What is sleet anyways?

I have been feeling a bit guilty lately because I've been hearing about how nasty the weather has been back home, what with 12 inches of rain in 48 hours in Santa Barbara and all, while it has been chilly yet bright and sunny here nearly every day since the beginning of December. Yesterday the weather finally caught up with us. I was downtown buying textbooks with Ellen when it started to drizzle. I thought to myself, "this isn't so bad." We hopped on the tram to go back to my place and hang out until our language class, and by the time we got off the tram it was nearly pouring. The walk from the tram stop to my building isn't too far, it takes about three minutes. By the time we reached the corner to turn down my street we were smack in the middle of a torrential downpour, with howling winds that threatened to knock us over. The temperature dropped about 5 degrees within the next three steps we took, and the rain turned to sleet. A bright flash of light and a deafening clap of thunder told us we needed to get inside, FAST! Unprepared and underdressed for such helacious weather, we tried our best to run the rest of the way down my street to the shelter of my apartment. I did not know it was possible to get brain freeze just by being outside. By the time I got to my front door my head ached so badly from the cold I thought I was going to die. It was seriously the worst storm I have ever been caught in EVER. We made it up the six flights of stairs to my apartment, leaving puddles in our tracks, and once inside quickly changed into warm, dry clothes and hung our dripping wet jeans and jackets to dry over the radiator in my kitchen. It was absolutely insane.

By the time we had to leave for class the storm had calmed down to just a light rain, and after class I headed back into town to Neptune, only to find it closed. I turned around to go back to the tram and noticed big white balls of hail bouncing off my jacket. I smiled to myself and kept walking. My first snow.

This morning I was in the kitchen making my typical breakfast of tea, a scrambled egg and piece of toast when I happened to glance out the window and see that it was snowing. I took a short video for my family and sat there, eating and enjoying the view and the silence that seems to come with snow. I love how the sound of snow falling is actually no sound at all. It's so peaceful and calming. It was a perfect morning. But eventually the snow stopped falling, my roommates woke up, and the silence was no more. It was time to wake up and start my day.

We finally got internet in my apartment! I spent all morning with my roommate, Marie, trying to figure out how to set it up. We succeeded in time... Now if I can only figure out how to make it stop disconnecting me every 5 minutes... I don't know how dial-up works and it doesn't help that all the instructions are in French. I will figure it out eventually.

Sorry that's all I have for the moment. I'll try to write more tomorrow, but for now it's my bedtime.

À toute à l'heure!

-Liv