Submitted by Brooke Bartolo on the 2012 spring semester program in London, England…
Apparently, London decided to steal America’s winter….but I’m not complaining! When I hadn’t really seen snow before I left for this trip, I had pretty much accepted the fact that I wouldn’t be seeing snow this winter, but boy was I wrong. As we walked out of Harrods on Saturday night (which will have an entire blog post dedicated to it), we were greeted by a flurry of giant snowflakes, and I was in heaven. I thought London was beautiful already, but seeing it covered in a layer of white snow with the city’s bright, colorful lights sparkling off of it was absolutely breathtaking.
As soon as we got home, I decided to take a stroll by myself along the Thames and see all of London’s famous landmarks blanketed in snow. As I was walking, I encountered people making snowmen, throwing snowballs, and catching snowflakes on their tongues. I even joined in and threw a few snowballs myself. I made my way to the bridge and enjoyed the view of the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye as backdrops to the snow.
When I made my way back to our apartment building, my roommates and I ran to the other rooms of friends we’d made from Texas and Colorado and challenged them to a snowball fight. Next thing I knew, we had about 25 people outside making snowballs and rolling around in the snow. Since we live on a busy street by the main bridge, “Londoners”
in passing would join in and take part of the chaos for a few minutes; some even stayed for as long as an hour!
It was such a great way to make friends, be outside, and enjoy the snow! Unfortunately for us, by the time we woke up the next morning, all of the snow had melted away, and London was back to normal, with only a few strips of snow to remind us of our city winter wonderland.
