I've always been a strong believer in telling people that it's cold in Argentina. I think it stems mostly from the fact that when I lived in the States, people always assumed that I came from a tropical country. In college, I was always introduced as "our exchange student from Venezuela." This would be all fine and dandy, aside from the fact that I was neither an exchange student, or from Venezuela. People just shrugged when I pointed this out, probably assuming that as long as our language was Spanish, we were all more than happy to be lumped into the same group.

The weather conversation always came up in an attempt to differentiate myself from all other South Americans. It's not bad to be from the other countries - but I'm not, and I like where I was born and raised. People in college were always saying things like, "It's so hot! But you must be used to this kind of weather." Or they would ask me if I had enough winter coats to face the "cold weather" in mild South Carolina, where I went to college.

I always exaggerated and made Argentina sound like a freezer. People were subjected to my tales of how close Argentina is to the South Pole, and how snowy the Andes can be. I was even known to say to people, "Have you seen the movie ALIVE?," (yeah), "Well, the real story took place in Argentina." I made this sound very much like I'd been raised on the bare Andes, living among the remains of a crashed plane, and feeding from the corpses of fellow passengers. All true, kiddies, all true :).

But today, it's snowing in Buenos Aires. We do get cold winters, but it's too humid for snow to form. Today, for some freakish reason, nature has been altered. For once, I don't need to blow things out of proportion.

Good times.