Saturday, March 07, 2009

That's Hot

Around Thanksgiving, I looked into sending Christmas cards to friends and family back home, but for a number of reasons, that didn’t work out. Between the acquiring the necessary postage, gaining access to an outgoing mailbox, and getting all of this done in time for cards to arrive in The States before Epiphany, I just couldn’t get it done in time. Maybe next year.

But the strangest part about shopping for Christmas cards was that no one prints them for the southern hemisphere. Our northern-hemisphere-centric world often forgets that half the planet burns a Yule log in the sunny months of summer.

I bring this up because I bought coffee mugs today, and it felt just as anachronistic. In fact, as I was standing over the array of teacups at Nia Mall, I could feel the sweat rolling down my back, and my body kept asking my brain, “What are we doing here?”

It made it difficult to buy because one’s coffee mug is such a personal item, and I felt the need to imagine myself drinking out of each mug. So I’d imagine getting up in the morning, pouring the coffee out of my French press, and sitting down at the table looking out into the distance, and – the sweat is rolling down my back!

The heat would seem to completely negate the need for a warm beverage, but even people in warm climates enjoy a good cup of Joe from time to time. Particularly near the end of the week, a cup of coffee in the morning sounds increasingly enticing. Who knows if this will ever actually happen given my penchant for sleeping until the last possible moment before rolling out of bed, brushing teeth like a madman, and running out the door?

The subject of hot beverages and hot weather came up over dinner last night. I had pizza with Cale and Sara, and Casey from group 80 sat down to have a drink with us. I related the story of the ants from yesterday’s teacher meeting. Sara pointed out that it’s never a good idea to drink down to the bottom because you never know what you’ll find down there. Casey added that it was never good to drink to the bottom because it’s hot. Why would you want to?

But from what I’ve heard, drinking hot beverages in hot weather is a worldwide strategy for cooling down. Samoans drink quite a bit of tea. When I spent time in Uruguay and Argentina, “Mate” was a traditional tea that natives drank all day long, in part for the caffeine and the antioxidants and other miracle healing powers, but also because of the warmth.

I’m having a hard time finding a good article online, but I think it has something to do with the way your body can process warm liquid faster than cold and that allows you to hydrate and therefore perspire more quickly and more efficiently.

In any case, I don’t think the coffee mugs were an impractical purchase, but it did feel a little inane at the time.

Other than that, a bunch of us are meeting up for pizza tonight, which should be fun (Yes. Pizza 2 nights in a row for me. But I’m totally craving it. And I’m doing pizza again on Thursday. So there.). I hope you have a good Saturday night planned. Pictures below.
















Phil and I ran into his cousin from Fausaga selling crabs in town this morning. These are crabs.









Wore my contacts too long last night. Left Eye's looking a little red. Chili-colored, if you will. T-Boz!
















This is an example of one of the wild dogs that wanders the streets of Apia. This one has 3 legs.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Big fan of tea. In my case, I use it to warm up during cold nights at work. I guess I could try it in summer on a hot day. Funny I had pizza last night. I am thinking Thai for Thursday. ;)