Take a look around

In case you were unaware, there is a lot of snow in New York right now.

NYU had a snow day yesterday, which is rare, but becoming more and more common. (We got an email from the Vice President for Public Safety or whatever last year saying that NYU was NOT going to close for snow, that it had not closed for anything but 9/11 in 17 years or something... and then the next day was a snow day.) I've now had 2.5 snow days at NYU. Of course, I found myself at PHTS yesterday anyway, because when classes are cancelled it makes for prime rehearsal time. When I went outside, the snow piled up on top of cars was taller than I was. Sidewalks were pretty treacherous, depending on exactly where you were.

I am not skilled at walking in snow. I'm from Virginia. We don't get a lot of practice. (Try shopping for real winter boots in Virginia. Ugh.) I remember last year, trudging down the street using all my concentration to prevent myself from falling, and then seeing one of my teachers (from Connecticut) glide past with no trouble like Legolas or something. My pride was only regained as another one of my teachers (from Mexico) and I both stumbled our way down 4th St later.

I'm not the only one who has a hard time walking in the snow. As I walked along Stuyvesant Street, which was not at all cleared of snow, I passed a man also trying to navigate the shin-deep snow. We looked at each other, smiled these helpless smiles of good luck, and moved on. (slowly). I came to the corner, exhaling at the break while I waited for the light to change. A woman I'd been walking close to also arrived at the corner. We looked at each other with the shared, "Why is my walk talking twice the amount of time as it normally does?" look. She then took her headphones out of her ears and said, "This is ridiculous, isn't it?" And we had a conversation there as we waited to cross the street.

The nice thing is, I actually think I've had more random interactions of acknowledging people as people during this snowstorm than any other time in New York. Really, all of yesterday as I walked around, people were grumpy, sure, but grumpy very specifically at the snow, not at each other. United in our struggle to climb over these banks of snow without falling. Acknowledging each other. That's nice.

And as the news goes, while situations in Cote d'Ivoire and Yemen break my heart, I found this delightful New York Times article about Ashesi University in Ghana. Ashesi University is located right next door to NYU Accra. Really. I ate there constantly. (their red-red. SO GOOD.) Ashesi is one of the local universities where we NYU Accra students could take classes. (I did not take any classes there, I was at University of Ghana instead.) Our first week, we got to speak to the founder of Ashesi, who this article focuses around, and hearing him speak on education was truly inspiring. All about the importance of ethical leadership. Fabulous. Glad to see Ashesi getting some international recognition.