We left for the language course wearing shorts and t-shirts, after being away for less than two weeks, we came back to the leaves off the trees, and it being to cold to go out with hoodies as a warmer layer. It was already jacket, gloves and scarf weather. The temperatures were strange though, it was really cold in the morning and at night especially, but during the day you could still feel the sun, just not warm enough to go without a jacket. On a clear day you can see the snow topped mountains, a sign that it wouldn't be too much longer before the snow came, and just a few days later it arrived. Within another two weeks the temperatures had dropped way into the -'s, with all the snow frozen over, the streets were like ice-rinks. If you wanted to go somewhere, you slid there, it was too icy to walk on. Before leaving Kuitun for the winter traveling, it had reached -25! At this temperature everything freezes, from your eyelashes and nose, to your scarf from the condensation of your breath, very very cold.

Now March, we've had a lot more snow fall. When it snows in China, there are no road sweepers or plows, it's down to the community to keep the roads and paths clear, so walking around there are people out with shovels piling up the sides with the snow. There's no messing around, it gets done straight away, even the students in school have to clear the road and path leading to the school and scrape away the outdoor areas. In the last week, the temperatures have jumped back up from being around -20 to being a much more tolerable -3 ish. The ice is all melting now and there's just the bigger piles of snow left to go. Another couple of weeks and hopefully it'l be back to just hoodies, no jackets.