A Morning Full Of Bus Stories

So I woke up this morning to -33 C weather. The cold doesn’t really bother me. I actually like it. There is a tartness in the air that I appreciate, especially having missed a winter while I was in Taiwan.

I added another layer on my body to keep things warm.

Since I missed the bus yesterday, I was at the bus stop a few minutes in advance just to make sure that I wouldn’t miss it. If I miss the boss, I walk 5 minutes to the metrobus bus stop. A metrobus comes by every 7 minutes. It’s not so bad, but it’s annoying. It might sound annoying, but it isn’t that bad. It just makes me walk more. I’ve lost about 15lbs.

What can you do about it? Nothing, just get a bit of fresh air and walk in the cold.

I started teaching on Saturday mornings this weekend, from 9-12. It was good. My student is the most advanced student that I’m teaching now, and we alternate between grammar, phonics, reading and writing. I thought that 3 hours would be long, but time flies when you are occupied.

I left minutes after finishing my lesson and promptly missed the #11 bus by about a minute. I tried running, but it was no use. Once again I walked for about 7 minutes to get to a metrobus bus stop. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shinning and there weren’t many clouds in the sky.

The wind was cold. I was wearing my sunglasses because of the glare of the sun.

A classmate asked me if I wasn’t cold with only my thin coat on. I explained the layering system that I use. I wear a Shöffel Thermal Pro polar as insulation and an Arc’teryx Alpha LT as a hard shell windbreaker. Thermal Pro is the lightest and warmest polar that Polartec has come up with.

For some reason, I felt the need to itemize what I wear.

I start out with a baselayer. Breathable, quick drying and sweat wicking. It’s a basically a t-shirt with some jockey briefs, made out of a synthetic fiber. I have different brands, from Götzburg, Salewa, Eider, Atunas and The North Face. After the baselayer, it’s time for thermal underwear. I wear the a pair of Götzburg thermo bi system. The fabric is actually made out of more than one layer to manage sweat and wick it away.

Over this, I wear a cheap no name layer. This is just the first layer before my main insulation layer. Next is my main layer before the coats. It’s some Taiwanese brand named Widland. I like them because they have a zip up collar and they are a bit thicker than my other layers, but not too thick.

I then wear my polar and hard shell. Around my neck, I wear a Polartec neck gaiter and a polar scarf. I wear thin Cloudveil gloves made out of Polartec. I doubled up on the gloves instead of wearing a bulkier pair. My other pair of gloves that I wear over the Cloudveil ones are no-name ones that I got free.

On my legs, when it gets this cold, I wear micro fleece pants over my thermal underwear. Then I wear my Goondy Windy snowboarding pants. Snowboarding pants are cut to look like normal pants. They are comfortable and have ventilation zippers. They also have a lot of pockets, which is useful. I always wear a Bridgedale sock liner and Bridgedale Expedition socks. My Zamberlan Master GT RR hiking boots are always on my feet (Zamberlan site). The only time they’ve gotten cold is when I was waiting for a bus for about 40 minutes. Usually when I walk, they are fine.

I’m warm in these clothes. I don’t get too wet if I sweat and the thin layers aren’t bulky. It’s funny how in all the years that I lived in Quebec I never really thought about cold weather clothing. Cold weather clothing is typically bulky in Quebec, full of down feathers.