Would you believe it...it snowed here today! But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
We woke up this morning after an evening of frivolity (we had our Maths department Christmas party), only getting about 6 hours of sleep, and felt a nip in the air. As we walked to school, I couldn't help but notice that my trainers didn't seem to have traction on the shiny pavement - that other mornings actually would be still liquid but this morning had frozen to ice. Parked cars definitely had a frost on the windows that had to be scraped away before driving. As we walked down the drive to the school, we noticed a bit more salt than we have on previous mornings. We joked with each other what it would be like to have a snow day in Kettering compared to Canada.
In Canada: We would wake up to find a foot or more of snow, along with chances of freezing rain. We would sit patiently by the radio station, hoping to hear of school closures, only to hear that that buses would be cancelled by the schools would be open. As the schools were still open, we'd have to shovel ourselves out the driveway, hoping the plow would also be by to clear the roads and highways before making our way to school - knowing that no matter what there is NO way that school would be cancelled.
In Kettering: We would wake up to find maybe 6 inches of snow. Cars would get stuck, they wouldn't be able to get through the streets; cars would have trouble making their way up hills - sliding down as they waited their turn at round-abouts. People would be slipping and sliding everywhere as they only make "winter boots" with no tread on them, making them another form of curling shoes. There would be no doubt that the schools would be closed and children would sled up and down the streets as the whole town would come to a halt.
The funny thing is, as much as I'd make fun of it, I think it would be cool to have the Kettering story - enjoying a day off just relaxing!
Anyway, back to our Kettering snowfall... I was on prep, walking to the toilets (I still cringe when I say that instead of washroom) when I happened to notice round balls of snow that were littered on the ground. I had to pause and take another look as I wasn't sure if it was snow or just balls of styrofoam...but then again, why would their be a lot of styrofoam everywhere...oh wait, it IS KSA. Anyway, I later sat in the maths office marking some tests I gave my year 7s when I heard the excitement of students from one of the classrooms. I looked out the window and saw snow falling and blowing - reminding me of home. I knew that if I looked at the ground it would have already melted, so I was quite content to sit at my desk and just look at the snow fall. It stopped within a few minutes, but from that point forward, you knew that the kids would be crazier than they were before - all from the excitement of the snow. Wow, things really aren't that different from Canada! LOL
P.S. My room mates call a "snow plough" (or should I say a salter, once they finally described what they were referring to) as a feather duster and couldn't understand why I couldn't understand what they were talking about. They later shrugged it off and said it must be a "country thing". Well, I gave them the same look when I told them a student just hoovered their meal and they didn't think that the student would understand what I meant, substituting the word "vacuum" for "hoover". The thing is, they use the term "hoover" INSTEAD of "vacuum", so I think they'd understand that term better than any of my students back home. I guess you can consider that my interesting story for today...that is if you can follow my strange train of thought.
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