From what I've been able to tell from my brief time here, Chicagoland residents are completely obsessed with the inclemency of their weather. In August I arrived in Evanston with the moving truck on the hottest day of the year, and even then people were talking about how bad the winter would be. Almost every conversation I've had with a neighbor involved winter, and always in the same tone of voice you tell a kid around a campfire about a bogeyman with a hook hand.

I'm expecting the winter to actually not be as bad as the ones I grew up with in Kansas. At the risk of sounding cliche, I actually did walk to school in the snow (but I wasn't barefoot and there are few hills in NW Kansas.) The last few days have been cold, but last week I went all the way until Friday without ever putting on a coat. At several points, I felt hot and overdressed wearing sweatshirts. If it really does live up to the hype, I'll eat my words but right now it feels kind of like new resident hazing.