A Guide to Winter in Siberia

This year will be the second year that I have experienced the blindly frigid season that is winter in northern Kazakhstan. And I have to say I am not too excited about being here for another one. The city where I live is on the southern edge of Siberia (that lovely stretch of horrible land in Russia known for its frigid temperatures and lack of life). Luckily, my first year here I was only subjected to a low of -35 C/ -31 F and my school was strangely never cancelled. This year the old ladies at the bazaar are gossiping that it is going to be way colder. So hopefully I will get at least one “cold” day off of school. Hopefully by the end of this blog entry you can get a little idea of how much winter sucks here.

LIFESTYLE

People who live in northern Kazakhstan have developed a way of living here that deals with the horrendous winters and the fact we run our furnaces 7 months out of the year. People stay inside a lot in the winter and generally don’t go out unless necessary. This also has a lot to do with the fact that after about 4:00 PM it’s pitch black out and it doesn’t get light until about 10 AM. The lack of sunlight is pretty depressing and it makes going anywhere at night risky. Also people in Kazakhstan have a lot of superstitions about doing things at night (taking out trash, washing the floor, giving people money) so that keeps activity down too. Basically people don’t spend as much time outside, but in a society where most people don’t use a car on a daily basis, they still need to get around. So even when it’s -35 C you will see people on the street going about their daily lives. But people do ride the bus more often and do use their cars more often when they can in the winter.

The hardest part for me of walking around in the frigid cold isn’t the walking, but the stopping and waiting. Last year I had to wait for the bus a lot and when you wait at a bus stop for 25 minutes in -25 C/-13 F, your feet start to freeze. The locals here are constantly tapping their feet around to keep them warm. Last year I had a bunch of instances of preliminary frostbite where my feet started to go numb and then once I got on the bus, they hurt so bad because of the blood coming back. I learned the problem was I was wearing too many pairs of socks. When you do this, your feet sweat, then the sweat freezes and your feet freeze too.

BUILDINGS

The people who live in northern Kazakhstan are accustom to the intense cold, but even they complain sometimes. Part of the reason it’s so bad it because there isn’t adequate heating in most buildings and the windows and doors are drafty in most homes and apartments. Most homes are heated with a furnace that is heated using coal or wood. These have to be refueled every 2-10 hours and generally keep the house warm when they are going strong. Most of the old homes that people live in are small with low ceilings, so they stay pretty warm. But new buildings in the town have high ceilings and don’t do as well. In apartment buildings in cities they have central heating, which means batteries (radiators) are placed in each room and generally keep it somewhat warm. Unfortunately many of the apartment buildings are badly constructed or old, and heat escapes through windows and doors, making them not so warm. My apartment is one of these. Everyday when I come home from work, I usually keep all my warm clothes on and sometimes put on another layer. At night I sleep with two layers of clothes and a huge blanket. Last year with my host family, I was in the bedroom farthest from the furnace and slept with three blankets and my long underwear. Mostly I remember last winter just being cold a lot.

CLOTHING

In the winter people here usually wear fur coats, big puffy marshmallow coats, or dublyonkas (a fur coat with fur on the inside and leather/animal skin on the outside). In case you haven’t already figured it out, we don’t have Green Peace and anti-fur groups in Kazakhstan, I mean c’mon people were just trying to stay warm. They also wear fur hats, leather gloves, and the best boots I have ever seen in my life. On a regular day I see every young girl on the street wearing knee high/calf high leather boots with spiky high heels (it helps you walk on the ice because it works like an ice pick). Women and men also wear scarves under their coats and older women tend to wear these type of blanket looking things made of horse hair or something. They look disgusting but are really warm.
Another thing you will see old people wearing in the city is valenki, which are these really warm boots made out of felt/wool which look like giant casts. In Kazakhstan people are pretty stylish so you see a lot of really classy/flashy fur coats and hats. And of course the stereotypical Russian hat known as the Ushanka with the big ear flaps.

On a regular day here, I wear long underwear, pants, and at least two layers on top. In America I bought long underwear special for extreme cold and they work pretty well under my clothes. I also have a really warm puffy coat, hat, scarf, gloves, and boots. But even when I’m all bundled up, it’s really cold walking down the street. When it gets to -25 C/-13 F, the air literally burns your face and by -35 C/ -31 F it hurts to breathe.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY

This winter has been a little colder than the last. It’s only December and already we have dropped down to -30 C/-22 F. But as much as I hate living here in the winter, I am thankful for the cold. I will now be able to say for the rest of my life that I have survived some of the coldest temperatures in the world. And in January I will be able to say that I dunked in a river during these temperatures (see next blog entry: chrishenya). But even more so living here during this time has really given me respect for the Kazakh and Russian people living here. I can only imagine how much tougher it must have been to exist in this part of the world when there was no electricity, no central heating, no public transport, and no television! I think if I had been a local during the Soviet Union, I would have most likely died of frostbite, or boredom.

P.S. Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa, do not send me more winter clothes, I’m good.