Weather

It is quite obvious that weather is an important issue when talking about Finland. I'm in the boreal climatic area right now where snow and ice play quite a role in everyday life.
When I talked about going to Finland at home everybody called me crazy and advised me to take lots of warm clothes. I got no less then 5 handwarmers as farewell gifts! Among the Erasmus students, we spend some time talking about the weather in our home countries and how we suffer from cold and snow... Common joke: One of the tutors was asked how weather would be in april and he answered: "Well, lets say... plus degrees"

On the plane, the captain announced -25°C in Helsinki.
The Prisma market has a huge board that shows the daily temperature.
They load the snow on trucks to get the streets free of it.
On the market square there are stands selling gloves and scarfs.
Parking lots have little charging stations for the car batteries so they don't freeze.

Funny enough I don't really feel the cold or suffer from it as much as in Germany. The air (and the snow) is very dry (no chance for snowballs, we tried!) and as long as there is no wind and as long as I'm dressed in several layers of clothes, it is very pretty outside. I'm stunned every day by the look of trees covered in snow... amazing! The sun doesn't really go up high, but when it is there it makes the ice sparkle like diamonds (thinking of Twilight...).
Today it was quite warm, only -8°C. I wondered whether it is warm enough for snow (it doesn't snow when it is too cold) and promptly, they sky turned cloudy and it smelled suspiciosly wet. Still I don't reckon I would notice new snow in the morning as all is white already.
I don't feel philosophic enough now to go on about the weather. One depressing thing, though: the sun goes up at 9.30 a.m. and starts going down at 3.30 p.m. It feels like the day is already over when it is dark. Hopefully, this will change as we proceed towards spring and when university starts.