Whenever I talked with a pole and they ask me what I like the most from Poland and they hear my answer, their expressions are priceless. They're like "Are you alright there, inside your head? Cause that's awful!" and let me tell you that, although I'm a little weird and sometimes airhead, what I like the most from Poland is one of the thing I enjoy the most of life.
So... what is this thing, that takes my breath away and that the poles don't share the same feeling? The answer is THE SEASONS OF THE YEAR!
Most of you must think that this is something common, since in Europe or in the parts of the world that are situated in the hemispheres of the Earth, it is a natural phenomenon that happen each year. Still for someone that comes from the equator this is something completely out of his imagination. As you know, I'm mexican, so coming to Poland and seeing the snow for first and the change of my surroundings made a huge impact on me. It was so shocking but in the same time so amazing that I was totally charmed and speechless. I think the fact that I'm mexican made me realized that the seasons are amazing and that's exactly what I want to say to all the people that have the privilege to enjoy such a wonderful thing and haven't realize about it.
I'll start by explaining you where I come from. In my dear and lovely hometown the whole year the tremendous, big and shiny sun shows us how much power it has around 12 hours per day and let me tell you... It is so tiring that, unless you have experienced it, you won't understand me. The whole year it is about 34° to 40°C, so hot that just walking one kilometer under the sun is enough to dry you up and put you in a bad mood. I remember how much I used to hate the sun and always ran away from it to the coolest place I could found.
Everything changed when I came to Poland. In the beginning, before deciding that we were going to live here (or as my mom used to think, because it was really obvious that we weren't going back), the way my mom convinced me to come to Poland,was that for first time I was going to see and touch the snow. Of course I didn't think it twice and after a few seconds I was already sitting in the plane next to my mom (My...I felt on her trap! How naive of me). I was so excited that I couldn't contain it, and when in my 13 years old I watch how a thin lay was being formed it the balcony of my nowadays home, I ,together with my mom, changed quickly and went out to the street to touch and taste this white phenomenon. I remember it was in the end of November. My mom and I were laughing and playing with the snow like little kids use to do whenever is winter and an old man was watching us. In contrast to our joy and fascination to the snow, the old man's face had written his bewilderedness of our actions. After a while he kept going kind of dumbfounded. At that time I couldn't (and still can't) imagine what was the reason of such a behavior, because for me snow is really beautiful.
To enjoy winter to the fullest, my stepfather took my mom and me to the mountains. I'll be sincere, I really don't like skiing or snowboard, because first of all, the trip to the top of the mountain is far longer than the way down and the second thing is that I prefer team sport. That doesn't mean that my winter it's boring as many of my friends say. I also can make snowmen, that actually I've made just one, make an angel on the snow, riding the sleigh, drinking hot chocolate, ice skating, playing snowball fight... The list is much bigger and that's why I really enjoy winter.
Then it comes Spring...
The first thing I realized that had changed, putting aside the fact that the snow was melting, was that the tree. that used to be in front of my building. started having smalls white flower buds on its branches. I saw them but didn't pay them a lot of attention, I mean "Oh, they look cute" was all I thought, till one day, when I was coming back home, I saw how they bloomed. The flowers were white with some pink in the middle and OMG! The tree looked so gorgeous that my jaw dropped. I took a look of the streets and saw that everywhere were white petals. Immediately I went to the closest park to my home and the view I got was one I wasn't expecting at all. I felt as if I had been in a fairy tale. The trees were white and pink, the flowers were red, yellow, purple, blue and their smell was so sweet and intense that I just stared at the park amazed. In my whole life I didn't expect the nature to surprised me so much as it had done in just two seasons...
However, the surprises kept coming and then was Summer.
Honestly I was begging to skip summer, since I knew that it was going to be hot and more than 12 hours of sun for three whole months. But as I said, Mother Nature once again left me open mouthed. Considering my experiences I had in Mexico, I was expecting to hide from the sun and take shelter wherever I could. Nonetheless, thanks to the long lack of sun in winter, for the first time I could enjoy the rays of the huge star on my face and even sunbathe! Yeah, sunbathe...In my whole 13 years I never expected to enjoy sunbathing as much as I do now! I mean it consists of having the sun over you the whole time! But thanks of winter the warm the sun transferred me at that time was really pleasant. Also in Poland summer is the time to practice windsurfing (what I haven't tried, but maybe someday I'll try), sailing (which I really enjoy) and swimming. The first two were new to me, therefore I enjoyed a lot learning how to sail.
And finally Autumn!
This was the final fling that made me love the seasons. Autumn is my favorite season and I remembered what captivated me. It was a day before Halloween and my friend asked me to take her some photos, because she wanted a new one for her profile in Facebook. I accepted it and we met at a park not so far from my home. There I felt in love with Autumn. The floor, that was supposed to be green was covered in yellow and orange. The trees that were amazingly huge were making a path to another and bigger tree that had still some leaves left on it. The fog, that wasn't so dense, gave a mysterious and kind of a scary atmosphere ( I was wondering from time to time if the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow was going to make his appearance, but fortunately he didn't). Everything was so mesmerizing that I found myself alone in the middle of the park, while my friend had gone to buy some coffee. I made a lot of photos of the park and the trees that caught my eye, and of course some photos of my friend. Autumn is so beautiful and it is when, for me, the temperature is ideal (around 8°-14°C).
As a resume, I want you (if you live in someplace that have the four seasons) to enjoy each of the seasons, because thanks to it, you are able to appreciate all the nature has to offer and also in each of them you are able to do different activities. Moreover I think it's great, since you don't get bored at seeing the same landscape for the whole year. I won't hide the fact, that when it is winter you can be depressed, because of the little amount of sun there is; when it is summer the really noisy mosquitoes attacks you from everywhere or frequently after taking a shower you don't know if you're drenched in water or in sweat; in spring some people have allergies or the floor is covered in mud from the melting snow and in fall it rains or the sun shines that sometimes you don't know how to dress... I won't denied them, because even I really hate these facts, but let's don't forget what Jan Kochanowski, one of a really famous polish writer, said " Nothing is forever, everything changes all the time" and endure the bad times and be prepared to enjoy the good ones to the fullest!
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