Prior to moving to Minneapolis, I had never lived in a place where the weather dropped below 60 degrees. In fact, its notoriously cold climate is one of the main reasons I applied to the University of Minnesota. Now that I've had a taste of college in the cold, here are a few of my thoughts on life in this new environment.
1. I finally get the appeal of hot coffee.
It takes forever to cool off and burns your tongue for the rest of the day if you don't wait. Why on earth would you not just order iced coffee instead? Well when the weather outside is frightful, it's nice to have a drink that keeps you both awake and warm.
2. Snow isn't as fun as I thought.
This shouldn't exactly come as a surprise to me since I've had the displeasure of walking in the snow once before during a trip to New York. However, that was during February; I expected to be a little chilly in the winter. Here, I feel it has dropped even lower, and we're still technically in the middle of fall (despite all the Christmas spirit vibes). Now that the novelty has worn off, I've realized that snow is just slow rain. Still gets me sick, still gets in my eye even though I wear glasses.
3. Winter gear is expensive.
Maybe it's because I've been getting all my clothes from my university's bookstore, but $12 for a basic pair of gloves is kind of nuts. Now that a flannel and undershirt isn't enough to ward off the weather, I've had to dump my hard-earned (?) money on hats, sweaters and scarves alike. Now on top of project deadlines and food budgets, I have to pay attention to clothing sales to get by.
4. It's not the temperature that hurts; it's the wind.
Cold mornings haven't been all that bad to be quite honest. However, a small gust of wind will almost always force me to huddle up. I had previously looked forward to going out super often as a college kid, but now I won't dare step outdoors without wearing tons of layers.
5. I can fall asleep almost immediately.
On the bright side, the indoors have never felt so comfortable. Since I don't have to worry about blasting the air conditioner just to stay comfortable, I can rest easily without the stuffiness I experienced far too often in California.
6. It gets worse.
I've heard from multiple Minnesota natives that mid-30s is nothing. Once again, I shouldn't be too surprised; winter isn't even close and I'm here planning out the ways I can avoid walking in the snow on my way to class. Sure I don't have anyone to blame but myself, but I can't say I'm looking forward to what comes next.
Despite all this complaining, I'm glad that I chose to experience this new climate. At the very least, now I know what it's like to freeze your face off every other night out.
