First Winter in Toronto

     Before I came to Toronto, I lived in Vienna. Actually, I loved Vienna. I liked to walk my Tano, my lovely Shiba Inu dog, in the forest in winter. It was sunny, warm and not windy at all. My boyfriend, now my husband, who lived in Toronto at that time, complained me about the freezing winter in Toronto on the phone all the time. In my mind, winter in Toronto was negative 20 something degrees, with a strong north wind blowing everything up in the air, one-metre deep snow piled up everywhere, people wearing clothes so thick that you could not see their faces, and cars crawling on slippery roads. I was afraid of staying in Toronto in winter. Last year, since I landing in Toronto at the end of October, I started to prepare for the winter;  I purchased winter boots, scarf, gloves, leather hat, and all kinds of thick clothes; watched the weather forecast twice everyday; and walked outside as much as I could to adapt my body to Toronto´s cold weather. November, December, January and the middle of February came and went. While I didn’t have a white Christmas, I didn’t encounter an extreme freezing day either, as my husband described. While I am not that scared of the cold anymore, I am a bit disappointed. I really want to see what it is like when the temperature is 20 degree below zero. My husband laughed at me and said, “Maybe you were a human furnace and you brought Vienna’s warm winter into Toronto. Don’t rush, nobody really knows Toronto´s weather. There could be a heavy snowfall even in April. Winter is not over yet.” Maybe he is right. I am not frightened by the Toronto winter. On the contrary, I am looking forward to a freezing winter in front of us. I want to experience it.