We are experiencing a cold front here on the Baltic coast. It swept in from Russia (or do I say ex-Russia?) minus 30-degree Celcius weather.
My children have never felt this type of cold in their lives. And, truthfully, they (we) are really not prepared for coldcold weather. Winter coats are chic alternatives to the autumn fashion line's jean jackets. No one wears boots unless they are of fine leather and can be worn to the theatre with your new black cocktail dress.
I discovered there is no word for frostbite in German. Or at least none of my colleagues knew of the word. We all sat around the water cooker (boiler) this morning talking about the whole process of sending our children off to school this morning in the cold. They were just stunned by my description of all that we learn as Canadian (and presumably American) children about prevention, identification, and the healing of frostbite.
To them, there is just normal winter cold, and then mountain climbers get their black toes cut off after conquering Everest. They have missed all the in-between…. Isn’t that strange? It reminded me about reading somewhere how there is a language (of the Inuit?) in some northern country, where there are 30 different words for snow.
