This past weekend, New York City experienced its second-largest snowstorm, since 1869. After a bout of what some would call “bipolar weather”, it was as if Mother Nature finally decided to give the east coast of America a healthy dose of snow, to make up for the humid Summer-like evenings, throughout December.

A few weeks ago, my friends and I had planned a trip down to Lake Harmony, in the Poconos. Upon hearing of Storm Jonas, we almost cancelled our trip, but we figured luck would be on our side. Without a doubt, we were right.

Driving down to Pennsylvania on Friday evening, we made it to my friend Sara’s beautiful lake house, right as the blizzard started. Snowed in all weekend, it was an entire girly retreat: sipping hot apple rum cider, becoming bankrupt during Monopoly, eating our weight in snacks, dancing off our weight in snacks playing Kinect, and of course, running around amongst blankets upon blankets of pristine white snow.

Being from Auckland, New Zealand, I am not used to seeing the snow. I remember my first snowfall in New York, vividly – I had walked home from work at 2AM, went up to my Williamsburg rooftop, and made snow angels by myself. My old roommate – not realising that snow was basically a foreign substance to me – thought it was strangely endearing.

Being out of New York City during Storm Jonas and frolicking in clean, white snow was the ideal situation during a blizzard.

On Sunday, after the blizzard passed, the sun came out, as did the wildlife.

Although, my weekend away was blissful, returning to New York and seeing the aftermath in the city was… not as nice. With the sidewalks still packed with (now, grey) snow, here’s hoping Winter Storm Jonas is a reflection of the harshest of our New York winter, and that we aren’t in for a prolonged ride.