Irkutsk is Melting
February 19, 2010 at 11:12 am 6 comments
Well,
As the temperatures in Irkutsk warm up, things have begun to melt. The streets are pure dark gray slush, and the side walks have been mostly chopped free of their snow ice. I am going to miss the permanent snow ice that I had gotten so used to walking on. Though, I doubt it is gone forever, there is still plenty of time for snow, and more snow, and more freezing weather. I mean, it has not even broken -1 degrees Celsius yet.
Kirov Square is melting too, all the ice sculptures appear to be on their last legs, and there are big holes in the structure of the giant ice slide. There are more people on the streets, and there are dudes on the roofs of building throwing snow off with big snow brooms.
If Amanda were here, she would have a million on the job stories to do. The guys who sweep the sidewalks with brooms made of sticks, they guys who use garden tools to chip away the 5 inch thick snow ice, the guys on the roofs of buildings. They have to rope off areas on the side walks to make room for the massive amounts of snow being thrown off. I hope to get pictures and videos eventually. The other day huge sheets of snow and ice were falling of the sloped roofs of the small vendors stands outside of the university. It is crazy times. I see men shoveling snow into wheel barrows, and then dumping those wheel barrows into large trucks. I would like to find there those trucks are going, because I bet there is a metric-shitload of snow there. But, they probably just melt it and put it back into the water supply.
Also with the warmer weather comes less layers, and without tucking two shirts, and wearing my thermal pants, my jeans, and new kick ass slacks don’t fit quite well anymore. I need a belt. I have heard of a great clothing store near the central market that has $5 belts, so I need to go to there.
AWAY!
1.
Erin | February 19, 2010 at 1:53 pm
We are momentarily thawing here, too. When I was at Avery’s school today a huge “metric shitload” of snow fell off the roof and onto the ground. The kids went crazy.
Don’t you love those witch brooms that people actually use? Do they always use wheelbarrows, or do they sometimes use really ancient baby strollers? Some of the city street cleaners here use the baby strollers and it cracks me up just thinking about the city of Vilnius keeping track of their inventory of city snow and leaf removal baby strollers.
2.
andrewjwilliams87 | February 19, 2010 at 3:54 pm
So, did the kids go crazy with excitement, joy, or fear?
The stick brooms are surprisingly effective, and I have only seen wheelbarrows, this is the Paris of Siberia after all.
3.
Matt | February 19, 2010 at 3:59 pm
I wish I could see the great meltening of oh ten.
And I like how “to go to there” is part of the lexicon. Cool cool.
4.
Charlie (Dad) | February 19, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Is the Feb thaw to be followed by the March,and April refreeze? Enjoy it while you can. Hope all is well Andrew.
5.
Erin | February 20, 2010 at 7:57 am
They went crazy with excitement. They also had just finished Avery’s birthday cupcakes, which was probably more sugar than any of them had eaten in a week. They were nuts.
I don’t like this melting. Now when you look out our windows you just see bare trees. They used to be so pretty, covered in snow.
6.
amandainthebigapple | February 20, 2010 at 10:10 pm
Well, we just did an OTJ with a street sweeper. Geeze, don’t tell me you haven’t been reading Vox in Siberia.
Loves.