It is roasty toasty here in Singapore.
What does it feel like?? Imagine you are walking through New York City on the hottest day of the summer, it’s humid and the sun is blazing. Now imagine you walk over one of those hot steamy grates that blows up humid air and makes you hotter and damper all over. That is what Singapore feels like ALL THE TIME.
We knew about the heat before coming, and now that we are here we are learning how to manage our lives in a way that makes it comfortable, albeit a sweaty comfortable.
For starters, clothing. I have worn a light dress with cooling undergarments every day. The idea of shorts and a shirt just feels sticky. Mike only wears light cotton shirts since t-shirt are just too heavy.
Then we have to do all kinds of things like…using an umbrella as a parasol, always carrying water, walking on the shady side, seeking out air conditioned spaces and not wearing make-up that would slide down my face with the sweat.
But we are also having to change some of our core habits which largely means slowing down.
Turns out that our regular walking pace makes us too hot. In our first days here walking was so hard but we are learning to stroll. And our days just need to have a different pace. We can generally only be out and about for a few hours at a time before we need a little rest in a cafe or better yet our bed. We can just do less.
We have been told our bodies will adjust in a few weeks. I am looking forward to that but hope we can keep our slower pace and continue to lean our sweaty faces down to smell the flowers.
