Man it’s cold

This week I’ve experienced yet another first in my life. I can honestly say I know what -30 OC (-22 OF) feels like. It’s cold. My 12-minute walk to school has seemed longer each day, while I think the actual time spent walking has shortened due to a quickened pace. 7:45 am – A block away from the school, with my beard catching icicles from my breath (does that make them drool-cicles?), my nose running and my eyes watering from the wind, I try to think warm thoughts – I think about what the day will bring, my plans for the weekend – but each time my thoughts are driven out with a sudden gust of snow and wind and all I can do is trudge on thinking, “@*#!, it’s cold!” And somehow I find it all humorous and a crack a smile… but only for a second – I didn’t know your teeth could actually hurt from the cold.

Mike and I have decided that there should be a certain latitude where they draw a big red line on the ground and say, “You must be crazy if you’re planning to live further north than here.” Some kind of, “No lifeguard on duty, swim at your own risk” disclaimer just as a warning for unsuspecting visitors like myself. We’ve also decided that that line should have been drawn about 500km south of Petropavlovsk.

An interesting thing I’ve noticed is how people here say, “Wow, it’s warm today” when it’s still below freezing temperatures. I have a few ideas about why they might say it’s warm when it is obviously cold: 1) They live in Northern Kazakhstan where nearly 6 months of the year are spent at sub zero (OC) temperatures and in order to retain sanity in the long, cold winters, they tell themselves that -5 is warm. That way they won’t spend half of their lives saying, “Man, it’s cold!” 2) They say -5 is warm because they know that at anytime it could jump down to -30 and so they just appreciate the “warmth” or better put, lack of extreme cold. In other words, it’s warm by comparison. 3) Having lived in Northern Kazakhstan for many years, they have lost their sense of temperature and actually think it is warm.

But it’s not all that bad. Long underwear does wonders, my boots are thick enough, and my counterpart bought me a thicker winter hat for Christmas. Also, they do actually cancel school for sub -30 temperatures, when it is dangerous to be outside even the amount of time it takes to walk to school or wait for a bus. We’ve passed the winter equinox and the days will start lengthening by small increments (right now it’s been getting light around 10am and dark around 6pm). The weather will get worse than right now, but only in spells. And in the summer, when it is +100 OF in south Kazakhstan, we’ll be enjoying long days (I hear the sun doesn’t set till 9 or 10 pm) and 80 degree weather. So, though I received many holiday wishes mentioning warmth, things are cold and will be that way for a while. That hot cup of tea that we drink 3 times a day doesn’t seem so excessive.