Cold summers
All of us have heard about the scary
winters in Rochester, but little did I know about its hot summers. I have been
told so much about the winters in Rochester to the point of being convinced
that Rochester would have “cold summers”.
I arrived in Rochester on the 17th
of June, in the afternoon. I knew it was summer, but the idea of a “cold summer”
still haunted. Hence, I came in full winter gear just in case I would arrive on
the coldest day of the summer. But while landing at Greater Rochester
International Airport, the pilot mentioned the temperature outside and my
reaction was pretty much similar to this one:
I then got out of the plane and it
was time to face reality. In my large yellow sweater with hands in the pockets
and a scarf around my neck, I pushed my luggage towards the exit door. Everyone
in the airport was looking at me wondering what I had come to do in Rochester
in full winter gear. I stood outside the exit door with my three suitcases
waiting to be picked up, and feeling very guilty for not checking the weather
prior to my departure. After 30 minutes, I was finally picked up by my friend
who drove me straight to U of R campus where I could finally take off my sweater
and take a cold shower. On our way to campus, he kept teasing about my winter
clothes and was laughing hysterically from my “cold summers” story.
After settling on campus, I had a very hard time falling asleep because of the heat. The amount of trips I took from
my room to the bathrooms to take a cold shower were countless. Everyone on my
hall kept wondering what special relationship this new freshman (me) had
established with the bathrooms. But to be honest, without a fan in my room, I
couldn’t spend 30 minutes without sweating. This cat below briefly summarizes my life during my first week at U of R campus:
So beware freshmen, the scary winter in Rochester is real, but don't underestimate the power of summer here.
This is such good advice! I never even thought about (as a person from Rochester) that one might start thinking it is cold here ALL of the time! This actually reminds me of when I went to Madagascar in June, 2006 to start my time in the Peace Corps and I was convinced it was a tropical island that was hot ALL of the time (even though I had actually been warned that that was not true) so I brought all warm weather closed and was FREEZING during the southern hemisphere winter. :) Also, this cat is amazing.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love the inclusion of gifs in this post. I think this was a really effective rhetorical choice because it draws a reader's attention while also enhancing, rather than detracting from the story (e.g., as a reader I can actually FEEL your relief from the heat watching the cat gif). Ending this post you warn readers about the power of summer in Rochester. By power, are you referring to the heat or something more?
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