Winter

News and weather reports from Canada tell of extreme temperatures this week. Here we had a week of 'very cold' weather too - almost down to zero. There were a few days of big snowflakes falling, though they melted on the ground. It may seem like we have nothing to complain about, but our heating units (which only a few houses have) are dual purpose and are more for A/C in the summer. We supplement these with portable heaters and electric blankets (btw, an electric blanket has to always lay flat - if you bend an electric blanket here it stops working. I'm on my third of the season).

This means it is cold inside constantly. The floor is cold, the chairs are cold until they have been sat in for a few minutes, the toilet seat is cold, and all the plates and cups are cold. If you forgot some food out on the counter overnight you don't have to worry - it's been at fridge temperature anyway. Hot food put on a cold plate starts to congeal really fast. And if you are visiting someone who does not have heat your feet have no feeling after a fairly short time.

On the other hand, one big positive about winter is that the street food is prime right now. People are hauling around their ovens, steamers, and pans to make roasted sweet potatoes, dan hong gao (little crepes folded around your choice of fillings), shao bing, ye'er ba (steamed rice flour dumplings with spicy fillings), and dan bao (egg mcmuffin like fried sandwiches). These things mostly disappeared over the summer.

The flowers pictured (some kind of plum) are another nice feature of winter here - they only bloom in this season. The school has a bunch of these trees that smell wonderful when you walk by - cool, wintery, perfume-laden air is quite distinct and lovely.