Fair Weather Fan

I had never considered myself to be a warm weather person, and was unfazed upon hearing that i would be living in the foothills of the Italian alps. I did minimal research of the weather, and threw a couple long sleeved t-shirts, plenty of short sleeves, some tank tops, jeans, shorts sneakers, and one pair of winter boots into my suitcase. The short sleeves remain untouched in my suitcase.
I had wildly underestimated winter here. I thought I knew about winter - I had weathered out Fayetteville's Ice Storm 09' just fine, why should here be any different?
November's weather consisted of four weeks straight of freezing-cold rain, the kind that seeps into your socks and stays all day. Gray dreary day after gray dreary day; my host mom began to joke that we were going to start finding mushrooms on our skin. The sun would appear for a few short glorious hours, only to be replaced soon after by the incessant chilling rain.
December marked the transition of Rain Season into Snow Season. The kind of snow that comes, and sticks around for days, though not enough to cancel school. A snow that would have paralyzed my home town of fayetteville does nothing to affect daily life here; Italians are are a hearty, weather-resistant people. Snow doesn't phase them, they simply pull on some boots, strap snow chains on their car, and continue business as usual. While I huddle freezing against the radiator at school, they lounge against the opening window, enjoying the frigid air-  which they claim is only "fresh". While I layer myself with every sweater available, they  gradually remove layers throughout the day. When I attempt to remark on the glacial climate, they simply laugh and say "You haven't seen anything yet...just you wait until January". Oh no. It looks as if I have several more wintry months left ahead...
Its definitely not all bad...the snow gives the buildings the appearance of wearing fluffy white caps, lending the area a pleasantly alpine feel. Although cold, snow has a distinctively Christmas-y quality about it, which makes me excited for the very good possibility of a White Christmas!
I can tough out a couple more months of snow....