Aimee 加拿大鮮活誌

In Toronto, the variation in temperature from one day to another is considerable. When it is cold, you think you are at the North Pole, when it is hot, you feel like in Sahara. Yesterday I was still wearing a thick jacket and today I had to take my summer clothing out. I am so happy that summer is finally here.

You may wonder why I prefer summer to winter. Imagine that you live in a country which has only three months of summer and that for the rest of the year you have to wrap yourself up in heavy clothing. Although you may exercise everyday to keep yourself fit, you can hardly show your beautiful shape. It is a shame, isn’t it? For most people like Moi (me) who come from a hot country, the first winter is a “torture”.

Never had I seen snow when I was in Taiwan. For me, “snow” and “romantic” were synonym. I still remember how excited I was when the first time in my life I touched real snow. In December of 2003, just arrived in Toronto, and the chill of winter was in the air. I felt cold but not that cold. Then, after a few days of freezing cold, I realized “this is the real winter, it is not a joke”. I did not want to go outside any more. Everything looked cold and grey as a hopeless world. However cold, I was still excited whenever it was snowing and prayed for more snow to come. Snow seemed to cheer up the city. It looked so romantic. My husband told everyone who knew us that I liked snow very much. They looked at me as if I was coming from Mars and nobody seemed to like snow. I could not understand them. Then, when we had to shovel every morning to get the car out, I gave up my fantasy of romantic snow and I started to understand why our friends did not want snow.

Meteorologist predicted that we are going to have an extremely hot and dry summer this year in Canada. “Extremely Hot and Dry”? Ha, is there anyone scared by this prediction, certainly not me. Am I ever ready for it! Frankly, I have been dreaming of it. Now the hot summer has arrived and I am just as happy as I was for my first snow. I think this will be a good training for my husband since we are going to Taiwan and Tailand in August.