First Dealings with Snow and Ice

Although the cold here was one of the things that I was concerned about prior to this program, the weather was been disturbingly nice here. When I saw "nice," I do not mean anything like back home. It has been pretty consistently around 40 degrees. When I first arrived here, there was snow on the ground and I got to walk on some ice in my first few days wandering but it did not snow the all the snow that was already there did was melt. However, I keep telling everyone here that I cannot wait for it to snow. After being here nearly three weeks, it is getting to the point where people are not convinced that I am going to get to see snow falling...
Yesterday however, I saw my first "snow!" I put snow in quotation marks because what I saw was disappointing. It was described to me by the person I was with as "snow flurries." I walked out of the metro and thought ash was falling out of the sky in a similar manner to what happened during the Southern California fires back at CMC. But no, I was informed that these were actually "snow flurries." They melted immediately when they touched the ground (I know because I leaned down to inspect this "snow"). So, basically, my first snow was extremely disappointing and does not count. I really hope it snows again!
We then went ice skating yesterday afternoon. People had been commenting that you couldn't go ice skating in previous days because it was too warm and the outdoor rink would melt down too much (foreign concept to me!). But if it was cold enough to snow a little, it was cold enough to go ice skating. I had a pretty good time. There is a castle like building right beside the ice skating rink so that was cool.
Afterwards, a beirut challenge was made so I ended up going to a bar with 2 guys from my program after beirut (I was the sober one watching out for them, it was HILARIOUS). We randomly met these two French guys who I think might have been hitting on the guys I was with (they kept talking to the guys I was with and they bought them drinks). Then, myself and the other guy who lived near me walked home at 2 in the morning... I have now walked home after public transportation has closed three times. It really isn't too bad of a walk and I have people to walk with so I don't mind. But, as I was in bed around 3 in the morning, I did not make it to language class in the early morning (but will be heading in in a minute). About half the people in my program have dropped out of language school, it is crazy.
In really exciting news, we booked a hostel for Vienna in a week and a half! It will be the 21st birthday of one of the guys going (and it is looking like we will spend the weekend before my 21st in Paris!). I am sure it will be a blast and a great adventure! Math class starts Monday, so that will always change the mood of the program I am sure.