Let It Snow and Rain

Go sledding!

A few days ago, I’ve heard that Fargo had its first snow. It was too early, everybody says. It was a fluke? Probably. But that’s not what I’m going to talk about.

If you ask me what is it worth if you let me see snow? I’d probably say that I’d buy you food for a whole year. I am kind of half serious and half joking, though.

Part of me is serious. Last year, when I was looking at this stuff at first, I could not help but admired it. It was so white that I could do nothing but staring at it like a child gets his birthday present. I hold it. I smiled at it. I balled it up. I fell on it. I was knee-deep in it. I even tested it to make sure that what was right in front of me was what people call snow.

The dream of us
Snow is like dream for everybody in Indonesia. We watch movies, shows, and news that show us snow a lot. But it is our TV screens that do it. We can’t feel it first hand. We just let our mouth half-open and keep wondering how it feels. We always dream to someday hold it. Firsthand.

On Christmas day, Christian people in Indonesia, like other Christians around the world, have Charismas trees. On TV we see the trees are full of white thing that we’re positive that’s snow. Then what they do with the trees? They put some cotton to make it like what the TV shows them.

The dream came true when my first snow came in Fargo. I was chilling at the Union (it’s how people at North Dakota State University call their Memorial Union) when suddenly the white thing was drifting in the sky, suddenly distracted me from everything. Oh my God, this is happening! I said to my self. Snow!

When the weather got colder, I, to be honest, thought that the colder the better. I had never been in this cold before. It was fun, I guess, being in that cold. For the record, the coldest temperature I’ve ever been to was -25C or about -16F which used to be such an impossible thing for me.

I saw people have fun with it: sledding, riding snowmobile, skiing, making snowmen, and declaring war to each other with snow balls. I’ve gone for all of them.

When everything was covered by snow, the world seemed nothing but white. Branches of trees were naked and it is super-gorgeous when once frost was beautifully blanketing their entire surface.

Cold weather isn’t all about good though. Watch out! Ice is everywhere. You might fall on you butt which I did many times. When blizzard is coming, all you can do is stay at home. You can’t drive around the town. But, gathering with all beloved ones probably become the bright side of it.

Flood in Jakarta (The Jakarta Post)

We do have something else
Back to Indonesia, we don’t have snow here, unless you go to the very east and climb up the mountain. But we have heavy rain.

Most of the time it is super heavy. You know how it feels when it is happening? A whole bunch of water is dropping right on your head and it lasts for hours. The whole world seems so terrible. The traffic is suddenly getting worse and the earth seems to quit its rotation.

Wait! Isn’t it the best time for kids to hang out with friends? Yeah! Way far “warmer” than snow, the water gives us some much happiness. When parents say we can’t stay out, we cry. Rolling on the floor, showing how deep our sorrow if we don’t play outside. Most of the time it works, unless you have "a-pain-in-the-ass-kind-of" parents.

Water puddle looks the best playground ever in the whole world. We may not have place to create our snow angels, but when water is splashing around us, that is called happiness. We find and start friendship in the rain. We might as well fight each other, though.

Let it snow let it rain
I guess there is no way to compare orange and banana. Snow and rain are totally different. Absolutely different. But both have their own ways to lure people to play with them and also the way to ruin people’s life.

There are advantages and disadvantages having either snow or rain. For those who have never seen snow, it is like a dream. The same thing goes to those who have never seen heavy rain, I guess.

Snow is like cotton drifting through the wind, but don’t forget it can come with the wind. That is when blizzard is about to come wipe out the town. Meanwhile light rain or drizzle will allow kids to play around and smell the clean water from the sky. But when it comes to heavy rain, floods are ready to stop people’s life.

At last, wherever you live and whatever you do it with either rain or snow or both, when it snows, let it snow and when it rains let it rain. Have fun man!