Along came winter

Vinteren er over os. Vi fik ikke hvid jul. Ej heller et hvidt nytår. Men januar……. Hold. Nu. Op. hvor er det koldt altså. Jeg har brugt utrolig meget energi på at bekymre mig om vinteren, da jeg er en rigtig frossenpind og det var med gru jeg så vejrudsigtens løfte om vilde minusgrader rykke tættere og tættere på. De første dage var hårde, men nu hvor det har stået på en uges tid føles det væsentligt mindre koldt. Faktisk blev jeg I går ligefrem helt betaget af hvordan sneen lignede glimmer både når den var I luften og når den lå på Jorden. Det var rigtig svært at tage billeder af, men jeg tror godt man kan fornemme hvor koldt det er: 

Winter has arrived. We did not get a white Christmas. Nor a white New Years. But January……. It. Is. Absolutely. Crazy. I have spent a tremendous amount of mental energy worrying about this winter, as I do not tolerate cold very well, and I have tortured myself watching the weather forecast moving the freezing temperatures closer and closer. The first few days were tough, but now where it has been a week it feels a lot less cold. Actually I got quite fascinated by the way the snow looked like glitter in the air and on the ground. It was very hard to take a picture, but the coldness is quite obvious I would think: 

Vi har også haft fornøjelsen af endnu en omgang isslag. Denne gang uden forslåede haleben, og da jeg listed op I Whole Foods havde jeg endda overskud til at forsøge at forevige fænomenet:

We have also had the pleasure of an ice storm. This time without injured tail bones though, and when I tip toed up to Whole Foods I snapped a few pictures:

 Hverdagen er tilbage for fulde gardiner og ganske som I Danmark var det en sølle udseende flok frikker, der prøvede at komme I gang mandag morgen. Det gjorde det ikke lettere at vi havde vores første afsked søndag eftermiddag, hvor vores brasilienske venner kom forbi for en sidste gang. Det var godt nok underligt. De kom cirka samtidigt med os og de har været med os I Hell, vi har spist os igennem massive mængder Brasilian BBQ, været ude at skøjte osv. Dem kommer vi til at savne rigtig meget. Heldigvis – eller noget – har de skåret deres rejse hjem over I 2 og er pt på ferie I Cancun, hvor de er så flinke at de sender en masse strand og bikini billeder retur. Tak! Vi er meget taknemmelige.......

Everyday life is back at full speed and just as it was in Denmark it was a pretty lousy looking bunch of Frikkes who tried to get started Monday morning. It didn’t make it any easier that we said our first goodbye Sunday afternoon where our Brazilian friends stopped by for the last time. That was really weird. They came at about the same time as us, and we have been to Hell, we have gorged on Brazilian BBQs, we have been iceskating etc. We are going to miss them a lot. Luckily – or whatever – they have cut their return travels into two parts and are currently on vacation in Cancun. They are SO nice that they keep sending us pictures of beaches and bikinis. Thank you! We deeply appreciate it........

 

Ungerne nåede dog kun at være I skole I 3 dage denne uge. Der gik rygter om at “wind chill” ville være så koldt (-20 F svarende til -30 C) at skolen ville lukke, men det så ikke ud til at temperature og vinden ville samarbejde om at komme helt derned trods alt. Ulrik og Teresa håbede, mens Luca var sur. Hans lærer havde nemligt lovet en bamse og sutsko dag I skolen og han havde omhyggeligt pakket sin taske med Muddi, og Rexie og Buddi mm. Det har dog også sine bagsider sådan at være hjemme en hel lang dag. Teresa kedede sig SÅ meget at hun fik plaget sin far til at køre ud og hente undertegnede på arbejde. Fredag var skolen så lukket igen??? Tjo, det sneede torsdag aften og var koldt, men hvis der ikke skal mere til, så bliver der da ikke meget skolegang I januar og februar. Det lader dog til at skole bus chaufførerne har fået en ny overenskomst, som de er så trætte af at de nægter at køre under påskud om sygdom og for dårlig vejr. Jeg håber det går I orden snart, da lærerne ellers bliver mega stressede, over hvor forsinkede de er med pensum, og så bliver det ikke sjovt at gå I skole.

The kids only went to school for 3 days this week. There were some rumors that it would be SO cold (-20 F corresponding to -30C) that the schools would close down, but the weather forecast never really predicted those levels. Ulrik and Teresa were hoping with the best of their ability while Luca was really mad. His teacher promised a “teddy and slippers” day at school and he already meticulously  packed his backpack with Muddi, Rexie, Buddi etc. Having a day off out of the blue døs have some disadvantages though. Teresa was so extremely bored that she begged Kristian to come and pick me up at work. Friday Schools have been closed again??? Well, it did snow Thursday night and it has been cold, but if it døs not take more to cancel school, January and February are going to be some long months. It døs seem however that the school bus drivers are having some issued with their work agreements, making them cancel their routes under the excuse of diseases and weather. I do hope it will be resolved soon, especially as the teachers are otherwise getting very stressed out about the delay in their teaching plans, making it much less fun to go to school.