Snowy, Train-Chasing Monday

England is totally covered in snow. The whole country is frozen over. I was watching the news this morning, listening for school closures, hoping I could work from home and watch the Inauguration. No such luck. It's amazing how quickly the beautiful white nightfall turns into brown, sock-soaking sludge on the sidewalks. Sadly, my one pair of snow shoes (rubber boots I've had since high school), cracked on their first real test in the snow - too much pressure for one pair of shoes to take on for seven months in England. So, my running shoes and I are working together to try to keep my socks dry, today - neither of us are very well-designed for the challenge - we're definitely the underdogs against the unrelenting, flowing, sludgy sidewalks. I ordered boots on Amazon, yesterday - the cheapest option that looked the most like the ones I see all of the women wearing with their stockings and dresses as they power-walk past me and my soggy socks on the way to work.

The Leeds train station computers were down, this morning, which added much excitement to the morning commute. Usually, the final destination is accompanied on a set of screens by all of the stops along the way. Both of my transfers on trains this morning are stops, rather than final destinations (and I have no idea where my trains end up after I get off on my stop). So, I had to ask a couple conductors (one who sent me astray out of confusion or inability to understand my accent). Eventually, I ended up running across the train station from Platform 1c to Platform 15b. I literally jumped on the train as the doors were closing (the whole time I was running and dodging people, the theme song for Scarecrow and Mrs. King was playing in my mind - which made the whole experience more secret-agent like and fun, rather than stressful). It looks a bit like a blizzard outside my train window, so the walk to Goole High School should be exciting. I think I have almost every piece of clothing I brought on as a layer, right now (you can image how fashionable I look). I better get ready to transfer trains in Brough... since I've never been there before, trying to find the next train to Goole should be an adventure... Happy Inauguration Day!

P.S. - I realize this seems to be a picture of chasing a goose rather than a train, but I had no time to take a picture while chasing the train.