Thanks! I'm having a good time answering all the questions, and, hopefully, I'm providing enough of interesting informaton, so keep 'em coming!

Minus forty is a rare occurence in Western Siberia, but we do have at least a day or two of it during mid-winter. More often we have -30s and lower. It might sound terrifying, but once you're properly dressed and have spent a few days with wind all across your face, you'll be fine. In fact, you'll be welcome to come and try it on your own!

1. I currently reside in Tomsk for the university study, but I've spent my first 20 years of life in Kemerovo. Both cities are in Western Siberia, beyond the Ural Mountains and "in the middle" of the Asian part of Russia. Russian Wikipedia pages for Tomsk and Kemerovo show nicely where both cities are on the map of Russia: skip a bit of the pages until you see the maps; the big red dot is Moscow, and the small green dot is for the respective cities. Living beyond the Ural usually means that the living is a bit worse compared to the European part of the country (the part where Moscow and Saint-Petersburg are). I've never been to the European part of any prolonged period of time, so I can't compare how big the difference is.

2. I'm afraid I lack the information or any significant insight into the issue. The best I can do for you is point out that there turned out to be plenty of information on the issue online. That being said, there are still a lot of people in Western Siberia living what we call "бараки" [bah-RAH-kih] - small houses, usually old, ill-stuffed and most suited for poor people, since бараки are cheaper and require far more manual maintenance (shovelling snow, cleaning the roof, chopping wood for the fireplace, so on). Many people live in small apartments in the old houses built in the 70s and earlier (my Kemerovo house was build in 1961) because they can't afford buying newer flats (of which there are a growing number nowadays). Those of the lower-income have to survive on the miniscule amount of food their income can allow to afford - without the mention of the rent or mortgage, necessary medicine for older people and othersuch. I come from a mid-to-higher middle-class family of three, and we were able to afford a capital repair of the apartment twice in my lifetime (as well as pay for the new car, the pretty good but not outstanding food and so on).

3. I'm not a politics kind a person, so I don't pay attention to it or to whatever our government does. I'm pretty apathetic politically. That being said, my friend once told me about the Boris Nemtsov murder and gave me the link to an online discussion of the matter on a Russian forum. There have definitely been a consensus: it was an FSB wetwork and the government allowed it to happen (given a list of factors that would otherwise make such a murder impossible not affecting the case). People - the common people with whom I get to spend time - talk in great lengths about how the government is corrupt and how it's going to shit - deeper than it already is, that is. Rarely do I get to hear how the government did something good for its citizens, which may or may not be the result of the cynically-inclined Russian culture due to the very recent USSR breakdown and the amount of people still remembering the time.

4. They seem to, at least for parts of the market. I don't keep that big of a track of the prices in grocery shops, but I do notice changes in the cheese prices and quality because I buy it rather often. What I've noticed is that there are still imported cheeses, but they're very expensive - more expensive than they used to be. Moreover, because importing certain high-quality kinds of cheese - Maasdam, Chedder and othersuch - is less financially viable now, Russian productions now try to replicate those kinds locally, with little success - the taste of the European-produced counterparts is definitely superior - but for a much lower prices. Vegetables far more often come from the local sources rather than from Europe and Europe-affiliated countries; they might be as good but they don't look as bright, which may or may not be the only difference. Beyond that, I don't have the necessary insight to provide any more truthful information.

5. I don't remember how difficult it was for me to learn English - I've been learning it from the very young age - so instead, I asked my English Linguistics groupmates (I study the subject as the Russian equivalent of the uni major). The definite difficulty which all Russian English-learners face is the articles. Russian doesn't have such a thing - all the ideas the articles contain are extracted from the context most of the time, with demonstrative pronouns filling the gaps - and to wrap one's head around the concept would present a challenge. Another one seems to be pronounciation: English has some sounds that have no mirroring in Russian, like the interdental consonants expressed in written form as "th", which are difficult for the students to get right (and some never do, going for "ze table" and somesuch). Auxiliary articles take some getting used to, as well, right there with modal verbs and their necessitation of "to" ("need to [do something]" vs. "must [do something]"). Those four take a lot of practice and are often enough failed, partially or completely, by the students.

