Dickens Comes to London (well, Dickensian Weather, at Least)

SNOW! SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW!

There's snow in London! It started last night around 10 or 11, when the Super Bowl began.
They began putting salt down around noon, which Katie and I found hilarious. Being from Buffalo and New England, and going to Ithaca, the fact that they were so concerned as to put out salt a good 10 hours beforehand was amusing. Though I have heard since that they haven't had significant snow - really, any snow that counts as snow - here in six years. Six years!

A bunch of kids were being rowdy in the street, throwing snowballs and nearly getting hit by cars. It reminded me of Ithaca and playing in the snow, I really wanted to go out. Tears.
This morning we heard that virtually all the tube lines are down, and when Katie and I walked to the bus stop, no buses were coming, either. So we walked to the London Centre through Hyde Park. It was gorgeous, and I was ecstatic. Poor Katie wasn't feeling well, and her shoes got completely soaked, so she was less than thrilled.

When we finally got to the London Centre - which only took us an hour, and we were walking through snow - only a few people were there, and with all the prep for us cold students coming in Bill started class half an hour late, and let us out a bit early as well. And my afternoon class had been cancelled. After hanging for a bit, I walked back through Hyde Park - which was gorgeous! There were some roses that had already bloomed, poor things. 

A bunch of the trees were very green and mossy, which was a beautiful contrast to their bark and the snow. 

The park was swarming with people - mostly kids and parents. Virtually all London schools were cancelled, and between people not being able to get to work and offices closing, parents got a day off, too. I eventually found out ten of the eleven tube lines were either down or partly suspended, and it was the first time EVER that ALL London buses were withdrawn from the roads. This includes the Blitz, people. So basically, the town that kept things running on the roads during bombings couldn't deal with 7 inches of snow. All that is a roundabout way of saying, the park was covered in snowmen and snowballs. I found one that was an inch or two wider than I am tall in diameter. How do people make these things?