Hibernation Mode

When I go back and look at pictures or posts from, say, October or November, I laugh at the fact that I thought it was cold then. What a joke! But I do think I finally realize what everyone meant when they said it was going to get much, much colder. They meant that your breath would freeze your hair to your scarf, your fingers would burn, your nose would run to the extent that you could no longer feel it. They meant that all you would crave is a hearty soup and some hot tea. They meant that when you are forced to wear three layers (pants and jackets) to walk five minutes to the grocery store and when sleeping at school sounds like a better alternative than riding your bike home...that's when you know it's cold. So in case you're wondering, we will be in full hibernation mode for the next month and a half.

I know that this is going to contradict my previous statement about being in hibernation, but I guess I'm not really made for full hibernating, even in the coldest of weather. Some friends invited us to go to the Polar Bear Club for some ice swimming over the weekend. It was not an easy decision to make. To start, because it would take us 30 minutes to get there, and that in itself sounds like torture in this weather. Then we would voluntarily be subjecting ourselves to swimming in a hole cut out in the frozen river. None of this really sounded inticing, except for the fact that it would get us out of our apartment to see other people. Soooo, we went.

It goes like this – sauna, swimming, sauna, repeat. The idea is to get really hot in the sauna and then when you can't take it any longer, you go cool off in the ice cold water. The river was about 30 feet from the sauna. I knew if it didn't go straight in and I gave myself time to think, it wasn't going to happen. So when I got to the point when I couldn't take the heat of the sauna any longer, I marched straight down to the river and immediately got in. When my foot first hit the water, while walking down the ladder, I thought, this is not so bad. Then I lowered my entire body in and froze. When the water pierced through to my bones, I wanted to scream. But it won't let you. You are left with no voice. Your adrenaline is the only thing that allows you to swim to the other ladder to expel yourself from the water as fast as humanly possible. As soon as you get out, your voice comes back and you can finally say, AHHHHH, that was sooo cold!! Then for the next couple minutes you feel great. Like you could stand outside, in the 7 degree weather, in your bathing suit, all day. After that feeling wears off you realize you most definitely could not stand out there any longer, much less all day, and you proceed to walk (probably closer to a run) back to the sauna.

As much as I despise being cold, I can't say that we'll never do it again. After all, it is just one of those things you do here during the wintertime. And since we still have a good amount of winter ahead of us, we might as well embrace it.