I have been living in America for more than five years now, and although I lived most of my time here in frigid Minnesota, no winter seemed longer and snowier than the current one. I almost went into a state of depression, and I began to reminisce about the mild winter back home, where trees do not stand bare head-to-toe and streets never hide under a foot-deep snow. There is one American state, however, that people say feels just like Bangladesh -- it's Florida.
Located on the southeast of the U.S., Florida has earned a global reputation for its round-the-year good weather. Nicknamed the "Sunshine State," Florida's tropical weather attracts tourists in millions from home and abroad. When I first visited south Florida three years ago, I thought the plane landed in a second Bangladesh! The heat and humidity in the air reminded me of one and only one place, the country that raised me.
My uncle picked us up from the airport. The entire time in the car I looked outside the window, appreciating the tropical greenery, which I had not then seen in nearly two years. When we were not yet done unpacking our bags, the clouds began to roar and a downpour almost flooded the front and backyards of my uncle's house. "Wow! Now, it really feels like being in Dhaka," I thought happily.
So, this winter when the snow storms began to drive me crazy, I thought I must escape the cold east coast for at least a few days. Florida was on the top of the list. It was a good decision.
Florida is the kind of place where even if you don't do any touristy activities, you still feel on top of the world. The magic is in the weather. Summers are hot and humid, but winters are mild and springs gorgeous. People drive and fly to the Sunshine State for another big reason -- Florida, the warmest U.S. state, is also the only state that borders both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.
We escaped the sub-zero temperature of Delaware to a very comfortable 26 degrees celsius. The contrast in weather was hard to digest the first couple of days. I was back in my summer clothes even though it was still early February and most of the U.S. was experiencing sub-zero weather conditions and heavy snowfalls.
We went to the beautiful Jaycee Park & Conn Beach in Vero Beach, a small city in Florida, on a Sunday morning. We walked on the sand, admired the beauty and vastness of Atlantic, and gazed at the horizon, where sky and ocean met and became one. The weather was perfect. We had ice-cream from an oceanside ice-cream parlor. Sitting outdoors under an umbrella-covered table, I lapped up my strawberry shortcake cone and counted my blessings. It was difficult to imagine from the gay faces of the tourists, the sun and the lush green trees that half of the country was battling a biting winter.
The three-day stay at my cousin's place needed to be extended by four days because of a winter storm that hit Atlanta, Georgia, where we had our transit. Thousands of flights were canceled including our return flights -- I could not believe my luck.
I am back in the cold and snowy east coast. I cannot wait for spring to arrive. The Florida trip gave me a much-needed break. I think I can now spend the rest of winter, thinking about the ocean and the tropical weather I had enjoyed in America's Sunshine State.
*Written in February, 2014
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