The White Desert

Today I was on my way to Kohl's to buy some winter stuff, it was a half hour journey by Columbia Transit (the local city bus system here), as usual I was sitting next to window and watching outside, the beauty of nature. Columbia is indeed a beautiful town and has best of all seasons. It was snow all over after the very first snowfall of this winter. Suddenly, I recollected some of the memories of last winter. That was the time when I first arrived to US, I was very excited with the thought that now I will get a chance to live in a very different ambiance.

I arrived here on Dec. 30, 2007 and was very eager to see the very first snow fall at this place. But, it took another 25 days for it. It was night of 24th Jan just two days after my first session has started, my room-mate came to me telling that its snowing out there. I ran to the window and tried to sense something out of the dark outside but not able to see anything. Next morning, I woke up late around 8 AM and rushed to bathroom to get ready for my part time job interview. As I was leaving apartment my roommate told me to wear some hot stuff. I did that, as soon as I reached down to the lobby, I was amazed to see the outside. It was damn white all over.

That was a dream come true for me I was walk down the street playing with some snow balls. That evening I took my camera out and went for a long walk to capture the beauty all around. It was simply amazing, my hand and legs were freezing but I was in some other world that time. That was one of the beat time I had in Columbia I had so far.

But the more colors of snow were yet to come on my way, the days were passing down and temperature was below -5'C all the time. All the snow has converted into solid ice, and then life has changed a lot. You can't go outside because it very slippery outside, its really hard to get to walmart to get all groceries as well. It was like prison for me, I am a wanderer by my basic nature, and this things really pissed me off. I was wishing to some how get off this white desert, but it was a long wait of two months before that...

But some of the unique things of survival that I learned from that season are-
1. Coffee is your best friend.
2. Soccer shoes are useful outside the ground as well.
3. If you feel like you will fall down on the slippery surface, just sit and skid your self (or learn skating).
4. Always but a very good backpack for your laptop with a lot of cushion around it.
5. The best time to walk is when its snowing or just ended.

pic. About an year old... somewhere in Columbia