I never used to have conversations about the weather with people until I came to Minnesota. I am South African and I am used to the South African sun even during winter months. It gets cold in South Africa but in the coastal cities where I lived it never really goes below 10 degrees Celsius. Now Minnesota (MN)  where I am currently living is a different story. During winter especially during January it goes way below zero. It gets so cold that you can only be outside for a couple of seconds.

In the winter it snows, heavily. The roads have to be plowed (scrape off the snow from the roads) by big plowing trucks. The snow is placed on the side of the road and some piles are taken away by big trucks and dumped somewhere. So during winter there are mountains of snow erected all round. The ground is covered with ice. The ice gets slippery at times and you will fall. It is colder than your average freezer in this place.

You cannot wear simple shoes in MN you have to wear shoes that are made for this weather. My regular chuck tailors (All Star) are no match for this kind of weather. Your toes will freeze off. You have to wear layer upon layer upon layer of clothing. Jeans alone won’t cut it. You have to wear long underwear (long Jon’s) to keep from freezing. When going somewhere on campus, you literally run from building to building to be outside as little as possible.In the city of Minneapolis the buildings downtown are all connected by sky ways so that you don’t have to walk outside.

Going out and shopping is a nightmare. You want to go out, but you can’t dress to impress because you are trying to be warm, and yes people brave the cold sometimes. You protect yourself by wearing lots and lots of clothes and then when you get where you are going you start to feel hot because the heaters are on and you are inside. You even start to sweat. You are constantly takg your clothes on and off. It irritates me the most when I go shopping for clothes, I spend so much time in the fitting room taking off my clothes to try a t-shirt and then putting my clothes on again. By the time I get to the next shop I don’t want to try anything  because it’s such a hassle.

When you are outside, you can’t breath as the cold air feels like it’s strangling you. The hair inside your nose starts to freeze.  You then start breathing through your mouth and your teeth start to hurt. There is just no winning with this weather. Everybody is always wearing over-sized clothing, and people are also very crabby. And everybody is always complaining about the cold weather. Some people say they are used to it, some people say they will never get used to it. I am sorry, I could never get used to this.

To tick  me off even more, when I went to the mall the other day. The stores have their “spring” collections out. There are swimming costumes everywhere, brights colored t-shirts and shorts. It’s 20 below outside and this is what you see at the shop. I can’t even thing spring right now, I am freezing! You really think I am going to buy a two piece bikini. I still want to buy some gloves and ear muffs, NOT a speedo.

As a South African I really had no concept of what winter was in MN. I mean, I have seen the snow on TV and I have seen people get cold, but it’s nothing like TV. It’s brutal. I think until you live in this weather, you really won’t have a sense of what it means to be cold.