Countdown to wonderland

For the first time in this round of my existence, I saw snow.

The way I imagined it would be, this first sighting of something I've only ever seen in pictures, was stupid picture-book material. In my head, I would have been standing by a window, seeing flakes fall from the sky. I would have opened a door to run outside, giddy, and catch flakes on my tongue. Maybe Christmas music would have started playing in the background, or a sled pulled by flying deer would have silhouetted past the full moon.

That was the expectation. This is the realisation:

Sunday morning, Vincent and I had our alarms set for 5:45am. I woke up in disbelief, Jack Daniels and sake still coursing through my blood. It was still dark outside, and bitterly cold. He came downstairs, we brushed our teeth, and ventured outside to take the road to Fukuyama, from where I'd be catching an early-morning Shinkansen to make it to Saijo in time to write a test in a language I don't understand.
While I was putting on my yellow Crocs, he came back inside, saying the car's windows were frosted over. Wow, pretty damn thick frost, I said later, drawing spirals in the white layer on my car's windscreen.

Just as we were about to leave, the car's headlights illuminated that.. things.. were falling from the sky. Like rain, only.. not. I noticed that in all the turns and corners, nooks and crannies, were coloured in in sparkly white. The further we drove, the more convinced we because that it's actually snow. Intelligent comments like "do you think.. yah dude.. I really think this is snow.. weird.. this is.. kinda.. shit man.. snow.." prevailed. I was both amazed and freaked out. It was like a harsh reality kicking in. The reality that I'm gonna be freezing my ass off. The reality that I won't be able to drive my car recklessly. The reality that summer is still a long way from here.

It wasn't quite jingle bells and snow angels, dashing through the snow on a one-horse open sleigh. It was miserable, dark, and I was sick and hung over, not even kipper enough to use the English function in my brain. But I was with another South African who was also cold and sick and hung over, and that made the experience more perfect than I could ever have imagined it.