Now It's Summer

Summer has suddenly arrived out of left field, and it's been pleasantly hot with a lack of rain. I don't know exactly when the change happened, and after talking to some people from the area, I don't think they ever really know when it is. There will just be a period of a few days without rain and then it's official--it's summer.

It's quite the change in my acclimation to summer. Normally after suffering through months of New England winter, you get a glimpse of spring which is then crushed by a freak April snow storm or floods throughout the month of May. Then one day you wake up and it's 75 degrees in March. A few weeks go by, and again it becomes the fall in June with rain and cold temperatures in the 50's. And then it turns to late June and suddenly it is summer. And that's all there is to it.

It's been nice here though because for once I can kind of anticipate what the weather will be like. I haven't even been bothering to take my jacket to my afternoon classes this week, though I still have the umbrella in my bag as a backup. But suddenly everyone is complaining about the heat, as if we don't live on the equator. It's like how my friend Rob will always comment on the humidity in the summer in Boston. "Rob, this is Massachusetts," we always reply. "It's always humid here. This shouldn't surprise you."

On the plus side, we can now do things like play in the park and not fear sudden down pours. On the other hand, however, there is more exposure to the powerful sun, and for fair skinned people like me, it's a dangerous game. Usually during the week I only walk around from the house to the university and back. But on the weekend I like to stroll a little further out. It's kind of funny though how people who haven't seen me in a while comment on how blond my hair is. Apparently it looks like I'm bleaching it.

At the end of the day, I'm happy that the rainy season has ended. It truly sucked. Hopefully the dry season can prove to be a bit nicer, or at the very least more predictable. But then again, the rainy season was predictable in its unpredictability. There's just no winning here with the weather.