded in gold or on top of a golden dome.
But, as of now, Our Lady is on top of a dome that looks more white than golden...
Happy Snowpocalypse everyone!
