I was tempted to call this post ‘Snowmageddon’!  Living in Canada, I’ve always been asked crazy questions when I’m travelling.  These were mostly pre-internet, but I’ve been asked questions like ‘In Canada abitati nelle case di ghiaccio?‘ and ‘I tuoi vicini di casa sono Eschimesi?‘ I don’t live in an igloo and I don’t think any of my neighbours are Eskimo/Inuit.  My response is usually something like ‘Io vivo sulla parte ovest del Canada.  Non fa freddo, e nevica un giorno all’anno!’ No, Vancouver is not cold, and it snows less than one day a year.  Even when it does snow, it usually only lasts a day and then it starts to rain and turns to slush……until now. 

It snowed 2 weeks ago and did not go away.  It just got icy and then it snowed again-and yesterday another nevicata.  Mannaggia! Sono bloccato dalla neve – I am snowed in!  Vancouver can not cope with this kind of weather.  Eastern Canadians actually make fun of us for this-ci prendono in giro 😠! The city does not have enough snow plough equipment, the stores run out of salt and snow shovels, most people don’t have snow tires and they don’t know how to drive in the snow anyways, the buses have to cope with a lot more traffic….etc.  I am on ‘staycation’ until Christmas, so I did not have to go to work, but a lot of my plans had to be changed.  I’ve spent a lot of time at home making panettone and decorating!  I have also been walking everywhere since my car has been bloccato in ghiaccio most of this time. Most of us are looking forward to saying arrivederci neve! It is very pretty, and for now it looks like a winter wonderland…now how would we say that in Italiano?  Un inverno incantata-an enchanted winter?  That’s as close as I can think of.  Here are some photos I took this week while walking, vicino casa, but I did do a rain dance when I got home!

Ciao e Buon Natale dal ‘Snowmageddon’, Cristina