My power was out again from Sunday until Monday afternoon. And once again, I was the only one that I could see using candles.
What’s the problem??? Do they need helP? I’m on vacation, and without my computer I’ve got nothing to do anyways, I’ll go down and lend a hand. I won’t be much use, but maybe they just need someone to hold the wires together …
Brief Overview of a Very Rough Week:
1. -30 Celsius
2. 4 days without power
3. Very important final
4. No coat
5. No phone
6. No clean Clothes
Last week started out like any other. I pulled an all-nighter to get out a paper for Monday, went to school, turned it in, then went off to run some errands. My phone wasn’t receiving text messages, so I took it to the shop the Thursday before. They weren’t answering calls, and I was owed a temporary phone. I went to the store, they didn’t have any temps, and told me to call on Wednesday. Then I dropped my warm coat off at the clothing repair shop. I have been warned that it would be getting colder, and since the zipper was busted, I thought now would be a good time to get it fixed. Mind, the week prior the temperature had hovered around zero, so I didn’t feel like a crisis was on the horizon … I had failed to understand a key word.
Friends called me last week asking if I was prepared for the “moroz.” The standard definition of “moroz,” is “frost,” and that’s what I went with. “Oh no,” I thought, “there’ll be some white stuff on the grass in the mornings!” Last year I actually had a discussion about this word with some friends, trying to pin down its exact meaning. I clearly understood that it refers to frost, but they also told me you could use it to refer to the weather. Since frost is a pretty mild weather condition, I guessed it meant “nippy,” or “fresh,” when talking about air temperature. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The second definition in the dictionary reads “intensely cold weather.” Which corresponds roughly to weather.com’s description of “bitterly cold.”
After giving my coat for repair, I came home to vege for the rest of the day, not really in a state to get anything else done. I had my last final on Friday, and I figured I had the rest of the week to prepare. It was the exam I was most frightened of, and three days of cloistered study seemed in the cards. I went to bed that night actually looking forward to the next few days.
(more…)
I’m not sure if it’s being covered in the States, but Russia is in the midst of its coldest winter in almost 30 years. It’s been below -25 (-13F) for the past five days, regularly hitting -30 (-22F), and feeling like -40 (-40F) when you factor in wind chill. In my apartment, it’s about 10 (50F). Temperatures are fourteen degrees Celsius colder than average for January. It gets this cold, for this long, about 4 or 5 times a century … and I’m here for it.
To try and convey what -30 feels like, here’s a brief exercise in absolute value. First, imagine +30 (86F). We’ve all felt that. Nice, pleasant, bordering even on a little too warm. Now, compare that to 0, freezing. Try to judge the difference between the two, get a good mental feel for that gap. Now reverse it. Imagine a change in temperature of that magnitude, but below zero. Freezing is already pretty cold, we never even get that low in Los Angeles. -30 is unbelievable.
Mind that St. Petersburg has very high humidity, between 80 and 90%. Just as wet heat is worse than dry, wet cold is worse. Nearly everyone I know from Siberia tells me that -20 in SPB is worse than -40 there, because of the humidity. Add in the wind, and you can imagine what St. Petersburg’s -40 feels like.
Breathing becomes a bit annoying. If you breathe through your nose, the incoming air freezes the inside, literally, and when you exhale, it melts. The feeling of mucus alternately frozen and flowing is fun for the first twenty seconds. Also, I tend to get headaches when it’s cold, and I think it’s the same concept as Slurpie brain-freeze. The cold air chills the blood on its way up to my brain. This is slightly lessened when I breathe through my mouth. Unfortunately, this also has its downside … your gums freeze. There is a sharp, piercing pain at the gum line. So really, you just have to pick your poison. I tend to breathe through my nose. Mostly because the cars produce so much pollution that I’d like to filter out whatever little I can.
You have to be completely covered up, and I really hate wearing hats. Over here I have a stocking cap, which makes me look like a dockworker. My gloves aren’t thick enough, I need to buy new ones. You need long underwear, and I usually end up wearing long underwear, a t-shirt on top of that, and a sweater, all under my warmest coat. So the only exposed part is your face. Most people cover that up with a scarf. Here, women have a huge advantage over men. For some reason, only women wear their scarves on the outside of their coats, men do not. Honestly, I have never seen a Russian man wear a scarf on the outside, only underneath. As such, it’s much easier for a woman to use the scarf to cover her face.
I decided to buck the gender roles, and wore my scarf on the outside a couple of times. Yes, it was nice to have my face covered, but it does present yet another problem. When you breathe out, the breath condenses on the scarf, which gets the area around your mouth wet. When it’s windy, this somewhat decreases the utility of this option. Plus, I look like a girl, and some drunk fascist might try to gay-bash me.
A good friend came out to visit me for New Year’s, and we decided to make it memorable by going to Moscow and feting on Red Square. I was deathly ill, but since it was to be my friend’s only chance to see Moscow, we went. We took an overnight train and arrived on the 31st, in the morning. We spent a few hours downtown, saw red square, the changing of the guards at the eternal flame and tomb of the unknown soldier, and the stuff around Red Square. Unfortunately, Lenin was taking some time off to celebrate the most important holiday in Russian culture, and we would never get a chance to see him.
Lenin, the founder of the Soviet pantheon, rests in this pyramid. He awaits the day when his strength shall be replenished, and he may lead Russia once more at the head of that great International Worker’s Revolution!!
All tired from the train ride, which was unfathomably hot, we retired to a friend’s place to take an afternoon nap. I woke up in a daze, and was told I should stay in, but like a trooper, I went out anyways. We had a hadry New Year’s feast of pelmeni (ravioli), and made some sandwiches because we knew we might be out all night. In order to get to Red Square we had to pass through six or seven security checkpoints. Every time they would pat down my bag and ask me to open it. By the end my sandwiches had been crushed beyond recognition. We got to Red Square a little before 11pm, and settled in to a spot in the center, near the Kremlin. Opposite us had been set up a stage with a large screen.
Look Ma! Putin’s on TV!
After a few minutes, two girls with a camera crew asked if we spoke english. Promising myself that unlike last time, I would keep my clothes on, I answered yes. It turns out they were shooting for a new English-language state news channel called Russia Today. They interviewed us, and like an idiot I actually said “concentric circles” when describing the security. I mean seriously … concentric, how embarassing! Unfortunately, the channel is only shown via satellite, so I never got to see it.
It’s like Disneyland.
Two Russian girls noticed what was going on, and got in on the final part of the interview. One, who lives in Sevastopol and whose father is an Admiral, spent the next two hours telling my friend about her boy problems. He has decidedly mixed feelings about the whole thing. The other would intermittently yell out “Linkin Park forever!” followed by “Putin forever!” Overall, not unpleasant company. Though the metro closed at 2am, and my friends were anxious to get home. I would have liked to have stayed out, though I was so sick I could hardly stand. In an attempt to get us to stay out longer, the two girls accosted me, trying to prevent me from getting on the metro. Eventually I broke free. It was my first experience with sexual harassment, and all things considered, it wasn’t so bad.
A whole lot of people to get pushed through.
