The Russian Winter

As I start to write this post, I really hope I don’t end up eating my words, but here we go anyways. I am really disappointed with the Russian winter. I mean from everything everyone is always assuming and everything everyone (including Russians) has told me Russia is supposed to be a giant icicle for like 6 months out of the year. Let me use today as an example. Today is November 18th, I was comfortable walking outside in a sweater and a windbreaker, I also had a hat scarf. I mean it rained today, and we’ve had only one snow since I’ve been here. My friends even went up to Archangel (if you don’t now that is a town right around the artic circle) and there wasn’t even snow there. It’s just like where is the snow! I have this very nice boots gathering dust and a nice big warm down jacket I’ve needed maybe once. It’s barely been below zero at all. Now I’m not one that likes to be cold, but when you are dressed warmly, it is pretty enjoyable to walk around the snow in sub-zero weather. I really want some snow; I only have four more weeks till I come home, how much snow could we get in that small amount of time, not much. What am I supposed to tell people when they ask me how I survived the “Harsh Russian Winter”? “Oh ya! The winter, it was horrible, it was snowing sheets and we had to dig tunnels 12 miles through the snow just to get to school!” “Yes, there were dog sleds instead of cars and people skied everywhere, we couldn’t see the sun for weeks and our breath turned into snow when we breathed!” Somehow, I don’t think so. Man I want some snow!