holy pancake, it's flippin' cold!

I slept in late today, hoping that it might be warmish by the time I went outside. (When you spend the winter in Russia, your idea of warmish tends to change drastically. Last week there was actually one day when it rose to +1C. Talk about temperate!) Unfortunately, while it had "warmed up" a little between the time Nina M. awoke (-32C) and the time I awoke (-30C) neither of those options can be remotely described as warmish. When I finally ventured outside, I did so wearing so many layers that I felt (and probably looked) like a roly-poly. The problem, of course, was my face. While my hat was pulled down to cover my eyebrows and my scarf pulled up to cover my chin and mouth, that still left my nose, cheekbones and eyes out there for Ded Moroz* to work his frigid magic upon. (The glasses are actually a bit of an obstacle to warmth. Last night, when it was only -18C (haha, only!), I tried pulling by scarf up over my nose and cheekbones too. This immediately caused my glasses to fog up, and the fog then froze in place... And for those of us who can't see worth a damn without the otchki, this is a problem either way you squint at it.) By the time I reached the halfway point between the bus stop and the AH, my nose had passed through the so-sold-it's-painful phase to the the numb phase, and my cheekbones felt like they were on fire. And then there's the annoying fact that the cold air makes my nose run... but as soon as the, er, runnage makes it anywhere near the surface it freezes. Miniature icicles in my nose. Talk about a great way to start off the day.

Please keep in mind that I grew up in Florida, folks! And even the last winter I spent in Russia, it only dropped to -27C once, so this is a new record-cold for me. (According to Nina M, it's also pretty record cold for Vladimir, as it hasn't been this cold here since 1941!)

*Ded Moroz/Дед Мороз translates to Grandfather Frost and is the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus. In this sense I'm using the term as an equivalent to Jack Frost. I have no idea if that's something Russians do, but after my walk to school, it feels wholly approprate.