Coldness

It is cold here. We went from a long summer into winter pretty quickly, so I have had very little time to get used to the cold weather.

Not coping with it very well, as I am sure many of you can imagine! The school classrooms are cold, and the hallways even colder. Luckily they turn the heaters on in the staff rooms! Also, houses/apartments aren't insulated, so they are difficult and expensive to heat. Finally I have set up my kotatsu - a table that you plug in! Basically you have a futon on the ground, and a futon between the 2 table tops, and plug it in and it gets all warm under the futons. You can also get a heated carpet - something you layover the tatami and plug in!

And of course, there is the trusty kerosene heater. Yes, seriously, I have a kerosene heater. I have no intention of attempting to use it - would most likely asphyxiate myself in the process!

So I complain about the cold. What really irritates me is when people respond with, well where I am from it is snowing/10 degrees colder. All that means is that that person has no reason to complain about this weather - in fact they should be exclaiming how it is positively warm! However, I don't come from the German Alps, so I will complain about how cold it is!