Winter in Murun

This was our coldest day to this point on November 29.  Unfortunately, it was not the coldest day we had there, which I think was -36!  But Alan wanted to try our his cold weather underwear (which is why he looks so pudgy--he really hasn't gained any weight here).  He said it worked well and he wasn't cold after being outside for 35 mimutes!

 We walked past this statue every day we went to school.  It was a pretty cool statue!

It was pretty cold, but we dressed for it and so it didn't seem too bad most of the time!

 This is a kindergarten school which we walked by to get to English class.  This was the closest we came to seeing an outside Christmas tree in Murun.  And they are actually trees decorated for New Years--not Christmas!

It was so cold that even the dogs had frost on their fur.  We wondered how they kept warm, but they seem to survive the cold well!

LaNice got pretty good at making bread in the oven in Murun.  Everyone really liked the bread and we usually gave away about half of every batch--one loaf to Puje every baking and several to others who always were very excited to receive a loaf!

 Alan it was interesting how the women dressed here for the cold weather. Coats and tall boots and short or not skirts!  These folks are waiting for the bus at -25!

 The kids don't seem to let the cold bother them.  One day at school the class wanted to go across the street and take pictures at the Wrestling Palace.  We were freezing but they seemed to take it all in stride. There's a ramp at the school which the kids were having a blast sliding down on the icy snow.

          

 We tried making popcorn in the microwave with regular popcorn.  Alan got it down pretty good, that is until the microwave started being weird.  At night when so many lights were on in town, the microwave couldn't draw enough current to get hot.  So anything we did in the microwave had to be done during the day!

                                            

We though it was really interesting that the cows wore blankets to keep wary!  They were sort of patched and worn blankets, but they must have provided some protection.