Winter

Hello, everyone!
This is just a quick update, as I have a few extra minutes. It is so snowy here, it's incredible. There's currently over a foot of snow; it stopped for a bit last night, but picked right up this morning. They handle the snow very differently here: it's been snowing almost nonstop since I arrıved, but they just bothered to plow a few roads last nıght. Most roads on campus aren't plowed, and none of the sidewalks are; my socks are soaked. Today, on the way back to my dorm, we came upon some students sledding on plastic bags (I don't know that they have sleds), and we joined in. It was a lot of fun, and definitely not something that I thought I'd be doing in Turkey. The weather is a little dangerous, though: they don't shovel sıdewalks, so the snow melts a bıt, freezes, and ın covered by more snow. This makes outdoor steps more than a little interesting; there are also 40-degree ramps all over that take the place of stairs. It's more than a bit difficult to walk up a ramp in a snowstorm wıth several inches already coating the inch of ice coating the ramp: I have a black and blue knee to show for my efforts to do that Monday night. Other than that, the weather has been unexpected, but pretty fun; it reminds me a bit of wınter in Minnesota.
-R