What happens when you mix 1 inch of snow with 7 million Londoners??

total chaos...

I could go on for a long time about how funny it is to watch people react to snow when they're not used to it, how there were hundreds of accidents, train lines were closed down, and the commute to work was made even more difficult and lengthy than normal.

But I won't.

Instead, I'll focus on the adorable reaction that the children had to the snow, carrying armloads of it around with them as they made their way to school. How their faces lit up at the thought of building a snowman. How excited they were when they finally made it into the classroom this morning.

I'll think about my own reaction to walking up the stairs to the street and seeing a blanket of white covering the cars and bushes. Since we weren't really expecting snow, it was a shock that left me standing in the street (much like one of the children mentioned above) staring wide-eyed as I pulled out my phone to take a picture.


Halfway up the street, I realized that I would have time to dash into Kensington Gardens to see what it looked like.


Not having a decent camera this morning would have made me sad if it hadn't been so beautiful. After finally tearing myself away from the park (since I was going to be late if I didn't get moving), I bumped into a guy taking pictures as well. We exchanged lively greetings (something that never happens in the streets here - people are too busy pretending nobody else is around them) and discussed how cool it was that it snowed here.

Being Canadian, I'm used to complaining about snow. It's funny how moving away has made me nostalgic for all of the good things that winter can bring...

The view from my classroom window this morning

the schoolyard

Here's my favourite picture. It's of a group of my students watching the other children come into the schoolyard, carrying loads of snow and jumping around with excitment. They all wanted to go back outside (and I wish I could have let them) but since somebody had to be the grown-up, they had to settle for looking out the windows.


I hope I remember how happy this made me when I'm back in Canada scraping ice off of a windshield in -20 degree temperatures.