Wait, should all the Blogmas posts be Winter/Christmas-themed? I didn’t make any rules, so let’s say they don’t. In either case, today I want to talk about snow. So sit back, and get cozy, it’s story time…

I remember the first time I saw snow. I was at school, in the small village not far from where I live. Immediately we went outside to play in the snow… well, by that time almost no snow had fallen and we were scrapping a mix of dirt and snow off the ground to throw at each other (a dirtball fight?).

The snow started in the early morning, so by lunchtime, it had been decided that the school had to close for the day because of it. We thus moved to the after-school activities institution which was downhill from the school. However, apart from the occasional playtime, we were mostly kept inside, leaving me looking out the window at the white-covered town.

My mother works at that institution, and I remember begging her to take me home so that I could go play in the snow in my neighborhood, with my brother (oh it would’ve been just like in the movies). But alas, she said no and I had the most appropriate response… I cried.

When we went home at the end of the day I still got the chance to play outside for a bit. The snowman had already been built, with a carrot and everything, but no hard feelings, at least I still got the chance to throw some snowballs around. Also, it was a Friday, so I also played on Saturday, before the snow melted away.

Some years later…

Around five years after that, while I was in 9^th grade, I took a trip with my mom and brother to Poland, to visit my uncle who worked there.

Despite being cold as ice, it did not snow in Warzaw, so I didn’t get the chance to play in the snow again. We did, however, go on a day trip two days before we left. At our destination it started snowing, not a lot, but snow nonetheless.

However, that destination was the Auschwitz concentration camp, which for obvious reasons isn’t the most appropriate place to be frolicking in the snow.

Even more years later…

In the last year of my master’s (2021/22), I did the Erasmus Exchange Program in Munich, Germany. On the 26^th of November, after much anticipation by looking at the weekly weather forecast every day, it started snowing outside. This time, little David got what he wanted. He didn’t have to stay inside and gawk at the white fields. This time I threw snowballs, I ran in the snow, and I sled down every steep hill I could find on top of any object that could resemble a sled¹.

A few days before I left back to my country, my friend Luís, my girlfriend Andreia, and I took a trip to the Bavarian Alps, more specifically to Obere Firstalm. There, in the snow-covered mountains of Germany, we took an incredible sled² ride down an enormous hill. I think this was the last time I saw snow, but I hope to continue to make little David’s snowy dreams come true for many years to come.

Me on the right. For anonymity's sake, on the left is either my friend Luís or my girlfriend Andreia. Obere Firstalm 09/03/2022