the snow finally arrived

after hearing about kyivan winters since i arrived, i'm happy to say i feel like winter is finally here...for real...sure, it was cold back in november and december, and we saw snow flurries a couple times...but that was it...no real snow, so it didn't feel like real winter to me...but now it does...it's basically been snowing all week...woo hoo!!
cloe and i decided to go out in the snow and take photos...just because...we live almost on the banks of the dnipro river, which is the massive river running through the city...it's mostly frozen, thanks to the chilly temperatures of the week...mostly, but not completely, as i discovered when one of my feet got very wet, and very cold...whoops...

the river is basically hard slush, i'm hoping the temperatures will get cold enough for long enough that it actually freezes...even though it isn't solid ice, there were still people out in the middle of the river, ice fishing...i don't know how they got out there, or how they stayed out there without slowing sinking into the river/slush/ice...
there were heaps of people out sledding, it seems that everyone in the city owns a toboggan...i wish my flattie and i had a sled...even a plastic sled would be awesome to have with this snow...a few folks were using thick cardboard or plastic to slide down the hill...
we also saw snowmen galore...it's interesting to see how creative some people get in the placement of the carrot...(that photo is posted on facebook, not here)...we saw a snowman family, snowmen with 'hair,' and a couple snow midgets...
the most ambitious snow creation was a fort...three people were working on that, they had three parallel walls up...i don't know if they had a final plan or not, but it would be neat to see a real "building" out there...

i don't know who the ice guy is, but it's a neat statue...i guess the weather determines how long it will be there...i don't know when it was put there, obviously recently...we saw multiple people pushing coins into the statue, my guess is that's for luck, or something along those lines...the church is still under construction, but for all we know, it could already be in use, if the inside is finished...
as we got to the end of the sidewalk we saw a nice cafe...my flattie said they have a lot of french stuff there, so of course she loves it...it was my first time there, but it definitely won't be my last...i wanted one of the pastries, but the price was a bit extreme, so i settled for something less expensive...

we splurged on the hot chocolate though, and it was worth it...really really thick hot chocolate...ben and bo would know what i'm talking about, it was the same stuff we had in odessa...so thick you can eat it with a spoon...which is what i did...if i could have done so, i would've licked the glass clean...too bad it's expensive enough i can't have it every week...maybe once a month?
on the way back to our flat, i told cloe we should make snow angels...she'd never heard of them...do they not exist in france? fun stuff:)
we also stopped in a grocery store on our way back, cloe found a cheaper place to get skittles, and a few other goodies...i have not been a good influence on her diet, hee hee...(america is taking over the world!)
i loved that we saw so many people out today...people here are definitely used to this kind of weather, and take advantage...how does anyone not love winter? sledding, snowmen, snow forts, skiing, etc...i'm hoping this kind of weather sticks around for at least two months, maybe even 3 months!!! bring on the snow!!! there is skiing in the west of the country, though who knows if i'll be able to make that weekend trip work out...i hope so...i wonder how much snow it would take for my school to close for the day? somehow, i have a feeling that's a pipe dream...lol...