What's hot on Fridays?

Yeah, yeah, I know, ice sculptures are real nice too look at, but that's now how you imagine I spend my Friday nights in Akademgorodok. So, here is a typical Friday night around here...

1- Make sure the temperature is not above -28C, and you gather a group of friends at about midnight by the New York Pizza.

2- Go to the Ob Sea, and find a good spot for digging an ice hole. Yes, that's right, it can be hard to walk on the lake covered by over 1 meter of snow, and the digging with axes is long and tedious...
















3- The security guards show up. I thought we were going to get busted, but they just made sure we knew what we were doing. I thought that was a trick question: the answer seemed obvious enough to me: "It is 1am, -28C and we are digging an ice hole with axes". I would rather question if they knew what they were doing, at patrolling a 4000km2 lake at 1 am and then not even busting the people that dig holes.

4- Well... we give up on our first hole: the ice is too thick and the security guards told us
about a nice ice hole on the other side of the lake. So we gather our stuffs (mainly axes) and walk back to the cars and drive around the lake.

5-We stop by a church to ask the directions to the ice hole. Time goes by. I feel like a walrus looking for an ice hole and running out of patience... Except I am on the right side of the ice layer and that the polar bears won't get me when I find the hole.









6- 2am: the HOLE! I hesitate for 5 minutes, and then, under peer pressure, I go for it. That's where these wonderful shots of me were taken.


No resemblance with Brigitte Bardot running on the beach of St Tropez.. I would say it looks more like the end of Titanic. Going in is hard. The body parts that have me huff and puff when going in a water at 18C are tying a big knot in my throat. And then the hardest is when you go outside and the ice sticks under the feet, the wind freezes the layer of water over your whole body and you can't find the damn sleeves of your freaking sweater! I had to take my underpants off by the way, which I did without any concern about what other might think. I think in the process I got cured from my recurrent nightmares of being at the public swimming pool all naked with my classmates looking at me.

6- Once done, go back 1/2 mile to where the cars are parked and drink some cognac. Then party until 5am and call it a night. Get some rest before next week.

Some really cool ice sculptures

These sculptures are currently in display in Novosibirsk's center. They are really cool.

New York? Las Vegas? ... No, Novosibirsk

The advantage of having cold weather is that some skilled people are making pretty good looking ice sculptures and, if it weren't for the temperature, you'd believe that you are in Las Vegas. And they make it entertaining... What a good idea to transform the statue of liberty or the Taj Mahal into platforms for long icy-slides for kids. Thanks to y good friend Tim who took these memorable pictures while I was too frozen to get my camera out.

Me, posing by a copy of a famous french statue

Me, chilling out by a ice house (a real one, not one of those that you can find in Texas!)

Me again, with a 21st century version of Karl Marx I believe...

And finally, the Taj Mahal, from which kids can slide on their frost bitten buttocks all the way down near the Ob river. I believe it recreates how Hindu kids slide from the Taj Mahal all the way down to the Gange river...

I am freezing my eyes.

Today was not as warm as usual. I woke up by -36C to go and catch the bus. Strange things happen at this temperature: first thing is that it makes the bed look like a very appealing place. Then, once outside, my nose hair got frozen and sticked to each other. Then, the clothes make this little crackling noise like when unfolding paper when you walk. And then the air is so dry that it is abrasive and irritates your throat and lungs. Past the curiosity associated with these silly effects, it turns out to be really annoying. First, the cold air manages to go through the winter coat, through the fleece# 1 and the fleece #2, the so-called thermo-resistant undershirt and the under-under shirt, to finally penetrate through the thick layer of chest hair to get me cold. Also, the cold actually built a layer of frost on the windows of the bus and I missed my stop, and as a result I had to walk 10 more minutes than expected in the cold. That was hard. Imagine doing that chewing on a minty gum!
I read somewhere that some monks manage to raise their body temperature by meditation. Good for them. Me, I will stick to my toe warmers and use a cab.

Joyeuse Annee Deux Mille Huitre.