its cold

Well, winter has officially arrived. The past few days have brought temperatures right around 30 degrees F. ( I mean that has been the high) I have started to understand what it means to have the cold take your breath away. In America, one would simply turn on their heating system in order to stay warm, but here, the heat is controlled by the government, and they dont believe that it is cold enough for heat until the magic day of October 15th. Until then, its every apartment for itself, with people huddling, starting fires, or buying heaters to keep warm. I sleep with a space heater as close to my bed as it will go and pile on the clothes like I am getting ready for a walk in Antartica, but so far, it is working. I havent gotten cold in the middle of the night.
Local people have very strong opinions about keeping me warm, and they are always willing to volunteer information. My favorite came from my language teacher. She comes over each morning to teach me Russian, and usually her knock at the door wakes me up. The other day, I was already up, and happened to be pouring a glass of juice when she came in. She instantly started yelling at me... "Dont drink anything that is cold!" Only hot things in cold weather! I insisted that I didnt want anything hot, but she wouldnt have it. We argued about the merits of hot versus cold and then I finally gave up. Her reasons were simple. If my insides werent warm, then of course they would freeze. And if they freeze early in the winter, then for the entire winter I will be frozen. Makes sense right?
Later in the day, I went out to buy some salt for something that we were cooking. I started to pile on the clothes, and as I did, she looked at me as though I was crazy. I ignored her stares for awhile, but pretty soon her stares were accompanied by interesting thoughts on my choice of attire for the day. My theory is this... MORE IS BETTER. If I get hot, I can take a layer off, but if I am cold, there is no helping the situation. So before I go outside, I pile on the clothes. When I say pile, I mean 4-5 layers plus my heaviest jacket. I'm piling things on, and she is making fun of me! I thought that after her comments about not freezing my insides that she would be proud of me for bundling up, but that was not the case. Instead, she chastized my choices... only one coat is needed. But I would still be cold, I insisted. No you wont- she insisted.
Well, I won this battle. She kept saying that I would stick out to everyone that saw me, and that they would instantly know I wasnt from here. At that point I didnt care- I just wanted warmth! I think I'll just continue to stick with being warm, even if I stick out! I'll write more later!
Em