Crisp Air in China

I'm going to try something new and write a sensory passage about today, and a guess yesterday.

I woke up this morning thinking that it was just going to be the same old routine: getting out of bed, looking out the window to a darkened morning sky, getting dressed, riding the elevator down to a room cigarette-smoke engulfed lobby, but today was different.

Let me explain. Last night, out of nowhere I begin to hear the familiar sound of raindrops hitting against my window. This was something that I hadn't heard for a while, at least to this degree, since I was on vacation in Yangshuo. The thought of rain always brings me back to the East Bay just because weather in SF and Berkeley is just like this for weeks, even months. Although it had already rained in Beijing a few times since I'd arrive from summer vacation, it hadn't been to this degree of wind and downpour. The rain persisted through the night and I continuously heard it through my studies, a ceaseless repetition of dialog I was supposed to answer questions about. After my nightly routine of getting ready for bed, I was still surprised by the length of the downpour, but again that familiar sound allowed me to get to sleep even faster and more rested than usual nights in China. It was because of this persistent rain that the weather today was able to be as crisp and as cool as I've ever felt China.

The weather really does make an impression on your day. Well you know how people say that an overcast day can make you more depressed than a sunny day, it's true. A website that a friend sent over to me a couple days ago has this depiction:

It was taken from a blog that featured the "Differences Between Eastern and Western Culture: Moods and Weather." But if find this interpretation really wrong. After being in China for nearly 4 months, I can forwardly say that having good weather really CAN brighten your day. I like the rain, but not when I'm outside. Rain in China does not make for clean streets, especially since China has a reputation for not being the cleanest of all places.

The weather did surprise me. It had an unusual skip to my step today walking to class, which is usually replaced by a dull walk to class, with my headphones in and my hood on. Not only was the sky as blue as I'd ever seen, even for American standards, but the air was so cold and so crisp, it felt like I was actually back. Don't get me wrong, the weather standards in China right now far exceed the weather during the summer, but today just had an extra punch that I can still feel right now through the window right in front of me. I couldn't waste it so I took a picture outside my room to show you guys just what I'm talking about:


But as is always said with pictures, the view in person is much better. Not only that, but last night I had a dream, which was the first that I remember in a long time, though it was one of those short lived clips that you remember just as you wake up and promptly forget 10 seconds later.

Oh, the sensory thing kind of went away. The temperature today is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, though it felt like much colder today, when I was walking back from the cafeteria to my apartment through a windstorm that nearly pushed me backwards. The wind is persisting and the temperature is remaining as cold as it was earlier today, but I really don't mind at all. If I could choose, I would keep it this way until we leave, of course with the exception of the last couple weeks when it would rain and I could get pictures of a snow laden Forbidden City, of course I would have to go on the first snow because the next day, it wouldn't look as much like snow as it would brown slush.