Sakhalin: Snowstorm!

Well, so much for the burning of the Spring Festival effigy bringing warmer weather. Take that, Russian folklore! It started snowing sometime on Monday night and it's now Wednesday evening and the flakes are still falling. This is the most...

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Sakhalin: Easter

I had to work on Easter Sunday, but I managed to go to the Russian Orthodox church in the morning. I read that Easter is a bigger event than Christmas here, and I was surprised that there was so little...

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Sakhalin: Skiing

We had a few days above zero in Yuzhno, and the snow and ice began to melt. This ought to be a good thing, a sign of spring and greenery, warmer temperatures and new life. Well, you'd think. But it...

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Sakhalin: Festival of Spring

Having a festival to welcome the spring seemed to be jumping the gun a bit to me, held as it was in a football stadium blanketed in snow and attended by people in fur coats and hats. But okay, if...

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Sakhalin: Ice-Fishing

I had no idea what to expect when I went ice-fishing. I vaguely imagined carving a big hole in the ice with a saw like they do in cartoons (making sure I wasn't in the middle of the circle). Well...

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Sakhalin: Ice-Cream

Of all the things you could want to eat in a very cold climate, ice-cream certainly wouldn't be top of my list. I mean, really, you could just scoop up some snow and add a bit of fruit juice and...

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