Due to an attempt to put in some serious
work on my thesis that led to me over-caffeinating myself to the point of
distraction, this week’s post will be relatively short, but on a topic that is
deceptively mundane: the weather.
You all have heard my complaints about the perpetually gray skies here in Chongqing, a natural phenomenon that
outstrips the best efforts of its gloomy counterpart that is the Irish/British
winter. Well finally a few weeks ago, the fog lifted and the sun made a
triumphant, albeit temporary, return. Between October and April, I saw the sun
and/or a blue sky fewer times than I care to recall, but recently there was a
streak of about one week where the sun was in full bloom.
What I immediately noticed was
the return of two gender-specific, sun-induced behaviors that Chongqingers (a
dynamite demonym, if I may say so) take on during the hot months. Oh, I should
add, there are two seasons here: Winter, foggy and humid; summer, hot and
humid. Like the first day in spring when Minnesotans drop the tops of convertibles
and wear t-shirts in 40 degree weather, or the annual celebration of Halter-top
Day in Boston (copyright Bill Simmons), Chongqing’s unofficial demarcation of
seasonal change is when the women dust off their fancy umbrellas and the men break
out the exposed midriffs by way of the shirt roll. This rite is instantaneous
and ubiquitous; it is as though everyone got a weather-memo and knew what to
do. With the seemingly predetermined switch, it is hard to believe that it is
simply that people looked at the forecast and decided that ‘today is the day!’
But I may be delving into weather conspiracy theories there.
Anyway, it was good sign of the
season to see the return of the fancy umbrellas (something which confounded me
upon my arrival here) and the shirt roll (something that greatly amused me).
And though the fog has since resettled over the city blanketing huge swathes of
mountains and skyscrapers in gray, it is nice to know that the blanket can and
will be pulled away at any time.
The fancy umbrellas sound delightful! The shirt roll... horrifying.
ReplyDeleteUpon your return to MN, you are in for glorious weather. Not that I would know personally (I spend my days locked in a courthouse or trapped in my car), but I hear tell of the beautiful weather. See you soon!