HEAT & NOISE

June 21, 2008 (Happy Birthday baby sister, Carol!)
As I begin to write this I can hear church bells in the background ringing that it’s 30 past the hour. At the hour, there’s a great pealing of multiple church bells all ringing simultaneously about the city. There’s also a dog howling his little heart out which is an oddity in this complex as it’s been very quiet…I was worried before I left Seattle about several issues (well really about a thousand, but here are a few that have quickly presented themselves): the heat/humidity and noise.
The noise has been quite tolerable and this has surprised me. At home I can get really irritable if there are dogs barking or people are "too" loud outside; it’s a symptom of liver qi constraint for those of you who have heard me talk about Chinese Medicine diagnosis. Here in Alessandria we are in a small complex. One enters via a locked iron gate and then you walk into like a courtyard. We are in a corner first floor unit—the only one (first floor) that I can determine. I’d guess that there are about 10 or 12 units (condominiums) here and all the others seem to be on what we would call the 2nd floor with the first floor being enclosed garage spaces that are accessed via the little court yard. We can hear a fair amount of street noise (voices, cars, motorcycles) but for me, there’s been something endearing about it and when it does get a bit bothersome, we can just close the windows. The windows are A+ thick double panned and when shut, there goes the noise. Outside of the windows are amazingly thick (white) louvered style shutters that allow for a nice air flow when closed; one can close the shutters and keep the windows open and thereby retain privacy. When I hear outside activity and/or cars coming and going I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t have to pay attention because it’s not like anyone is about to drop by. People around the other units have either ignored us (but have said a polite hello) or have taken a few minutes to introduce themselves. I do know that we are being talked about to the degree on does when new folks have moved in close by and you wonder what’s up and who they are. I am sure that the other folks who have spoken to us more—Rita and Alessandro have probably told them that we are Americans who can’t speak the language (although Kim is doing a terrific job learning). It mystifies the few people we have spoken to that we are staying for one year without being students and/or working. Julia, the woman who cleans the common areas asked us at least four times how long we were staying—trying to make sure that we understood her question and she seemed floored each time we answered the same "one year—un año".
The heat. The last two days have been considerably hotter. Each morning has had completely blue skies and I’m guessing it’s in the 80’s. I really have no way of knowing. We have no thermometer; we don’t read the paper, when I go to the internet café I forget to look on line, I haven’t heard them discuss the weather on the television (nor would I know it if they were). Today, on our way to Saturday market we got lost and ended up walking to a very dead end, nowhere land behind the train station. It was sooooo hot and we were both sweating up a storm; our clothes were soaked and perspiration just dripped off of me and we kept walking trying to find our way back to more familiar landmarks. During the behind the train station journey, a young man said "no passage" and we just smiled ("oh, ok") and kept walking along where he said it was no passage and sure enough, it was no passage. So, we turned around and continued to backtrack out of this very ugly backside area behind the train station. At one point I interrupted our silence, because we were not chatting very much to one another, by telling Kim that I had just remembered that while we were in Seattle, I knew that from other past travels, there would be days/moments like this….we laughed and that seemed to help.
The heat/humidity and sweating did get to me and one point I had to stop because I really thought that I might faint. I worked really hard to will myself not to because I thought "what would Kim do"? So, I sat down for a couple minutes, pulled myself together and on we continued. Later, I showed Kim a spot on my little finger that she should press if I were to faint in the future. It’s called Heart 9 and is really good for revivals of all sorts—fainting, hitting ones’ head, etc. (As I write this I just gave Kim a quiz asking her where the pressure point is and she passed with flying colors)! I am really hoping that there will be no future need for either of us to have Heart 9 pressed.
We are both wooses when it comes to the heat. Part of what I love about Seattle is that it doesn’t get that hot. As a child I grew up in the cool of mountains but often during the summers we would head to Texas to visit relatives—Galveston, Houston, San Antonio. Those places are so hot and humid! I couldn’t stand the weather and often was quite miserable. It was in Galveston that I developed my abhorrence and fear of mosquitoes because I have a very strong reaction to them. No little red swelling for me! Huge, hard growths that itch like a son of a bitch and no amount of Calamine lotion would help. What a crock that product is/was! Prior to leaving Seattle I purchased (at Costco so guess the size) a bottle of benydrl/diphenhydramine. So, I am prepared for the worst and hope that our great shutters and double panned windows help keep the mosquitoes at bay. (Note: No we do not have screens in our wonderful windows). I also have told Kim everyday that I want to try to find a fan; how hard do you think that should be? Every storefront we have passed, I have looked to see if perhaps it will hold a fan within. I haven’t seen a fan anywhere. Either it’s air conditioned or not and no fan. The local internet café gets hot as hell with all the computers, has no air conditioning and no fan. What an improvement a fan would make; Kim says I should start an import business. I am thinking that I will keep asking around (I wrote the name of the word fan down on a piece of paper to ask). I keep thinking, "How could they not have fans for sale here"? My back up plan is to look for one in Milan OR to ask Kim’s friend Jean (who lives in Vienna) to bring one when she comes to visit later in the summer. OR I just remembered that Kim’s daughter, Siegy will be coming to visit us and will be flying in from Copenhagen where her dad lives; maybe she could bring one…..
I want to have a good attitude (well mostly good) and just take it in stride. Kim, being the queen of bold statements has responded with "well done given that it’s only been day two of warmer weather". I am going to prove her wrong!