And Now For a Word About the Cold and the Snow
In honor of it being -25 DEGREES CELCIUS today (that's -13 F!?!), I think it's high time that I talk about the cold and the snow. I was reading about average temperatures in Helsinki yesterday to try to understand when it will warm up, and I was surprised to see that it's been about 10 degrees colder than the average since I've been here. I confronted my boss/client about that today, and he said, "Oh yeah...this is like the coldest winter in Helsinki, well, in my lifetime."
Great.
Actually, I've adjusted better than I thought I would. (Which isn't saying much because I expected instant hypothermic death when I stepped outside.) Obviously I'm used to Texas weather where there are only a few super-cold and/or snowy days per year. The snow is an exciting and rare event in Texas. Here in Helsinki, it's a daily reality.
Sidewalks
All the sidewalks are completely snowed over,
and have been for months. I can't tell you how much snow is there, but
it's enough that it's difficult to visually distinguish
where the sidewalk ends and the street begins. Someone goes around
town and scrapes all the sidewalks, and then sprinkles them with gravel and/or sand and/or salt
to make them safer for walking. The snow gets pretty hard-packed, and when you walk on it in rubber soled boots, it makes the weirdest sound. I've struggled to define the sound which is something between a "crunch" and a "squeak", and the best I can come up with is "squoonch." (And yes, I did double-check that "squoonch" wasn't in urbandictionary.com before I published this.)
As long as it stays below freezing, all is well. It's been very weird to learn and accept the fact that it getting above freezing is a BAD thing. Below is good because all the streets and sidewalks just stay snowy. If it thaws, it will freeze again then you have to walk on black ice instead of white powdery snow.
Bus/Tram Stops
Every time I walk up to my tram stop, I immediately get annoyed because I see that everyone around the stop is smoking, and that I'm going to have to stand in the middle of all that stinky cigarette smoke while I wait for my ride. Then I realize no one is smoking, it's just their breath!
Streets
Pretty pristine white snow + dirty cars = volcanic ash snow nastiness.
Cars
When I first arrived, my dad was very worried about me not having a car here. Dad, I don't want a car here. See Exhibit A at left.
Piles of Scraped Snow
All that scraped snow from the streets and sidewalks has to go somewhere. And it usually ends up on random street corners in a huge pile. This one you see behind the white car is a small one. Many of them are the height of two cars stacked on top of each other.
Drifts and Sparkles
One of the wonderful things about Helsinki is that even though it's very urban, there are still lots of areas within the city that have little pockets of nature. When I walk to my bus stop from the office, I walk through a semi-wooded area where there are pure untouched, unstomped snowdrifts. And when it's dusk (which is usually), the streetlights catch all the little sparkles in the snow and it seriously is so pretty it just takes your breath away. Unfortunately there is no way to capture that in a photograph. I think it's probably more magical and accurate if you just imagine it, anyway.
And speaking of beautiful snowy, icy nature...
Trees
In conclusion, Helsinki is coooooooold. But you know what? Even though there are definitely moments when I'm completely freezingly miserable (i.e. can't feel my appendages, having chapped lips/nose/eyes, lungs burning from the arctic air, slipping on ice and falling), when I look around at the landscape, it's pretty amazingly beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that it makes me forget how cold I am...
Great.
Actually, I've adjusted better than I thought I would. (Which isn't saying much because I expected instant hypothermic death when I stepped outside.) Obviously I'm used to Texas weather where there are only a few super-cold and/or snowy days per year. The snow is an exciting and rare event in Texas. Here in Helsinki, it's a daily reality.
Sidewalks
As long as it stays below freezing, all is well. It's been very weird to learn and accept the fact that it getting above freezing is a BAD thing. Below is good because all the streets and sidewalks just stay snowy. If it thaws, it will freeze again then you have to walk on black ice instead of white powdery snow.
Bus/Tram Stops
Every time I walk up to my tram stop, I immediately get annoyed because I see that everyone around the stop is smoking, and that I'm going to have to stand in the middle of all that stinky cigarette smoke while I wait for my ride. Then I realize no one is smoking, it's just their breath!
Streets
Pretty pristine white snow + dirty cars = volcanic ash snow nastiness.
Cars
Piles of Scraped Snow
Drifts and Sparkles
One of the wonderful things about Helsinki is that even though it's very urban, there are still lots of areas within the city that have little pockets of nature. When I walk to my bus stop from the office, I walk through a semi-wooded area where there are pure untouched, unstomped snowdrifts. And when it's dusk (which is usually), the streetlights catch all the little sparkles in the snow and it seriously is so pretty it just takes your breath away. Unfortunately there is no way to capture that in a photograph. I think it's probably more magical and accurate if you just imagine it, anyway.
And speaking of beautiful snowy, icy nature...
Trees
In conclusion, Helsinki is coooooooold. But you know what? Even though there are definitely moments when I'm completely freezingly miserable (i.e. can't feel my appendages, having chapped lips/nose/eyes, lungs burning from the arctic air, slipping on ice and falling), when I look around at the landscape, it's pretty amazingly beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that it makes me forget how cold I am...
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