Winter Approaches

By Jaeyoon Shin

After living in the middle of the mountains for three years, I never expected myself to return to such a snowy region for college. Although I loved to step on fresh snow leaving traces of fish swimming in the snow (footprints somehow look like swimming fish to me), I was hesitant about living again through long winters of high mountains—slippery roads after the beauty has gone away, shoveling half-frozen snow in the morning, stuck in the dorm fearing my feet and hands turn into ice blocks. Most of all, winter nights without Ondol (a Korean style heating system that heats up the floor—Koreans take off their shoes when they enter the room) was impossible for me to imagine.

Nevertheless, as soon as I encountered snow here, I forgot all my worries about snowy days. From the hill, this small campus with orange-red adobe buildings looked like a snow globe. Maybe not a traditional one that looks like Christmas village in Finland, but at least as beautiful.

Here are some photos of snowy delights of winter evenings and nights of Santa Fe.