Snow in San Antonio violates weather ethics, jealousy reins

by Katie Bailey

Let me get this straight: I’m in London, the city where all my dreams are supposed to come true, and it snowed in San Antonio. It actually snowed… with the flakes coming down in large enough quantities so that they congealed into a winter wonderland… in San Antonio, Texas. That state next to Mexico, down near the equator, right? I recently studied a map of the world and I noticed that I’m way up north, pretty close to a country named Iceland… yet it snowed in San Antonio.

I’m not jealous! No, of course not; I’m just unsettled by this obvious violation of weather ethics, let alone science. See, I traveled to a place that was previously covered in snow, expecting there to still be snow, and there wasn’t. A couple weeks ago I witnessed little flurries of snow and showed my appreciation by performing a slow-motion, majestic twirl with my arms and tongue sticking out, but I have received no more snow. And now I hear it snowed so hard at home that classes were cancelled and Trinity actually had a snow day… am I being punished?

Not that I’m jealous. I managed to have some fun adventures this week and didn’t have to watch for patches of ice. Last Saturday I walked past the amazingly gigantic St. Paul’s Cathedral and took pictures from every conceivable angle like a good tourist. I then braved the Millennium footbridge across the Thames, keeping a vigilant eye out for Death Eaters (what’s up, HP fans). After getting an appropriately cheesy picture touching Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, the highly impressive wind (more impressive than snow) blew me into Tate Modern, the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, and my soul was caressed by Picasso, Rothko, Warhol and friends.

One of the most intriguing exhibitions was a massive sculpture by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, which consisted of 100 million individually hand-crafted porcelain sunflower seeds. The seeds were laid out on the floor of the Turbine Hall, the massive industrial center of Tate. The sight of these millions of tiny sculptures was astounding. Each seed was uniquely beautiful… like a snowflake! Except the seeds didn’t melt away, did they?

Ok, so I’m a little bitter that I missed the Great Fiesta Blizzard of 2011. There is, however, the teensy-tiniest little part of my wounded soul that is happy for you all. It’s somewhat wonderful to read countless Facebook statuses like “This is the best day of my life – SNOW DAY!� rather than “I guess I’m never going to sleep again, sad-face.�

Today was the most beautiful London day in weeks, with a bright blue, cloudless sky. Although snow would be a blast, actually seeing the sun today made me ecstatically gleeful. Now I’m off to see Wicked in my favorite dress and new red pumps from a beautiful place called Primark (for which I will have to devote an entire column sometime). Cute shoes and snow don’t really mix, so I think I’m over it.