In which I whine...

The hot season held off longer than expected here in northern Thailand. Normally it hits by March, immobilizing this chunk of the country entirely. Thankfully, probably due to the aforementioned suffocating haze, we got a welcome reprieve through most of March, and the weather was merely brutal.

Now the hot months have fallen on us like a hammer. The temperatures routinely crack 40 degrees in the afternoons. Movement of any variety is sheer suicide between about 10 AM and 4 PM - at all other times it's still quite foolish. My decision to commute under my own power no longer looks so sage as it did in fall.

All of this explains why Friday's brief and lovely rainstorm was so welcome. The sky darkened and cooled, the wind picked up, and the skies eventually opened for a blissful half-hour, pouring torrential rain down on us. It's tough for a Vancouverite to go without rain for six months. All the male students cowered indoors, but the teachers (myself included) and several of our female students converged upon the two-inch-deep lake that appeared on the former site of our soccer field. We quickly discovered that it's impossible to kick a floating soccer ball - the mightiest strike only creates an epic splash as linear motion converts into angular and the ball is left spinning madly on the surface of the water.

So badminton became the new lake sport, and we six or so batted the birdie back and forth until the clouds abruptly dissolved and the sun reappeared. When the rain died shortly thereafter, one of my students stamped her feet in annoyance, looked at me with an indignant pout and demanded "Teacher! More rain!". I didn't have the heart to tell her that I don't control the weather - and I like to keep the fear of god in my students - so I shrugged noncommitally and wandered, soaked and slightly filthy and supremely entertained, back to my desk.

P.S. My pay-per-post policy has come back to bite me. I owe Christian $10 for missing Friday - but it ain't retroactive, since you're out of luck for Wednesday. This policy exists to keep me blogging and to keep people reading, so the castigation must come more quickly to be valid. And to Sunshine - sorry, my blog is on Pacific time, so I think I managed my Saturday post.