As much as I like going to bed at night with warm feet and not having to curl my legs up trying to make myself as warm as possible during long, cold winter nights, I do miss having four seasons. Life here is perpetual summer. Oh, the temperature may change by an occasional degree or two, the humidity levels may fluctuate from between 90 to 100%, and the clouds or morning haze may lift a bit later on some days making it feel cooler for a little longer. But, in general, it's hot.
One of the difficulties of teaching in a country with no seasons is trying to help students find context clues about setting, especially when the clues are phrases like "crisp apples, juicy peaches, crunchy leaves, crisp air and bright Harvest moons." Just this week I was trying to help a student determine the setting (time + place) of a story and the setting seemed SO obvious (see words in quotation marks above), but then I realized that most students have never picked a crisp, fall apple off the tree nor savored the delight of a warm, ripe, juicy peach. The apples here are imported - from Washington, I might add - and a bit expensive. Students don't get the joy of jumping in piles of leaves. Oh, the palm fronds do turn brown, fall to the ground and crunch underfoot, but their "dropping" is random and their feel is razor-like and spiky. And, although we do get some beautiful, full, orange moons, they remind me more of a summer solstice moon with sweat drenching our brows but without the laziness of long, late summer nights.
Another difficulty with the absence of four seasons was trying to "engage" in the Sochi Winter Olympics. On a normal Winter Olympic year, we would have alternated watching the events at home or in a ski lodge with an ice-cold Hefeweisen and some warm chili while we critiqued each athlete's ski technique or nerve. We would have been getting motivated to ski just a little faster or more aggressively the next day or commenting that "we probably could have made the Olympic team, too" based upon the great runs we'd made that day. But, watching this year's Winter Olympics in our sweat-drenched work clothes and sipping a warm Tiger beer just wasn't the same. Although we did critique many athletes' techniques, it was with half-hearted conviction. We were having self -doubt... Can we even remember how to ski? Can we remember how to bundle up and try to stay warm? Do we want to?
As I sit here typing in my bare feet, thread-bare t-shirt and shorts, I do miss the four seasons but I don't miss being cold.
One of the difficulties of teaching in a country with no seasons is trying to help students find context clues about setting, especially when the clues are phrases like "crisp apples, juicy peaches, crunchy leaves, crisp air and bright Harvest moons." Just this week I was trying to help a student determine the setting (time + place) of a story and the setting seemed SO obvious (see words in quotation marks above), but then I realized that most students have never picked a crisp, fall apple off the tree nor savored the delight of a warm, ripe, juicy peach. The apples here are imported - from Washington, I might add - and a bit expensive. Students don't get the joy of jumping in piles of leaves. Oh, the palm fronds do turn brown, fall to the ground and crunch underfoot, but their "dropping" is random and their feel is razor-like and spiky. And, although we do get some beautiful, full, orange moons, they remind me more of a summer solstice moon with sweat drenching our brows but without the laziness of long, late summer nights.
Another difficulty with the absence of four seasons was trying to "engage" in the Sochi Winter Olympics. On a normal Winter Olympic year, we would have alternated watching the events at home or in a ski lodge with an ice-cold Hefeweisen and some warm chili while we critiqued each athlete's ski technique or nerve. We would have been getting motivated to ski just a little faster or more aggressively the next day or commenting that "we probably could have made the Olympic team, too" based upon the great runs we'd made that day. But, watching this year's Winter Olympics in our sweat-drenched work clothes and sipping a warm Tiger beer just wasn't the same. Although we did critique many athletes' techniques, it was with half-hearted conviction. We were having self -doubt... Can we even remember how to ski? Can we remember how to bundle up and try to stay warm? Do we want to?
As I sit here typing in my bare feet, thread-bare t-shirt and shorts, I do miss the four seasons but I don't miss being cold.
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