Storms over Illinois

I’m going to risk reinforcing a national stereotype and mention the weather again. I realise writing about life in a foreign country allows me to open with a far more interesting sentence but bear with me.

While yesterday was hot and humid in St Louis areas around us issued storm warnings. In the evening as I went out for dinner with Joe, Mary-Cath, and Brian we were witness to an incredible storm over Illinois. While driving to the restaurant lightning suddenly and silently lit up dark and peaceful skies to reveal massive cloud banks lurking in the east.

The skies were so clear over us we could see across an infinite distance to these unfathomably-large clouds (I felt my brain give up trying to comprehend their size). They would have been perfect as a metaphor in a film scene portraying a powerful, brooding, unseen menace. Every few seconds the lightning would flash; great god-like formations appeared to reduce us down to near-nothingness, only to disappear a moment later into the night skies. I stood in awe of nature that night.