Coming from Minnesota to Washington, D.C., I’ve had lots of thoughts regarding D.C. weather and the public responses to it. Perhaps, coming from a north-midwestern state, I’m a little biased. But, I tend to think that when it comes to snow, the people of the District are a wee bit wimpy. Back in Minnnesota an inch of snow wouldn’t garnar a second thought, let alone school shut downs and mass panic. At the sign of a single snow flake in the air, the AU yik yak blows up with students speculating whether or not their classes will be cancelled. Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy?!?! There was an ongoing “joke” in my hometown that the local highschool would send snow dogs with sleds (ala Iditarod) before it cancelled school. Alas, there appears to be not a single sled dog in the district.
Wrong kind of sled dog…
Or what about that time that AU delayed classes for dangerous amounts of ice? In Minnesota, our 10,000 (really 11,842 according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources) lakes are almost entirely covered by ice. In winter people go ice fishing in ice houses that they can spend upward of $1000 dollars on (tv not included!) So I say to AU: What ice?!?
As you can see ice fishing is serious business.
Alright so maybe I’m being a little tough on D.C., the mid-atlanitc temperatures are undoutbaly more than welcome after 18 years of seemingly eternal negative temperatures in winter. After all, until now I’ve never been able to wear my Birkenstock sandals in January or February. While, I do receive questioning glances and comments from other AU students when I wear them, I’m quite comfortable.
One thing I didn’t expect when coming to school, was how much it rains here. LIKE REALLY RAINS. I occasionally question when I decided to make the move to Seattle. At all times of the year, an umbrella should always be on hand, apparently even in winter. This is perhaps one of the things I’ve found most bewildering about D.C. Why does everyone carry an umbrella when it snows out? I don’t know if it’s because no one has the proper winter attire of if people are confusing rain with snow, but something is amiss here.
I am admittedly confused by many of D.C.’s weather phenomenons and its people, but there is no denying that D.C. has it good when it comes to weather, or at least in comparison to the Midwest. So while, I don’t think I’ll ever stop rolling my eyes when AU cancels classes for an inch of snow, this Midwesterner has embraced and accepted the wimpy-ness that is the Mid-Atlantic.