Winter is Coming!

When I first arrived in Finland, almost every conversation I had with a Finn went something like this,

Finn: "How do you like Finland"

Me: "Oh, I love it here!  I've been having such a great time, and everything is beautiful, and the weather has been so nice"

Finn: (In a foreboding voice, the kind of voice one uses to talk about Mordor, and Sauron and other Very Horrible Evil Things) "Winter is coming"


So, needless to say, I was a bit apprehensive about my first Finnish winter.  I was expecting snow in October, sub-zero temperatures, skating down the river.  Instead, we eased through October, November, and into December with only a couple of days dipping below freezing.  I kept bike riding and didn't get a bus pass for much longer than expected.  It was colder, and snowier back home than it was here.  I was beginning to think that Finnish winter really wasn't going to be anything to contend with (and that maybe we weren't even going to get any snow)

I did my best to bring the winter back with me after my trip home to the States for Christmas.  After all, several friends in Finland requested it.  And I must have done something right, because I got in on Friday, and woke up Saturday morning to snow falling outside my window.


Ever since, we haven't had temperatures above 20, and low teens seems to be the norm (by the way, extreme temperatures sound even more extreme when given in celsius.  Today, a chilly 10 degrees, was -12 in celsius.)  The river is freezing, the skating rinks are open (I skated this weekend!), and there's snow on the ground.  I think it's safe to say that winter has arrived.