Surprise Snow-pocalypse!

Holy crap, it snowed all weekend and then some. We've got about a foot here, which isn't all that much on the New England scale of snowfall, but considering how England doesn't believe in shoveling sidewalks or ploughing any roads except the really major ones, it was definitely considerable.

And considering how I was struck down by the flu again (damn you, Maggie!) this was not great weather to have to go out in. Nonetheless, it is really exceptionally pretty, and I got a fair amount of exercise tromping to and from the train station and such. Most of the sidewalks that aren't completely cleared due to warmth and sheer use are either super compacted, which is fine, or filled with about three inches of slushy, soft snow, so it's like walking on a beach except, you know, cold and wet and not beach-y. Which is less fine. More exhausting, especially uphill.

But anyway, my biometrics are in the system, and now here's hoping that everything processes properly and I get my visa back in time to fly around Christmas. Sheffield, where I had to get the stuff done, is not a particularly nice town, but they do have an H&M, so I took the opportunity to pick up cheap sweaters because I'm cold all the time now. MORE SWEATERS ALL THE TIME OMNOMNOM.

Also the Border Agency has you go through a metal detector and take the battery out of your phone, but doesn't need you to take off your watch and/or shoes. The struggle against terrorism continues to appear arbitrary and confusing to this layperson's eyes.

And that's basically it. Thanksgiving was a blast, though--we had twelve people in the house, we ate and drank lots, I improvised how to carve a turkey (which worked eventually but I definitely mangled it quite a bit in the process), and we all had a lot of fun! It was a nice mix of people; several English girls from Maggie's archaeology classes, and some international students whom Doris knows, and everyone got along well. So it was definitely a good time. I managed to hold off illness through strategic drugs until the end of the evening, at which point I passed out and then was in a fever coma for the next twenty-four hours, but it was totally worth it. Have a silly picture:

P.S.: I should probably add at this point that, due to hills and awareness of weather like the stuff we're having right now (thunder AND snow! Just for funsies!) I have not bought impractical shoes in at least five months. I'm starting to go through withdrawal.