Weather

And, just like that, Kaohsiung's back to feeling like Kaohsiung: sticky and warm. Not to worry, though, I'm not complaining--it feels nice at this point (like a more humid version of September in the Northwest), and maybe I'm imagining things but I'd swear my kids were better behaved today than they've been in months. Maybe there's a connection?

But, in our typical fashion, now that it's nice in Kaohsiung, my apartment plus Karina and Ashley (an ETA from last year who's still living here) are jetting off to Kinmen (金门,pronounced Jinmen but spelled with a K; I have no idea why) for the weekend. And, according to the forecast, it'll be rainy and cool--like it always is when we travel. My personal raincloud strikes again.

Typing that it'll be "rainy and cool" in Jinmen makes me smile; my 6th graders at Qingshan today honed their weather-describing skills; I pulled up a world weather map and had them pick countries to learn the names of and to use to ask about the weather. Fun choices included Greenland, Iceland, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, and Russia, in addition to the more standard picks like Canada, Korea, Australia, and Japan. (I told them they couldn't pick Taiwan.)

So our class consisted of this:

"How's the weather in Russia?"
"It's cold, rainy and snowy in Russia."
"How's the weather in Sri Lanka?"
"It's hot and stormy in Sri Lanka."

And how's the weather in Kaohsiung? It's warm and sticky, with a perfectly blue sky dappled with clouds and air new-cleared by the rain. And I'm loving it--for now.