The weather is shifting radically. It was around -20°C a few days ago and is 0°C today. I have no idea what it will be tomorrow; it's quite unpredictable.

Sunlight is pretty rare in winters here. The Sun is reliably up at around 8 AM and is down before 6 PM. Many days are clouded, as well, which creates a blandly and depressingly grey sky. This makes me want to live somewhere sunny, like South of France. A British exchange student here at TSU once commented that she came to be quite depressed at one point because she wasn't seeing the Sun for three days straight. Interestingly, when the sky is clear, it's all bloody gorgeous.

I live an hour of walk / 20 mins of public transportation from the university, more or less due to road traffic. I got lucky because the apartment I rent is quite near a bus stop that connects trolleybuses with the main street, the Lenina street (named after Vladimir Lenin, as are most of the main streets and prospects in Russia; the way the Russian language expresses various categories or aspects of words is declining words, so if you want to say "the street of Lenin's", you say "ulitsa Lenina"). The Lenina street is where the university stands. Had I to rent an apartment even a few blocks to the south, and the bus stop would become of unreliable access (it would have been a steep uphill), and I'd have to spend 35 mins instead, going all around the city.

I have no idea whether it will close due to weather. I can't remember whether the KemSU - the university of Kemerovo which I first attended - ever did. Schools do, especially for those of lower forms: I believe it's closed for those of the seventh form and lower if it's -30°C, ninth and lower if it's -35 and for all school levels if its -40 or lower. At least that's what we in Siberia had. I hear that Moscow - which doesn't have any sort of such cold winters - has its school closed at -10°C, which I find utterly ridiculous.

I don't know how the wooden houses are heated - and yes, Tomsk still has wooden houses all over itself - but most of the houses use central heating, like, you know, most of the developed world. Some houses - particularly the dachas - use oven heating by the way of burning firewood; those of quality provide quite some heating, enough to feel completely at ease - I have a dacha with such an oven and I've been there during the colder days - and, it can be used for cooking!

1. It's as safe during days as you'd expect a 500k+ city to be. Nights are different: they're quiet, but amidst the quiet a devil or two lie. I once walked across the city to home (it was past midnight, so any public transportation ceased by that point) and met a couple of modern gopniks (by which I mean - being dressed quite stylishly, as is appropriate for today's middle-class youngsters in Russia). In the middle of the night, they begged me for 15 rubles "to ride [somewhere]" (public transportation-wise). I told them I don't have money and kept walking (mostly because I was too tired to deal with them in any way). Once it was clear for the fellows that I'm leaving completely, one of them started cursing at me out of anger that I didn't help him. I've decided to be careful and waited around until they left because they were in my way to the apartment and, like I said, I was tired; I'm not sure whether I had to, but I thought it would be safer to err on the side of caution. Other such walks always ended quietly, though I was minding the odd noises in the empty streets.

2. I have been fortunate enough, indeed: in 2012, I visited Europe (a few countries very briefly as a part of a bus tour), which left a big impression on me. It was after that that I decided that I want to learn German and move to Germany someday: people there are orderly, and I appreciate that. Sadly, I haven't had the opportunity or guts to meet any foreigners on my way, so I haven't received any sort of sense as to how others perceive Russians. What you might have had been exposed to is the macho attitude that the Russian culture imposes onto its citizens: men have to be - or appear, at least - brave and bold beyond any reason so as to not appear weak, as the Russian culture punishes weakness hard. It's as bullshit as it sounds, and, like you've experienced, many of the same men are quite good people inside.

I have, however, been exposed to anti-Russian sentiments online and on TV. It's as immature as any nation- or race-based hatred gets. It's not to say that Russia has nothing to be criticized for or that Russia's government isn't pushing the same kind of propaganda to its people, but the way the attitudes appear, they're nothing more than children trying to fight for clothes or food instead of cooperation, understanding and taking care of each other. In fact, I notice that many of the traits and psychology of a single human being can be applied to a governmental thinking of at least those of the bigger countries.