Crazy Winter in Astana

We had a pretty crazy winter over here this year. It had been unusually warm for Kazakhstan (only about -4 F) but very snowy and blizzardy. They would shut down public schools including the first year of college (2-year colleges, not 4-year ones) every time there was a blizzard which came down to about 2 weeks of missed school total. Then there were lots of heavy-fog days and icy-road days during which elementary schools were canceled as well. Now the schools are shut down due to coronavirus. More than ever I am happy with our decision to homeschool though we will be going back to public school system once we are back in America this summer (hopefully!).

Anyway, I thought I would show you some Astana winter scenery from this season, so you can see for yourself what we've been dealing with! Here we go...

Here are our twins with their best friend, April. My mom knitted matching hat/scarf combos for all of my kids, and April fell in love with them. So, naturally my mom made a set for her too. The pom-poms are made from my old hat (a hare fur hat) that I wore when I was 4 years old! Sophie is not wearing her scarf here because ... well, because it was a warm winter. :) 

Going to the mall across the street in their heavy winter coats.

My favorite scenery is when the trees are all dressed in white after a foggy morning, just like here!

On our evening walks on campus with Yuki, our own little "fox".

Look at all that snow!

This is what happens to sidewalks after a blizzard the day before. It takes the city a few days to clear them all (this particular one stayed like this for about 2 weeks). This is on our way home from church one Sunday.

And this is our window on the morning after a blizzard. Side note: we live on the 7th floor!

Lina by the Children's Palace where kids go to all of their extracurricular activities. After every snowstorm the snow is plowed into these big mounds and left like that for weeks until the trucks become available to take it outside of the city. 

Here is Lina by one of these mounds.

And here are the mounds by our apartment on campus. On February 1st we went to a hockey game between our National team Barys and a Russian team Avangard that was played in a big hockey arena about 2 bus stops away from our campus. We usually walk there because it only takes about 20 minutes to walk. It took us a bit longer this time because we had to do it through high snow.

Walking to the hockey arena. The snow on these sidewalks was about 2 feet high.

Nika and Lina goofing around.

We are big fans of our Barys team (the name of the team means "snow leopard")

Us, the old folks.

Every time Barys scored, the fan section would unroll that huge blue jersey. It was a tough game but we won!

Here is the walkway in front of the university. It is a giant skating rink!

And here what the roads turn to after warmer temperatures and a blizzard. Ice!

Going to church on Sundays.

Going from church on Sundays (twins being twins).

Snow drifts on campus after a blizzard.

During one of the blizzards we went to take our dog out. She did not want to be out and neither did we! We are so grateful for that skywalk you see connecting our apartment building with the university. It makes winters bearable here.

The snow and ice on the sidewalk is so high that it makes this normal bench "ground level".

Love those pine trees!

Snow level in one of our outdoor basketball courts. Now even a 5-year old can make an easy basket (if he can make it to the hoop)!

Lina and snow on campus

Lina wanted me to take a lot of pictures of the snow this winter since we are moving to Texas this summer and the only snow we will see there will be when we look at our pictures from here!

Winter Wonderland!

Our First Hockey Game

One of the perks that I get from being the coach of the NU women's basketball team is that the university sports center sometimes gets free tickets to sporting events in town.  I've been to a couple of the basketball games this year with some of my basketball players, for example.

This week, I was asked if my family wanted tickets to the hockey game.  I was happy to say yes to the tickets.  The team here - Barys (or snow leopard) - plays in the KHL (Kontinental Hockey League) with teams from Russia, other former Soviet States, and a couple of teams from Scandinavia. The team just moved (a few months ago) from their old arena on the other side of town to an arena near the other sports arenas - which is only about a mile from our apartment.  Last year we thought about going, but getting to and from the games was problematic.  Now that problem is solved.

