Baby, It's Cold Outside...

12/17/2009

So it is almost officially winter here and boy is it cold! Yesterday and today we were off from school due to the observance of Independence Day here. Thank goodness we had today off because it was -26 degrees Celsius (-14.8F) outside. My cell phone has a temperature converter on it and I like to convert between Fahrenheit and Celsius to see what I'm actually dealing with. Here they don't get school off when it snows, but they do get days off when it is -30C (-22F) or more. Apparently it's not good for kids to be out in such cold weather. Since the kids at the orphanage live there, and don't have to go outside to get to school, we still work on those extra cold days! In honor of the cold and the few really cold days we've had I've decided to put together a weather-themed list of things I like and things I could do without here. Enjoy!

Things I can do without:

1. going outside

2. days I forget to put on long underwear

3. the 40 minute walk to my Russian tutor's apartment

4. the frost on my glasses, which makes seeing difficult

5. the bus skidding to a stop everyday , because they don't sand the streets

6. the wind (because 30 below isn't bad enough?)

7. wondering which part of my face will fall off first (Will it be my nose? Will it be one cheek or both?)

Things I am grateful for:

1. hot tea and soup

2. long underwear

3. my bulky LL Bean boots, even though the locals stare (Almost everone here wears black leather boots. Many women even wear high heeled boots in these very icy conditions!)

4. Gore-Tex, fleece and any other material whose sole purpose is to keep you warm

5. July and August won't be that hot (I would rather deal with subzero temperatures than extreme heat any day!)

6. indoor plumbing (using an outhouse in this weather?!)
7. that I don't live in Antarctica and it will stop snowing and warm up eventually...

So that is my life here in Petro. I talk about the weather each morning with my host family. I now think that anything above -20C (-4F) is “normal” and “not that cold”. Oh, how perceptions change!