Today also marks the beginning of a new blog of mine, that took the address this one used to occupy.
In any case, I wanted to have a post talking about Summer and the freedom it brings along. Why is it important?
The first reason is one that I can't explain as well as I'd like to because I, personally, don't understand it. I shall, however, try and do my best. The first reason is the most apparent and, probably, obvious: THE WARM WEATHER! We, who have lived under the Equator for any considerable period of time don't understand why these northern people dream of and practically covet the sun. I have realised during my one and a half years here that they don't like the Winter. I mean, yes, Winter is fun and beautiful with all the snow, but the cold seems to get to people and it makes them similarly cold in personality. They're less relaxed in the cold and tend to curse every day which brings negative temperatures. I don't understand them... I, having lived in a warm climate for around 17 years find the cold an interesting and welcome change. There is one thing that a young man could look forward to in Summer: the women tend to wear more revealing clothing and sunglasses, which would be out of place in the winter, hide staring eyes. Hate it or love it, it's a fact and from those facts many conclusions can be drawn. I leave them to you.
Closely linked to the warm weather is the second reason people love Summer: FREEDOM! Of course the word in caps lock can be understood in many different ways. In Africa it tends to be related to the ability to do something without a party attempting to disrupt that activity. The freedom I want to talk about is the ability to do something that was previously not possible due to weather conditions. In Winter, someone walking around with a nice comfortable T-shirt and shorts is going to end up with a cold or flu at the very least. Similarly, a nice swim in the sea involves a long and tedious ice-breaking session that has very little to do with getting to know one's companions. After the ice-breaking session comes a short burst of activity involving a few moans, probably some shrieks and then a flurry of activity in the direction of the nearest source of warmth (usually a sauna). I am yet to find someone who'll go frolicking in the sea for hours at a time in Winter. During Summer however, one can walk around in clothing as light as one wants (something a very large amount of people take advantage of). If a Kenyan grandparent were to be brought here in the middle of Summer I'm sure they'd be stunned by the amount of skin shown (though late Spring can be even worse...).
And lastly: Winter is dark. Surprisingly dark. The sun rises at around 8 or 9 in the morning and sets ad around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Thus, the sun is out at the same time people are at work or school. Also, if someone's lucky enough to be outside during this time, chances are clouds cover the sky and block out the sun. Needless to say, if someone gets sunshine during Winter, they're lucky. It's no mystery why people over here wish each other sunshine the same way I'd wish you a good day!
Summer is the exact opposite of Winter. The sun is always up. It practically doesn't set! Whenever I feel the need to spend the entire night and part of the early morning studying the sun is on its way up again by the time I'm turning in. And when did it set? Oh, at around 11 pm... I, who have learned to tell the time from the amount of sunlight or from the sun's position in the sky find it remarkable that I simply can't do that any more. I'd need to change my algorithm on a weekly basis in order to make use of it over here and it would only work during Summer because in Winter, there's no sun!
And we all know that darkness tends to get to people. I can definitely say for sure, that Estonians are more fun during the Summer and slightly annoying during Winter.
Oh, there's one more reason why people love Summer: school holidays. I rest my case.
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