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It’s -40°C And I’d Like To Complain About It

Just Going Out For a Minute...
Just Going Out For a Minute…

It’s been very cold since we arrived last Sunday—yes, even for Canada. For the past few days, temperatures have been hovering around -25°C, -40°C with the windchill.

Fucking cold, eh.

If you’ve never experienced this kind of weather, let me explains how it feels. First, you step out. You take a deep breath and think “that’s not so bad.” Then, within sixty seconds, you lose whatever body heat you had stored. Your hands are burning, your joints get stiff, any exposed skin feels painful, your nostrils stick together every breath you take.

It’s unbearable.

I went out wearing a pair of socks, leggings and a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, a sweater, my jacket, a hat, my hood, a scarf covering my face and gloves and I still couldn’t last more than ten minutes in the cold.

There isn’t much to do when it’s that cold. Frankly, you just don’t want to go out. Even driving isn’t fun because you have to warm up the car, roads aren’t great and you freeze to death walking from the parking lot to whatever place you’re going to.

Repairing the damages this kind of weather does to your body is a necessity. My hands are dry and the skin is chapped and cracked. I spend my time putting hand cream and Vaseline at night. I put on moisturizing cream all over my body after my shower, and I switched to a richer face cream. I never go out without my stick of Burt’s Bee lip balm. And that’s the bare minimum. Honestly, I think the Canadian government should give all citizens a “surviving winter” allowance for beauty products.

Fun fact#1: The Rideau Canal is open for skating but I only spotted one brave soul on the ice. No kidding.

Fun fact#2: We are expecting a lot of snow this Sunday.

O Canada. I love you, but warm up. Seriously.

Cold!
Cold!
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Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

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