mother nature

i have to be honest. leaving australia in the peak of summer so i could move back to canada (nay, montreal) in the dead of winter may not have been the best idea i've ever had.

somehow, when you live away from the weather you once dreaded, you kind of glamourize it, make it seem like it was wonderful. you recollect warm feelings of glee about snowdays in school (god i wish i still had those). you remember how your cheeks got burned on the skihill that sunny day. you think fondly about mittens, tuques and scarves (such accessories!).

you get off the plane from vancouver (where it it only moderately cold) and step into montreal (where it is bone chillingly cold). you gasp, do a quick inhale and say "i missed this". you sit in the van while your brother drives you through the biggest snowstorm of the year and say "it's not so bad". you wake up at 4am - mostly jetlagged but also wondering what the f that blue light in your room is, only to sneak out of your covers (carefully of course. it's bloody cold in the house) to notice a snowplow encrusting the end of your driveway with solid snow banks but decide that you don't mind. shoveling is fun!

but slowly, steadily, it all comes back. creeping back to you. waking up the real memories of winter that you had so magically hidden in depths of your brain that you never thought they would come back. you actually remember that snow days were only partly fun because you still had to go to school. that your toes got frostbite when you went skiing. and that all the lovely winter accessories are a rather big nuisance when you're doing anything other then walking outside.

i was still doing alright with it all, given the circumstances. having bought boots in vancouver (which, i figured out, are designed for winter in vancouver. not montreal), mittens and a tuque in cornwall (end of season = not nearly good enough) and scrounged my old winter jacket (thankfully wonderfully warm), i was pretty well geared up for the weather. i did, in fact, enjoy a few days of playing in the snow with my nieces, stroll around the block and felt my cheeks get rosy.

and then it happened.

only a few days after i got home, i officially moved to montreal. montreal, as far as i can decipher, is french for "bloody fucking cold". the night i moved here, my mom and i were shocked by the weather (it hit me particularly hard, given that i'd only one week before been basking in 30 degree sun on the beach). my toes froze. my hands froze. i was not at all motivated to go back outside after i got home from work. snow had in fact turned grey overnight. slush was abundant (apparently common here. mental note: find winter rain boots...).  and the sun set at 4pm.

turns out i wasn't prepared. not at all. i forgot about winter. i really had created a magical winter wonderland in my head, only to be slapped in the face by real winter. canadian winter. montreal winter. i have moved back to canada (nay, montreal) in the middle of the coldest month. what. the. f. was. i. thinking? mother nature 1, michelle 0.

luckily i only have to endure 6-8 weeks of winter this year. and as the city is starting to melt, i'm starting to think that maybe it won't be that bad after all.
xo