Student Bloggers
Walking in a Winter Wonderland
Date
February 19, 2015
So, it’s snowing in Istanbul! One of the things that drew me to Turkey was it’s “Mediterranean climate,” which I thought would result in warm weather for the entirety of the year. Little did I know, that Turkey experiences winter too and, although their winter is milder (37°-50° F) I did not think it was capable of snowing. This snow is both a blessing and a curse. School was cancelled (an obvious blessing especially because it would be near impossible to walk to school in this snow) and a curse because Istanbul is not equipped to handle this weather. It’s similar to what happened in Atlanta and all around Georgia last winter. Parts of Georgia received about two inches of snow and because they weren’t used to snow, there were no protocols in place to clear the road, people didn’t have snow tires so they were slipping off of the road and dying, and it was a terrible time. Luckily, it does snow here occasionally (twice a winter I was told) so there is an inkling of how to handle it, it’s just less efficient because it doesn’t snow as heavily as it has been for the past three days. It’s about a foot or two of snow. However, it does make me feel in touch with my family and friends back home because from what I’ve heard, it’s been a very cold and snowy winter. There’s something about the shared wonder and misery of winter weather that makes me feel a little less homesick and for that, I guess I really can’t be that mad.