Thursday

Things I'm going to miss about Vietnam (volume two). Rain. I sort of knew going into this that I'd like living in a country with a real rainy season. It has not disappointed. The weather is pretty predictable during the half-year monsoon, but I haven't grown tired of it yet. We arrived at the very end of the rains in 2007, so my first real understanding of the phenomenon is based on what happened from April to November in oh-eight: four or five thirty-minute showers each day. During the onset of each shower, the humidity is bumped down into the reasonable range by gusts of wind and cloudy darkness. After each shower the humidity rises with the sunlight, like boiling everything, until all of that recaptured moisture weighs down the atmosphere enough for it to fall again. When this happens right at nightfall, evening temperatures can hit the seventies and remain all night. It may be hot, but the showers are worth looking forward to. This ongoing routine, this definition of rain as a kaleidoscopic pattern covering months, rather than an isolated event, is an adjustment I've really loved making. And, interestingly, because hopefully, it is one I will retain after I am gone. Even the opposite season has its charms. Especially December and January, when evenings are breezy and often in the low seventies and days are sunny but dry. This year's rains began in fits and starts, earlier than last year. I don't know which is normal. There's plenty to like about the onset of the monsoon too, characterized as it is by big grandiose storms more reminiscent, but also more sustained, to the spring storms I am used to from home. These transitions can be unpredictable, with violently breathtaking hours of sustained science fiction lightning. [Cavin]