Thursday

Yesterday I linked new photos* I've managed to upload, after which I noticed that Sunshine's mother has also uploaded pictures she took while she was visiting here in early March. See them here. Looking them over, I was struck by the weather. It doesn't really change much in southern Vietnam: over the year it ranges from hot and dry to less hot and humid as the region advances through its two-season schedule. Possibly because of these rather finely delineated atmospheric landmarks, the nuances of the altering climate seem dramatic in aggregate; like a kid who is so much taller after six months, a construction site more developed after a week, the movement of the hour hand. Our weather seems limited to so few adjectives, but is increasingly surprising in time-lapse. It's always hot here; and I miss the winter. I made a promise a few weeks after arrival, November probably, to stop complaining about this heat. Bitching wasn't helping. I learned to cope with a "winter" lacking any semblance of chill. Now, I can't believe how cool and dry it was over January and early February. When Bet was here taking pictures, it was sharp and hot outside, as nearly cloudless as it gets. Late June or early July weather back home. We were as far into the dry season as possible, and I was learning to cope with a "spring" without rain. Bet's pictures look merrily summertime to me. It's changed a lot even since then. Now it's awful out by consensus: the humid foreshadow of our coming monsoon is already modifying a temperature which still hovers unpleasantly high. By mid-May it’ll be raining daily again, as stifling as an indoor pool, and nearly continuously gray outside. This will happen deceptively, gradually, noticeable mostly in belated comparisons. [Cavin]