The weather has been bouncing back and forth between winter and spring this week. On Wednesday, Tashkent received a heavy, wet snow of several inches. Many tree branches came down all over the city, including on our campus. Fortunately, the snow fell overnight, and the big branches were already down by the time the students and teachers got to school. The maintenance team did a good job of securing the area under the trees that were at risk of more branches falling and clearing away the downed branches. The physics behind this natural phenomenon fascinates me. Can an arborist look at a tree and identify which branches are susceptible to cracking with the extra weight of snow on them? I had a very busy day at school and I wasn’t able to enjoy the snow much, but I did snap a few photos in the morning below of damaged trees on our campus.
Much of the snow had melted and dried by Wednesday evening. I forget that we live in a desert climate and standing water on the roads evaporated within a couple of hours. By the time Friday rolled around, almost all of the snow was melted, and temperatures reached 10 Celcius. I even saw a Red Admiral Butterfly on campus. More snow is forecasted for Sunday evening and into Monday morning.
On Thursday, I chaperoned the Grade 9 Ski Day at the Amirsoy Resort. The fresh snow made all of the runs fantastic to ski on! The resort has struggled with small amounts of snow on the top half of the mountain where they do not have snow-making equipment. I was in charge of an intermediate/advanced group of skiers, and we went down every run at the resort. It was my sixth day of skiing this season, and I felt great! There are a lot of good Instagram Reels teaching skiing techniques, and I’ve been using these tips to improve my form. I am a much more confident skiier than I was at the beginning of the season. I might try to go one more time next weekend,d but it looks to be 16C on Friday. Has the weather always been this topsy-turvy, or is it climate change?
The highlight on Friday was the Maslenitsa (масленица – in Russian) celebration at school. The Russian community put on a really nice celebration after school on Friday. Maslenitsa is celebrated in Eastern Slavic cultures and is the oldest surviving, pre-Christian Slavic holiday. It takes place the week before Orthodox Christian Lent. It is viewed as the last chance to celebrate and eat whatever you want before believers start to take their Lenten sacrifices. Activities include eating Russian pancakes (блины), which is a rich food full of eggs, milk, and butter, all of which are forbidden during Lent. They also have dancing, outdoor activities like sledding and skating, etc. The culimination of the week is burning of an effigy of the Maiden Maslenitsa. People forgive each other for wrongs during the year and exchange presents. I had a big laugh dancing with a folkloric dance troupe of older women from the Russian Cultural Center. I hope to get some pictures this week to post. I love being able to celebrate and learn about my Slavic heritage (I am 73% Polish/Ukrainian DNA) living here in Tashkent. I also love that this is the most wintry place I’ve lived in my long international school career. Although it is not as a strong winter as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which I am happy about.
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