Drizzling Snow

Highs in the teens - winter is here.  Except one of my professors told me it's not.  She said by the calendar, winter doesn't start here until December 1st.  I replied in very broken Russian that I thought it was December 21st, because of something......the sun.  She acknowledged there was such a way to track time, but repeated that here winter starts December 1st.

The snow here is really interesting to me.  I guess I'm used to snow that comes in terms of "snowfalls."  You know, where a bunch of snow falls.  Maybe an inch, maybe 20 inches.  About a week ago here, it started to snow this really fine, light snow, so fine it's hard to discern the individual snowflakes.  I call it "snow drizzle."  And it kind of just keeps going.  It stops and starts every now and again but has been pretty constant day to day.  And it has slowly started to add up, I'd say we have maybe 4-5 inches by now.  Very interesting.

Some things I've enjoyed doing with C as we explore our neighborhood: curb balancing and crosswalks.  There are curbs EVERYWHERE here, separating the grass and sidewalks and streets, and C loves balancing on them.  For awhile, it would take us 5x longer to get anywhere because of the curbs, but now she's actually pretty quick, maybe she has an olympic future.

Crosswalks have been interesting - they have very nice green and red count-downs to when you can cross or should stop.  As responsible parents, we have obviously spent time telling C the importance of following the red or green light's instructions.  She listened a little too well, though, because now if the crosswalk turns red when we're partway across, she crumples into a pile on the street and refuses to move.  Gets pretty exciting trying to drag her to the other side.

For those worried about us staying warm, don't worry!  There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad dress.  And we are learning how to dress for a real winter.  It often got this cold in Utah, but I have not been able to recall any tips or tricks from that era of my life.  I don't think I ever dressed appropriately there.  In fact, I remember jogging with my roommate one time (when it was 4 degrees) in yoga capris.  Hm.