kylmä

that means cold.

 i'm not the new kid anymore.

my american mittens, a christmas present
from the lovely Sonja

in a literal sense, there are two new exchange students who arrived at school after the holiday... novelties! even more fun to stare at! but also because i sort of know what's going on, after a few months of smiling and nodding and being confused. i can understand most of my philosophy classes. sing the refrains of several finnish rap songs. know that the solution to frosted eyelashes is waterproof mascara. knit (lumpy) mittens. remember the steps of the finnish tango. i'm actually getting a handle on things -

- even though the handle's frozen and slippery. it's bloody cold. when i go out for coffee with my friends i sip as slowly as possible, because leaving the empty mug means a wrestling match with my iced-over bike lock. back in mid-october, i started training for the neighboring town's "midnight sun" marathon. this was an easy decision when i could still venture outside comfortably in just one pair of pants. the snow came down hard after christmas, so i've become accustomed to frozen ears and the crunch of the snow punctuating my breath. the kids sledding on the hill by the track always stare as i jog by - "crazy girl". the yellow markings of passing dogs are bright on the snow at every corner. it's a strange feeling, when your muscles burn under skin numb with cold.

everyone assures me that the weather is only going to get worse, that "this is nothing compared to last year". it's hard enough for me to leave the house right now, i can't and don't really want to imagine how it's going to be when we hit -30°c (-22°f).

getting past the thermometer, winter in finland is wonderful. there are public ice rinks all over the place. if you look far enough down any sidewalk, there is always a person taking their hockey stick for a stroll. even hot chocolate from the machine is delicious here. the snow is packing snow, which means snowballs hurt and the trees look like this. on the rare occasion when the sun comes out, the whole world glitters.

in a way, all this whining about the cold is another sign that i'm adapting to life here: finns love to bitch about the weather. although any finn reading this is thinking "it's not even cold! just you wait...."

bring on the sweaters.