19.10.2005: a beautiful day (awaiting the big freeze ... )

At last Saturday’s teacher training seminar, the teachers’ rep for our school gave a brief but illuminating talk. His explanation of available means for resolving problems between teaching and admin staff was interesting, pertinent and helpful, and I'm sure I wasn't the only person attending the seminar who found his candour quite refreshing. But what really pulled my focus during the “we care about you and want to help” spiel was one little by-the-way remark he made about a third of the way through. It was this:

”The first snows are forecast for next week.”

Snows. Wait a minute, did he say … snows? Next week?

Right, then!

All the travel guides warn you about how quickly autumn disappears here. I see now that - unlike so many of the other claims they make regarding Moscow - this one is not an exaggeration. We’d been having an even run of mild and sunny autumn weather up until about Thursday, and winter’s rigours had seemed to belong to some far-distant future reality. But I suppose I should've seen the writing on the wall when our local troupe of street cleaners more or less gave up trying to clear away yellow leaves faster than they were being shed. The trees had noticeably quickened their pace from a slow undress to a frantic shake-off, no doubt sending a clear signal to Muscovites, but I'd completely failed to understand the significance.

Since that time the temperature has been falling rapidly, not entirely unlike the water level in a sink with a faulty plug. (And well done to those who spotted the reference to an earlier blog entry there.) And now I find out that snow is just a few sleeps away. Amazing.

I’ve got a daily weather forecast feature installed on My Yahoo!, through which I’ve been eyeing the rapid transformation:

Sunday: 3-12C
Monday: 2-10C
Tuesday: 0-8C
Today: -2 to 6C

So the thing I’ve been most eagerly anticipating and most fearing at the same time – the legendary long Moscow Winter – is finally on its way.

I must say, I’m rather childishly excited about this. I’ve found myself in a brilliant headspace this week, where I wake up each morning and peer out of the window to check for snow cover. It’s like checking under the Christmas Tree for presents! Last night, one of my students said she thought it would probably snow today, and I was so excited by that it actually made me wake up earlier this morning! I’m dying to see my neighbourhood blanketed in white.

No snow today though, unfortunately. In fact, the blue skies are doing their best to stage a comeback. They’ve managed a few ten-minute bursts before disappearing again behind cloud cover. But grey or blue, it really is a remarkably fine day out there. I went to the supermarket earlier, and on my way along the tree-lined paths I was so taken by it all that I actually started hearing U2 in my head:

It’s a beautiful day /
don’t let it get away …

Thank you, middle-aged, pope-consulting Irish guys in leather pants. I’ll try not to.

Being a hopeless judge of these things, I’m unsure of the temp right now. It’s somewhere in that 5-8C range where the cold air courses onto your face as you walk, keeping you alert and very in touch with your surroundings. And on this particular day, there’s something extra in the air (aside from the pollution, I mean): it’s a promise that I won’t have to wait too much longer to find out whether or not I can survive a winter in Russia.

Wish me luck :)