Rochester, New York – I thought winter season is over, I was wrong. Snow flurries dropped for the past few days and the winter chill has prompted me to wear four layers of clothes again. A week ago the climate was like summer. The snows have melted; red-breasted robins, red cardinals and blue jays were out. Even the squirrels have started to forage for the nuts they buried in the fall. Most people have staring wearing their spring clothes, only to be disappointed when meteorologists reported that the temperature would drop twenty to thirty degrees for two weeks. That means back to the closet and rummage for sweaters, mittens and scarves. I was lucky enough to purchase a few scarves and bonnets during the Masskara Festival two years ago, before my departure to the US.
It was in November last year when the first snow shower came. But it was only for a day. Winter didn’t arrive here until January. I was ecstatic on my first experience with snow. Now, it has just become a daily occurrence.
Most Filipinos think winter is cool. No, it is cold! I think of Christmastime in the Philippines where malls and malls are decorated with fake snow, snowflakes made of Styrofoam adorn Christmas trees. It wasn’t always fun being under an environment colder than the refrigerator. Filipinos think it’s sissy for men to put on lip balm. But it is a necessity here, least you want to end up with cracked, bleeding lips because of the cold weather.
Winter limits one’s mobility. Unless you are physically fit to walk around the city under piercing chill, layers of clothes and the possibility of nosebleed, then good luck. I would have sworn if I didn’t have the patience and perseverance, like waking up at 5:30 in the morning to shovel the snow in the driveway to prepare a way for the car. I take the bus to school and Mr. Smith was kind enough to drop me off the bus stop. It is sad as I travel four hours to and from school three times a week. I don’t mind that, but with the weight brought about by the clothes I wear and baggage I carry, I get backaches all the time. Especially that my textbooks are so thick and I have to carry with me a portable DVD player to watch the films that were required in one of my courses on the way to school. It has been a habit of David to wait for me to board the bus before going home. One day he has to depart early and left me standing in the snow. The bus driver, while I was dropping the bills in the machine for an all day pass, asked me with a surprised look, “Where’s your car?” And we both laughed. I am also glad that he’d let the bus kneel when I step on board. Drivers would let the right front side of the bus deflate to help passengers who have special needs or those who are weight-challenged get off safely.
Walking under the wintry spell isn’t a pleasant experience, especially for students at school. I basically hate walking from one building to another to get to another class when it snows. Cold weather restricts me from visiting the school library. It is so far away that you need to have a car to get to it. Unless if you are brave enough to walk across the field or walk thru the overpass leading to the library. The distance from the student union, where I stay most of the time because it is like a hotel, to the library is like from Bacolod cathedral to the city hall. I was thinking of starting a trisikad business at school, but thought of the predicament I’m facing. There is no way I could pedal away with passengers weighing 200 to 300 pounds.
Families are compelled to stay at home than step outside in the cold. David’s 102-year-old lady friend has once said she misses the time when children would come out in the yard and build snowmen or put on the sleigh to have some fun. Now children and youth, she said, are too busy with the home entertainment system. Though with the coldness, American couples to have only one or two kids, and probably a dog and a cat. One Sunday, even if it was cold, David and I visited a lady from church in her home. She invited us for lunch. Her daughter has a big Great Dane that kept on leaning on me and I had to hold on to my feet or I’d fall. I have never seen a huge dog such as that before. It could tower me if it stood on its feet. But it proved to be a great companion in the winter as its body can be used like a hot compress.
Winter, however, didn’t stop us from watching movies and meet interesting people. It was nice to know that the director of “The Painted Veil” lives somewhere in our village. We’ll scout for the location in the summer. It was also revealed to me that one of the persons I know at church is a former speech writer of the late President Gerald Ford. Another person earlier approached me and introduced himself as a former navy officer who saw action in Leyte during the World War II. “We were bombing the shore to clear the way for Gen. Douglas MacArthur,” he said. I was amazed!
To keep me busy while staying inside the house, I’ve been watching reruns of a documentary over Discovery Health about a Rochester woman who underwent six-organ transplant. She has not eaten for 14 years because of a rare intestinal disease. She weighed about 70 lbs at the time of her operation. Surgeons had to take out her stomach, large and small intestines, pancreas, liver and gall bladder and replace them with new ones. The surgeons had to leave her belly empty for about half hour while waiting for the organs to arrive as they were being shipped from the another state. Now, she’s able to eat real food and live normally. I am yet to watch the documentary I taped of Carl and Clarence Aguirre about their famous separation. It was a detailed explanation of how the operation was done and interviews with prominent people.
(Published in Sun.Star Bacolod April 09, 2007 under my column, The Mango Generation)
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