As someone who loves snow, I have been having withdrawals here in Manchester. As I have said many times before, it is great here in the U.K., and Manchester specifically, but we have had quite a gray winter up until now. I suppose even Manchester got tired of the rain, because we woke up to snow today! And what’s more, it’s actually sticking to the ground. It only took a few months, but better late than never. The last month has really flown by; it is strange to think that I’ve only got about four months left here considering there was a point when I thought about coming home at semester. However, four months is still plenty of time and I’m planning to make the most of it. Now on to other things — I haven’t just sat around waiting for snow, have I?

So as everybody in the free world (‘Murica) knows, the Super Bowl is in February and, as luck would have it, one of my flat mates knows more about American sports than most Americans, so I had someone to watch it with. Because of the time difference, the game started at 11 p.m. and finished up around 3:30 a.m. — shout out to the commercials for turning an hour-long game into a four-and-a-half-hour ordeal. That being said, the game was quite good and pulling and all-nighter (sort of) is always fun. Watching the Super Bowl in England was an interesting experience, without the fervor that it brings back home it became just another game. Which isn’t to say that it wasn’t fun to watch with friends. I guess I just realized that things like the Super Bowl that seem to hold a lot of gravitas aren’t as far reaching or important as they are made out to be.

I suppose if there was a point I was trying to get at here, it would be that living abroad has made me realize that there is so much more to see and experience than what you are exposed to at home. Going from Columbia to Manchester is a bit like going from a swimming pool to the sea. But as daunting as that sounds, it has opened me up to a lot of new experiences and ways of thinking, much like swimming in the sea. That made no sense, but I wanted to keep the analogy going. I’ll quit before it gets really bad, so without further ado, here is a quote by Marcus Aurelius to keep the tradition going: “Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.”