The Great White North
As everyone that reads this blog probably knows I am Canadian. For the majority of the world population when they think of Canada they think of snow since for a third of the year we are either covered in the stuff or the potential is there for us to be covered in the stuff. From this it is a natural assumption that Canadians must like/love snow since they live in Canada. This is not always (actually very rarely) the case.
We have a love/hate relationship with snow. There are several stages to the Canadian winter which usually starts with the first snow fall. During and immediately following the first snow fall, which I like to call the "romanticism stage". During this stage everyone loves the snow. They love how it blankets everything and makes it look bright and beautiful. Depending on where you live this quickly turns into the "fade to gray stage" where the pristine snow turns into a gray slushy mess. Typically this stage occurs quicker in cities due to the increased presence of cars and airborne pollution.
It would take too long to go through the middle stages since it really depends on the predictability of the weather. The final stage that occurs around the end of January is the "loathing stage" where we just wish the snow would melt so Spring could begin. The symptoms that occur during this stage is irritability, depression, being tired all the time and not wanting to go to work. The final symptom can be attributed to the fact that during January most people get to work when it is dark and leave work when it is dark thus having no time to enjoy the daylight.
This ends your lesson on Canada for the day. There will be a test tomorrow.
