Adventures in Guangzhou!

Hearing a forecast for cold weather, I took my tutoring money from last week and headed out to good ol' IKEA to buy myself a comforter. I could have bought one for slightly cheaper elsewhere, but I decided that this was not an investment to mess around with. I wanted quality, I wanted durability, and by god I wanted warmth! So I bought their next-to-warmest down quilt and lugged it home just as I could feel the arctic breeze blowing in.

I must say, I was absolutely dreading this cold front. All of the teachers had been talking about it for the last few days and all I could do was think back to last winter in Boston when my housemates and I were too poor to afford turning the thermostat above 55. In my mind I was kicking myself lightly--didn't I come here to avoid a real winter? What happened to being in a sub-tropical climate?? As I got ready for bed and put on a t-shirt, I was practically shivering--not a pleasant sensation.

I proceeded to burrow my way under the covers though and it was positively marvelous. The new quilt was excellent and I slept a blissful sleep. As I drifted off, I felt like I was in a different world as up to this point, my entire China experience has revolved around heat and humidity. Morning came around and I almost forgot the feeling of waking up on a cold day in a warm bed. It is great to be toasting under multiple layers of blankets and quilts with the cold air on your face. Is there anything as nice on a cold morning? Maybe it's a New Englander thing. Who knows. All I know is that I am embracing the change in weather.

Now, of course, getting out of bed is an entirely different story. I'm glad I bought a little rug for the side of my bed because there's almost nothing worse than stepping out on to a freezing cold wooden floor on a frigid winter's day. Regardless of that investment, it was a rude awakening. I wanted nothing more than to crawl right back under the covers and sleep for a few more hours. However, after I got over the initial shock of a Guangzhou day devoid of sweat, I started to acculturate myself to the new climate.

While it wasn't quite as cold today, it was still very much a winter day... and I liked it. The air was crisp and somehow masked some of the usual pollution. The cold weather has had the strange effect of finally making it feel like a significant amount of time has passed since I arrived. Up until now, it's been one long summer interspersed with minor flashes of autumn. This is a different worls. And since I know it won't ever snow here (I think it has once in the last 100 years), I'm perfectly willing to accept the cold for a little while.

Winter is often a welcome change in the northeast of the states too, at least for a little while. Winter means holidays, snow, vacation, skiing, big comforters, hot chocolate, christmas lights, fleece, fires, and possibly even days off from school or work. Sure, the novelty wears off sometime around the end of January (or the third major shoveling), but for a while there it's really fun! So right now I'm also in the honeymoon phase of winter and I'm loving it. I went for a run today with a long sleeved shirt on and it brought me back to my high school "indoor" track days of training outside in sub-zero temperatures. The air was cold but my body warmed right up as usual about a mile into it. The Chinese were looking at me like I was crazy for running in shorts, but little do they know that I used to run in shorts during blizzards. If Coach Butterfield can do it, I can do it.

After my run, I also decided to get back into the weight room for the second time in three days. It seems like soccer is winding down a bit so the free weights are a perfect substitution. The other day I was all by myself but today there was a student in there along with me. I started off with the bench press as usual (complete with a wooden bench--only in China) and he stared at me the entire time. After I finished, he walked over and attempted to put up what I had been doing. I could see this ending in disaster so I lingered around the area in case I needed to play rescue. Sure enough, the bar came crashing down on his chest on the very first rep so ran over to pick it up. I recommended that he maybe start a little lighter next time. If I knew the right Chinese words, I would have given him a lecture about safety in the weight room but instead I just walked over to do some lat pulldowns. I think he learned his lesson anyway.

The forecast calls for the weather to get back up to the mid-sixties in another few days and I venture to say that I'll miss the cold. We'll see. Either way, it's been nice for a little while. On a completely separate note, I have discovered a bread at Park n Shop, my favorite grocery store, that tastes *exactly* like a pretty decent challah. I can only assume this is a huge coincidence since there is virtually no Jewish influence in this entire country. Either way, I'm psyched and I plan on making it a part of my weekly shopping run. Yum!