I’ve joked many times in the past about how reporters love to write these ‘Refugees see first snow’ puff-piece stories.  Here is the latest from New York City.  Hat tip:  Brenda.

Here two newly arrived Burmese refugees head out in the white stuff to cash their government checks, from the New York Times (of course):

Wednesday was the first day he woke up in America. The first time he looked down at the Bronx street before dawn. And as a winter storm began to swirl outside, the very first time that Aung, a 37-year-old Burmese refugee, saw real snow.

“I saw the snow raining snow,” Aung said a few hours later, eyes wide under the knit cap that had just been provided by the International Rescue Committee. “I saw, like, ice-ice. On the ground, also, everything white.”

He had seen snow once before, in a Steven Spielberg war movie, he said. His new roommate, David, 42, also a refugee from Myanmar, had seen snow in an Indian film. But by the time they had made their way by subway to the I.R.C. headquarters near Grand Central Terminal, this stuff was not fluffy or picturesque.

On Wednesday morning, the resettlement organization, which asked that the men’s last names not be published to protect their families in Myanmar, was conducting an orientation for new arrivals like Aung and an English class for old hands like David, who arrived two weeks ago.

Afterward, bundled in donated winter clothing, the two men ventured back outside, led west on 42nd Street by their caseworker, Mona Hla. Their destination: a bank where they could cash their $200 checks for basic needs.

The IRC is also resettling Bhutanese refugees to NYC, here.