Snow is so strange. To actually see these huge flurries descend on the city, and painstakingly paint everything white, millimeter by millimeter. As I left my French class on Thursday night (exam result: a pleasing 75%), I stepped out into the park to see a lamp-post half covered in snow. A lamp-post! Just like in Narnia. Who knew these things actually existed. I always thought that one had to go to the snow. I never really understood that it could come to you.

We did one final round of the plaisirs d’hiver (winter fun) markets in Brussels with our friends James, Colette and Grace from Leuven. While James and Colette defrosted in a café, the rest of us braved a walk through the insides of the inflatable ice monster chained up outside. Adrian was very amused at my screams due to the loud noises and people jumping out and grabbing my legs. I emerged feeling very unimpressed and it is unlikely that I shall ever walk through the bowels of another monster ever again.

In response to Laura’s challenge, Adrian constructed a balcony snowman, but I added the final touches to turn it into a bonchaton de neige (good kitten of snow). The snow is beautiful, magical, otherworldly, and extraordinarily sublime. It has however, shut down Brussels airport for two days this week. Fingers crossed we can fly out to Italy to meet our cruise today.

Photo by CaptPiper

I look outside my window and I can see an immense flurry of snowflakes whirling down. It is an astonishing sight. Bit by bit, they are starting to form a thin layer on the ground. The green grass is gradually disappearing under millions of fluffy white specs.

Growing up in Australia, I never saw snow fall from the sky. My first introduction to snowflakes was in a Strawberry Shortcake picture book. The flakes were as big as her hands, and did not melt when touched. This is how I imagined them to be – resilient thick structures of ice, capable of being passed from hand to hand without melting. Instead, they are like a swarm of white insects, filling the air with circling motion.

In Brisbane, Australia, the temperature has only dropped below freezing once since records began, in 2007 when it fell to -0.1 ^oC. Here, at the beginning of winter we have a maximum of -1 ^oC today. It is painful to be outside during my short walk between work and the metro. My eyes tear up and my lips crack in the cold. I have a thick coat, gloves, hat, and scarf, yet I yearn for earmuffs and thicker socks.

They tell me last January it reached -29 ^oC in Belgium. I can’t even imagine that temperature. Surely the only time that water should become ice is when I put it in the freezer?

To farewell the USA, we are spending three nights in San Francisco. We spent the first evening relaxing quietly, as I was still feeling quite sore. I had chicken noodle soup at a downtown diner, and then we went to see “Role Models” because of a cranky looking clip on The Daily Show. We laughed and enjoyed ourselves, and then headed back to our hotel at Union Square.

The next morning I woke up at 5:30 to find some oatmeal from Starbucks, and then we were picked up at 6:30 for our day trip to Yosemite National Park. Designated a World Heritage site in 1984, it is full of grand vistas. The sheer granite cliffs form huge valleys, laced with waterfalls above snow-dusted forests. We saw Bridalveil Falls, El Capitan, a 3 593 foot high granite monolith, and Half Dome, which was never a full dome.

After lunch (I had soup again), we went for an atmospheric walk through Tuolumne sequoia grove. As we were 6 000 feet up, the ground was lightly dusted with snow, and a thick fog enveloped us. The sequoias, the world’s largest living organism, emerged from the mist and towered above us. One fallen giant rested on its side, slowly returning to the soil. We watched a silver belly squirrel carefully pack its nuts into the ground, and spotted a parcel of deer scamper through the long grass.

For dinner I had mashed potatoes with gravy and yogurt. Returning to San Francisco, we stopped beside the Bay Bridge and admired its strings of light leading the way back into the city.