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Winter Wrap-Up: Our Snowy Town

Everyone here says this winter has been exceptionally snowy.  For that, I’m actually glad.  Without snow, winter here seems to be very brown, gray, and somewhat gloomy.  A good snowfall, however, gives our town an austere charm and turns my daily walk to school into an arctic trek.

This February especially, snowfalls came one after the other, leaving us a good foot or two for weeks on end.  Narrow trails all over town were quickly stamped flat by lots of us walkers taking the path of least resistance.  The roads were pressed into glaciers.  Occasional days above freezing followed by more fresh powder crusted and stratified the undisturbed snow, so that at times you could walk on top of the “fresh” snow as though you were wearing snowshoes.  Getting around wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t really treacherous except for a few times when the trails melted on a warm day and then froze overnight.

We’re all ready for spring now, even though it means suffering through a few weeks of slush and mud.  The sky is sometimes blue, now, and the sun makes regular appearances again.  The bare brown earth is visible again, but I think some of these glaciers may stick around for a couple more months.

Emma's heading off to work.

Our picturesque park.

We had a nice wide trail through the park after the first light snow.

The trail through the park got narrower when the snow got higher.

The central heating pipe that cuts through town is covered in icicles.

The lyceum students built a giant snowman on the cafeteria roof.

The trail to our door.

Our neighbors clear a path to get the car out of the garage.

Marshrutkas don't let a little snow and ice stop them. We're flagging one down to go the city for a day.

Our snowman on the soccer field was sadly knocked over before we could get a pic.

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Spring Cleaning

Don’t worry – we still have some more “Winter Wrap-Ups” to post, but I wanted to let you know that SPRING IS HERE!!  After a long weekend in the eastern part of the country, we arrived back home Sunday to find the rest of the snow GONE!  The temperatures have been in the 50s for the past two weeks, although still chilly at night.  Sunday was also the beginning of daylight savings time in Ukraine, so it’s light out from before 7am to after 7pm.  It’s like the town has been awakened: people are out and about all day long, enjoying the weather and getting to work!

Ready for spring! The snow is gone, so people are cleaning up and burning their trash in the background.

So, what does it mean when spring comes to Ukraine?  Spring cleaning, of course!  First of all, everyone is cleaning indoors in preparation for Easter, which will be celebrated April 4th.  Secondly, everyone is cleaning outdoors!  Individuals in their own yards and town maintenance workers in the parks and streets.  They are raking up dead leaves and trash from their yards and the park.  They are cutting down trees.  They are tilling their gardens in preparation for planting.  And at the end of the day, they make small (sometimes large) piles of dead yard waste and trash and burn it.  That was something I noticed when we first came to Ukraine – the smell of all this smoke.  At that time it was annoying to breath it in all the time, but I don’t mind it this go-round.  It’s become a sign of spring to me: we’re getting rid of all the dead stuff and trash and preparing for a fresh, new year!

This is pretty much what our yard looked like through most of February and the beginning of March!

This time of year can also get pretty dusty, if it doesn’t rain.  The snow is gone, the ground has dried, yards and fields are cleared, and only a few flowers are starting to push up through the dirt.  But, again, I don’t mind!  So long as it’s not snow, ice, or mud that I have to trudge through to get to school every day, it’s all good!

April first marks the anniversary of our arrival in Ukraine!  It’s hard to believe, but we’ve experienced a whole year here – we know what each season brings; we know what to expect.  Obviously anything can still happen, but it’s nice to be in somewhat familiar territory.  Now, for comparison: a few pics of our backyard through the 3 seasons we’ve experienced while living in our town.

After just moving into our apartment in August, our backyard looks pretty green.

Alex plays with the neighbor boys in September, and some wild flowers are all that remain as fall approaches.

A couple of cats wander through our first snow in early November.

December offically brings winter to town with a snowstorm.

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Winter Wrap-Up: Language Refresher

One fun thing we did at the end of January was attend a Peace Corps “language refresher.”  It was a 4-day long Russian language training with other PCVs from our group and the previous group in the northeastern city of Chernihiv.  We managed to make a 9 day trip out of it, including a weekend in Kyiv with our cluster-mates, a visit with our host family, and another weekend seeing the sites in Chernihiv.  The biggest problem was that we wound up doing all this during the coldest week of the year; the high temperatures averaged around 0〫F!  Nonetheless, we had lots of fun with our friends and really enjoyed exploring a new city.  The training itself was really helpful, and, of course, we always have a good time with other PCVs!

Umm...? Visiting Kyiv's Museum of Water with Ben and iea.

Alex gets cozy with the sewer rats.

In the kids' area of the museum, Alex finds himself trapped by our friendly guide.

Posing in front of Kyiv's Puppet Theater.

You know you're jealous of our incredibly awesome winter hats.

Attending a ballet at Kyiv's beautiful Opera House with fellow PCVs Jake and Alicia.

Iea hijacks a cute photo with our host-mom Natasha and puppy Belka.

Alex relaxes on a bench in front of one of Chernihiv's beautiful churches. Would you say that's a lot of snow?

Emma plays with the cannons in the park.

Alex has a heart-to-heart with Ukraine's famous poet, Taras Shevchenko.

Look closely - a couple of guys are fishing through the thick ice on Chernihiv's river.

Emma studies the funny shapes someone made out of thick layers of snow/ice.

This church is built into the hill, under which is an extensive system of ancient catacombs. Monks lived here, either to seclude themselves and practice their faith, or to hide from those trying to rid the country of the church's influence.