Monday, April 5, 2010

The HOT season

I just wanted to take a few moments to share my new found appreciation of springtime in Minnesota. Although we are not there this year to experience the sweet feeling of shining our faces to the sun after the many dark months of a Minnesota winter, I am vicariously remembering the feeling from the many emails and Facebook posts that surround the awakening of all lifeforms taking place back home.

We are a bit ahead of you here in Chiang Mai, for we have recently entered into what is known as the "hot season." I have always bragged that I love the heat, perhaps to live up to my southern roots. I can't let my southern relatives think that I am a wimp, just because I was born and bred in the north! I am beginning to wonder about my claims, however, after a few weeks of this oppressive heat. According to the weather forecast, we will be seeing 100+ degree days from now 'til June. Apparently the next two days it will hit 107 degrees. 107?? Are you kidding me?

We have air conditioning, so really, we are fortunate. It is possible that Drew and I would be divorced by now if we had to live in these conditions without the ability to escape in our little studio apartment for some relief. (Prolonged exposure to heat can make me a bit crabby! :) A fellow expat friend of ours who has been living here for five years sent us an email detailing the precautions we'd need to take during these next few months. He explained that we'd need to increase our intake of salt to replace all that we will sweat out, that several showers a day are perfectly normal, and heat rashes are common. We also have the added bonus of extreme pollution during this period, because the farmers are burning their rice fields and the underbrush in the forests. Depending on the wind currents, the visibility is almost zero and the air can be so thick it looks like the biggest thunderstorm you've ever seen is about to unleash its wrath on the whole city. As if it were any consolation, he also mentioned that as farangs ("whiteys"), we have not been blessed with the evolutionary ability to cope with the heat the way that the Thais have. So, yes, this is a bit harder on us than it is on them.

While this genetic factor made me feel slightly better about the social faux pas of sweat dripping off my chin and onto the vegetables I'm holding out to the woman selling them to me at the market, I wonder if the natives are really just laughing at me as I walk away? I rarely see a Thai soaked in sweat as Drew and I are all day.

I would like to share a story that pretty much encapsulates how ridiculous this whole heat thing can be. The other day I wore a light gray skirt on my way to teach. I figured it would be a cooler ride in that, rather than my black teaching pants I would eventually change into. Smart, right? Not so much. In the fifteen minutes it took me to bike over the river and through the smog, I had sweat so much that the area of my skirt that I had been sitting on was completely drenched. When I peeled myself off of my seat, I knew it was bad. I looked at my backside and sure enough, it looked like I had peed my pants. And we're not just talking a little piddle here people. We're talking I must have fallen into the toilet kind of wet. Lovely. I love starting my work day by trying to sneak past the office workers and the students in the lobby as if I had actually wet my pants and should be ashamed of myself. Lesson learned. If you are going to be on your bike for more than five minutes during the daytime heat, only wear black to avoid embarrassment.

I have been very surprised to hear many Thais complaining about the heat, allowing it to be a topic of conversation amongst acquaintances, just as we Minnesotans detail every changing moment in our unpredictable climate. I guess I was under the impression that the heat was such a fact of life for this culture that no one would really waste their time actually complaining about it. Turns out once again that all humans are more alike than not. Weather woes are a favorite topic amongst all people!

I've become a regular at one of the local vegetarian cafes (go figure!), and I'm sure that I'm known for my affinity for kombucha tea and love of fresh juice. Anyway, as I was sipping away on my cold drinks one day last week, a 'wind storm' (don't know what else to call it,) blew through and suddenly huge sun umbrellas and potted plants were flying through the air. After a few other customers and I chased down the large objects that were hurling down the street at innocent travellers, I escaped into the cafe and out of the blinding dust. The "storm" lasted several minutes, and there I sat with the two lovely Thai women that run the cafe griping about the weather. One of them told me we will have these wind "storms" for a while. She called them monsoons, and while I don't think her interpretation was quite correct, she certainly got the severity of it right. She then admitted to me that when she can, she goes to Kad Suan Kaew, the local shopping mall, and spends the entire day there, just to be out of the heat. "You can do everything there!" she exclaimed. "Eat, shop, see movie. Never have to go." "Really?" I asked her. "You do that?" I was shocked that this woman who didn't even have a glistening of sweat on her would spend her entire day in our stinky and strange local shopping mall just to escape the heat. Perhaps I am not such a wimp after all!

As I sit here baking in my apartment right now (aircon is off), I am fondly remembering how I always feel like a brand new person when spring finally comes in Minnesota. With a mood as light as a feather and energy abounding, I am always so grateful that I "made it through the winter." This year however, I have to admit that thanks to the plethora of sunshine I've had the blessed opportunity to soak up this "winter," the blues were no where to be found and the feelings of spring awakening find me on more days than not. So yes, it is hot here. It is very hot here. But perhaps part of the reason that Thailand is known as the "Land of Smiles" is because these folks are getting more vitamin D than they know what to do with. Salt-rimmed margarita anyone?

1 comment:

  1. I LOVED the picture of Drew! Peter went to a wedding in a blue shirt in Indo; we found out in 10 mins that that was a horrible mistake. His WHOLE entire back was soaking through as he sat there on the couch with old Indonesian men chain smoking. One of them even gave Peter money at the end of their silent exhcange. Hmmmm...maybe because he stuck it out? :)

    Count yourself lucky that you HAVE aircon and margaritas, my sweet dear. We did not. ;)

    Love you! Keep the posts coming! More pictures next time please. ;)

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