Ahhh... yes, it is a new winter alright. Different from the last and even more appreciated. I wake up this morning to see a white landscape and to hear the fireplace crackling. I spend the day in warm pajamas and my hair in a messy bun. Nothing like a cozy day inside, as it continues to snow. A little later into the evening, I walk outside to bring in some more fire wood. Before I go back inside I walk down to the main street and stand looking in wonderment. The snow is lightly falling around me and everything else is covered in white. All down the road, houses have their lights on and it sends a warm glow over the area. With the sky darkening, everyone was inside trying to keep warm. A stillness hung on the air, the only sound was of the silence of snow hitting the ground. It was beautiful. And then it hits me... This was something I used to look at in pictures of Norway and look at me now. I am actually standing in one of those pictures. It hits me that I really am in a foreign country and I now get to be a part of the beauty I only ever saw in pictures. Except, that now, it is completely natural for me to see this... it is beautiful, yes, but now something that I can have for myself. Something I can be a part of.
