May I introduce a new Blog series: How to survive…
This will help you to survive your stay in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia or any other freezing country.
When you are a central European like me, or just used to a normal climate, you will get surprised by mother nature and her brutal force to unleash winter from one day to another. So here some basic tips gathered over this past winter:
- Tea, well not only will you drink tea in spring summer and autumn but also surprise surprise in winter. But at this time of the year you will finally realize why this drink is so damn popular in Ukraine.
- Try avoid walking. As a volunteer this one particularly hurts since saving money is THE rule to life by while you are doing your EVS but I am sure it is better to spend 2 hrn more than freezing to death.
- Eat, eat a lot. If you have more fat to burn your body will stay warm longer and definitely try to avoid going outside on an empty stomach. Plus when waiting for buses can take literally hours an empty stomach is the last thing you want to have to worry about.
- Thick clothes, Beauty is not that important. A lesson hard learned for a “fashion victim” like me. Well looking slender, good and nice doesn’t keep you warm. Also a moral conscious will not keep you from having frost bites. Get a warm and thick coat, and do not consider the style. It has to keep you warm, also fur is just the best way to shelter yourself from the cold. There is a reason why these coats are very popular in this edge of the world.
- And if everything else fails there is only one option: Vodka, warms from the inside out. Perfection. Now you know why they like that stuff so much.
So I hope that this could be helpful. Hey, If an Austrian can survive Ukrainian winter, so can you.
Soon,
Maggie