Oh, the Weather Outside...

I can't remember the last time I have been surrounded by so much snow for such a long period of time! On the 17th of December, we had quite the flurry of snowfall here in Fife. So much so that there was concern that we would not be in school on the 18th - the last day of school for the kids before break. Maybe I'm alone in this sentiment but I think that is one of the worst possible days to have a snow day. I mean, I would have enjoyed sleeping in and having a longer holiday but that last day before break is usually so much fun to spend with kids. It's movie and popcorn day. It's craft and puzzle day. It's clean up the room for when we get back day. Fortunately, the December 17th snow was enough to provide a pretty landscape but not enough to cancel school...unlike today.

Since the 17th, I've lived in a marshmallow world. On Saturday the 19th, I did some last minute Christmas shopping in Edinburgh. During a walk from the Royal Mile (by the castle) down to Princes Street (this may mean nothing to many of you), there was a 3 minute period where it started to spritz, then rain heavily, then sleet, then become blizzard-like conditions. In 3 MINUTES all this happened! I had 1/4 of an inch of snow in my purse by the time I made it into the craft fair I was heading to. It was incredibly festive and made me feel like I was in the middle of the song Silver Bells. The area around Princes Street is the main shopping district in Edinburgh so gaily colored Christmas decorations adorned the streets and shop windows. People were bustling about with their holiday purchases. Christmas music may even have been playing (or that could have been me just singing to myself). I loved it.

There was a fair level of panic upon leaving Scotland that I would run into major holiday travel issues. DC was dealing with the biggest snowfall it's received in years. Dulles and National Airports were closed for the better part of the weekend (I was flying in on a Monday). The Amsterdam Airport (a major hub for international flights in Europe) was closed and had to bring in cots for all the passengers forced to wait there for a few days. Could I make it through without incident? Honestly...no. My flight landed 10 whole minutes late at Dulles. How inconvenient. Seriously though, it was my Christmas miracle. Plus, I left behind only a few inches of snow for over a foot of snow in NoVa (Northern Virginia). We were going to have a White Christmas! (only a 7% chance of that in VA)

My wonderful friends dug out my car so I could use it while home. As it turned out, the icy and snow-covered roads were nothing compared to dealing with the traffic issues I so gratefully left behind when I came to Scotland. Despite the torrential downpour of rain on Christmas Day, the snow stuck it out until I left on the 29th. Having enjoyed a snowy few weeks, I headed back to Scotland where I was assured that snow never lasted more than a few hours on the ground. Not only had the snow from before Christmas not melted but Mother Nature dropped another 8 inches or so on Boxing Day. I came back to Scotland with more snow than I left in the US!

My friend Christine had come in the same day I landed to spend the New Year with me. She, unfortunately, did run into weather related delays and instead of arriving at 7:30 AM in Glasgow (I was getting in at 10:30 in Edinburgh the same day so needless to say there already was a complication in us meeting up), she arrived around 3:00 instead. It was better for us meeting up but also meant Christine had been traveling for about 24 hours to get to me. Fingers crossed that heading out tomorrow is significantly less eventful for her.

Since Christine's arrival, the snow has not stopped (nor has the hail!). On Saturday the 2nd alone, we had to have help pushing the car out of our parking spot at Rosslyn Chapel, and pushing it up the hill heading out of the Chapel parking lot (others were having the same troubles too - it wasn't just me). This was before we ended up parked (literally car turned off) for 45 minutes on the M90 (major highway - like 95) due to an accident on the Forth Bridge while so much hail came down that when it stopped, you couldn't see any of the tire marks on the highway. 20 minutes after we started moving, the car slipped so we ended up perpendicular to the flow of traffic on the highway (luckily only going about 20 mph). How we did not hit another car is beyond me (might have something to do with Christine's words of encouragement, "You're doing great. We're going to be fine. You're straightening out. You can do it." She now admits that part of her wanted to react a lot more panicked than that, "We're all going to die!"). It was one of the most stressful drives I've ever taken.

When school started again on Monday (for teachers, Tuesday for kids), there was a general grumbling from all the teachers about why we were open. The hill leading up to school had (still has) about 6 inches of ice packed down and is impassible for most cars. The school parking lot has not been touched - not that we can get to it anyway. Aside from the major roads in the area, plows have not so much as glanced at any of the residential or backroads. Fife has been on the national BBC news for having some of the worst weather/roads. We are out of grit (not sand, not salt but grit) and are having to borrow some from the government because our roads are so bad. Let's not even get started on the sidewalks. (90% of our kids walk to school) So when over 20 schools including the local high school was cancelled yesterday, a very unhappy and frustrated staff showed up to welcome back our kids. Miraculously, my kids were pretty good. Considering my students, this was a miracle.

My travel woes, unfortunately, continued as my car (stupidly parked on a hill, I admit) would not move after school yesterday. I finally got it over the snow hump (after sliding into the car behind me twice) only to not make it up the hill. So I decide to do a K-turn. To make a long story short (too late!), it took three nice townsmen to push my car up the hill enough backwards to allow me to complete the turn.

When it started to snow last night on the way to dinner at Louise's, you have never seen anyone so happy! But it wasn't until 8:45 this morning that we got the official word that we were cancelled today (but I had already called in that I wasn't going in - along with about 5 other teachers from what I understand). I almost think the head teachers in the area are playing chicken with each other as to who can hold out the longest keeping their school open. When the news people are reporting on all the accidents in the area, the national news has reported that we are in major trouble due to the lack of grit (not that it does much - hello, where is the salt?), we are experiencing record low temperatures that are going to last for the next 5 days, the sidewalks kids are using for school are sheets of ice, and none of the roads that people actually live on have seen a plow, WHY is there even discussion about keeping schools open?!

So no school today. And even better, it's been a great excuse to break in my new wellies.

By the way, I'm started to get my pictures put up online. They are not in order and some of my adventures are not up yet but I'm getting there. You should be able to check them out at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mue711