Switzerland may be known for its ski resorts but I did not expect the winter to be so brutal here in Geneva. Sure, it's been snowing almost every day since we arrived, almost two weeks ago. Sure, it's the middle of March so it is winter. But a night like tonight, I never thought I would experience in Europe.

As the second show of the evening was starting, the wind picked up. By the time we reached intermission, it was just painfully cold. I went to the kitchen and made myself a boiling cup of tea and carried it back to the technical shop. That walk takes less than 30 seconds but my tea was already at a comfortable drinking temperature when I arrived there. So back in the lighting booth, I decided to go online and see how cold it really was. According to Accuweather, it was currently -11°C in Geneva, which combined with the wind chill factor gave an apparent temperature of -15°C. This may be normal for my home town of Quebec City at this time of the year but here in Europe? I am so not equipped for this kind of weather right now! Oh and did I mention that I work in a TENT?

In order to make myself feel better, I thought I'd go check out other places. Sometimes when you see that others are worse off than you are, it gives you something to be grateful for. So I went back online. The first place I looked at was Montreal. +8°C. That's 23 degrees MORE than in Geneva. Okay, it was still late afternoon there but I doubt the temperature would have dropped 23 degrees in 6 hours... Next up, Moscow. -6°C. Kiev? -10°C. I was starting to worry. Amsterdam? Warmer than Geneva. So were London and Manchester. I looked up a couple of cities in Sweden. Warmer than Geneva. Of all the places I looked up, Berlin is the only place I was able to find that was colder than here. And only by one degree. Is this the new ice age?