I got the tickets on Monday afternoon for the game on Tuesday.  Tuesday the kids' school was cancelled (it was supposed to be the last day of the term) because of a blizzard that raged all day.  The wind and snow was still blowing when I came home from work in the late afternoon and we thought about not going, but decided that we would brave the weather instead.  I ordered two taxis to pick us up at 7:00.  We were taking three of the kids and Yulia's mom (so six of us) since Polina was sick with the flu.  When we went down, our taxi wasn't there.  It took until 7:30 for one of the taxis to show up.  By that time Babushka (Lyudmila, Yulia's mom) had given up on going, so the five of us piled into the taxi who drove us through the blizzard down the road a bit.

View of the blizzard from our window

We arrived at the game 10 minutes into the 1st period - and Baris was already up 2-0 over CSKA Moscow.  We had nice seats behind one of the goals high enough up that we could see the action on both sides.  There was also a very nice scoreboard and screen that showed replays, so we could get into the action.  The arena was only about 2/3 full - we think mostly because of the storm.

Our view of the rink from our seats

Selfie

The girls watching the game

I had never been to a live professional hockey game before (neither had anyone else in the family) and we really enjoyed it.  The game was intense - the final score was 4-3 for Astana.  We saw a fight right in front of where we were (in the game, on the ice) and quite a few power plays because of penalties.  The atmosphere was a lot of fun.

Barys is in blue, CSKA Moscow is in red

Fight

Another fight.

Fans would put up a giant banner every time after Barys scored

Standing ovation after a score

At the end of the game when the team won, lots of people through stuffed bears out onto the ice.  It was the first time that they had done something like that (the announcer said) and it was a lot of fun. Because of the traffic and storm, we decided to just walk home.  The wind had calmed down quite a bit, although it was still blowing.  The snow on the sidewalks had drifted up to four feet in some places.  Because of the way the weather had gone, though, much of the snow was crusted and we could walk along the top.  It took us about 35 minutes to walk home - and by the time we arrived we were plenty chilly.

Teddy bears on the ice and teams shaking hands

Cleaning up the bears after the game

The winners!

Snow Leopard Mascot 

We are really glad that we had the opportunity to go and watch the game.  We had so much fun that we are planning on making it a more regular part of our winter entertainment.

Our First Winter in Astana

Steppe in the winter. A beautiful view from our window!

The first time it snowed this year was on October 9. The snow was wet and didn't stick to the ground very much. After that we had a lot of cold, rainy, muddy days for the rest of October. However at the beginning of November it snowed again, and this time the winter settled in for good. The average temperatures have been around -15 C (5 F) with lows sometimes down to -31 C (-24 F) for a few days. When you walk just a few yards outside, your eyelashes would be covered in icicles! When the temperatures drop down to -25 C (-13 F), they cancel school for grades 1-4. If the temperatures drop down to -30 C (-22 F), they cancel school for older grades as well. So far our kids’ school has been canceled 4 times, which made them really happy. We've heard that February is a very harsh month and kids miss school a lot in that month.

Our window when the temperatures outside dropped down to -30 C

Nazarbayev University after a big snowstorm the day before. See that yellow plow in the back hard at work?

Lots of snow!

We have a lot of snow here. It is usually pretty dry. For a couple of days we had some very unusual snow, something I haven’t seen before. Instead of snowflakes, we had big crystals that were almost a size of a dime. They sparkle so brightly both in the sunlight and in the moonlight like somebody dropped a handful of diamonds. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of them with my camera.

The girls are looking at the falling crystals. They were so fascinated by this phenomenon! 

Our little crew!

When the snow falls here, the snowplows go right into work and scrape the roads. They always go in teams anywhere from 4 to 10 plows on each team. It is quite a sight! They all lined up diagonally and cover the entire width of a street all at once.

The city snow plow

Snow plows at work

This was a team of 8 snowplows all lined up in a perfect formation

We also had a couple of blizzards here, and those are scary!  The wind is so hard that it knocks you off your feet, and it blows the snow right into your face no matter where you are turning.

View out of our window during a blizzard

This was a sidewalk in the beginning of a blizzard

This is a sidewalk a few minutes into the blizzard

After the blizzard. The snow where Yuki is walking is about knee-deep but she can walk right on top of it because of its very hard crust.

But most of the time it is just frosty and sunny! My kind of winter! 

Coming home after ice skating.

Returning home to the university campus after a morning of skating at our local ice arena.