All of a sudden this morning it seemed that someone stopped the clock hand in its speed, slowing down the flow of things. Colchester is overpowered by an invasion of snowflakes. Nothing functions anymore. The buses do not run or run very late, i have not seen the postman in two days, my radiator does not keep up with the temperature drop, most if not all sessions at the uni get canceled, there seems to be no plan in place to clear roads and pathways, not even sand is being strewed around (this chaos started on Monday, when - being generous - the snow level was about 2 cm). For two days now it was no decision between biking or walking. One glance outside the window and i knew i would walk. Even walking is something of an adventure with all these slippery sidewalks.

If i think back to times in Germany or Russia, it seems ridiculous what is (not) happening here. In many other places snow falls, life goes on. Here at Essex, one of the most international campuses in Britain, the first snow is something very special indeed. Many students from many different places experience snow for the first time in their lives. And meanwhile, the uni administration keeps sending updates on how they cannot handle the current situation. Being the German i am, i just lean back, smile and contemplate ways of putting order onto all this chaos. And i imagine an African country like Cameroon or Nigeria where this would happen and what would then happen. Britain, however, is not situated in Africa.

But, I am loving it all. The uni is very quiet, Tesco last night was incredibly very quiet, my walk towards campus today was very quiet. I took the longer, picturesque trail along the small river and through the small woods this morning. Winterwonderland. I will post some pics tonight. On the trail, I met a man from Wivenhoe, the next village, who told me he was on his way to Tesco's and deliberately decided to walk in order to enjoy the lovely weather. He was born in 1943 and remembers that in the 1940s and '50s, when he was a young boy, they experienced many hard long winters around here with snow levels above his knees. Wow, that would be something... I would love snow to slow down the pace until Christmas.