Sometime in the early afternoon I opened the curtains in Sophia's room to see snow falling. Sophia was so excited! She wanted to go outside and have a snowball fight right away. I could see the snow was not sticking--just making the ground yet. Astana is full of dirt, so this could get muddy.
We played inside and later it started snowing more, so we bundled up and went outside. Yesterday I had finally made it to Artyom and bought Sophia a heavier coat and some boots with soft material inside (wool perhaps? It's common around here--you need more than just regular boots to keep warm). I know she'll still need more once real winter comes, but it was under 7000 Tenge--a little over $40--for both, so definitely a good deal to keep her warm in the meantime.
We went over to the playground by Christie's apartment, and we played for a while. The snow started sticking on some of the play equipment first, so Sophia made a large and dirty ice ball. I found a stick and wrote the words "Astana holodniya" --Astana is cold--in the snow.
Finally I was too cold to take it any longer, and I suddenly wondered how on earth I would make it through the winter. What had I been thinking? Here I was, bundled up far more than I'd ever bundled up in South Carolina or Paris, and I was freezing cold--and winter hadn't even started! I told Sophia it was time to go inside and luckily she did not object. I would not let her take her ice ball inside--I assured her that she'd have five more months to collect ice balls.
Inside, luckily, we warmed up pretty quickly and I decided that so far, I could handle it. If it takes half an hour for me to get freezing cold, yet I can get warm again in half an hour, then it's not so bad. Maybe later I'll go crazy, but not yet.
This evening we went to church--English language, hurrah!--and Sophia happily through snowballs at the Philippino teachers after church. They were bundled up in new coats, and freezing cold. They're probably wondering how they're going to make it through this winter even more than I am.
Yet they, like Sophia, were excited about the snow, and took tons of pictures of themselves, in the snowfall, in front of the church.
Hello! I hope you see this comment. I would like to know what English-speaking church this is in Astana, as I do not speak Russian. It would really help!
ReplyDeleteSorry for not responding earlier, I don't get on here very often anymore. We attend Our Mother of Perpetual Help, which is on Tashenov Street, near Alatau Sports Complex. English Mass is on Sundays at 6 pm. There is also Mass in French about once a month, after the English mass. You can see their web site here http://catholic-kazakhstan.org/Astana/En/parish.html
ReplyDeleteThere also is a Protestant church (unsure what denomination, if any) which a lot of foreigners attend. It's in Russian, but they usually have a translator. I can ask my co-workers for more information about this one, if you prefer.