Thursday, July 19, 2007

When it rains, it pours...

I hate to sound like a snob, but I know rain. I know what it is like to hate the day you woke up because it is pouring outside; to loathe putting on your rain-coat, getting out your umbrella and putting on your rain boots. Trust me, I know.

So when I moved to Santiago and they (the current associates) told me, it rains; I laughed in their faces. I scoffed and said, you have no idea, I know rain. After all, I have lived in Houston, where it not only rains but pours. Now, I am talking raining so hard you might as well not have any windshield wipers because they don’t work; they just push the water ever so slightly to the side and allow the sheets of rain to continue blocking your view. In Portland it was blasphemous owning an umbrella. I remember the first time it rained and my roommate told me, “See the people over there with umbrellas, they’re from California.” Not one to stick out, I bought a rain-coat and like the rest of the Oregonians, walked blissfully in the rain.

So, I figured, what is a little rain? After getting through four years of college, content in my rain-coat, I welcomed the challenge of Santiago’s rains. Let me just say now, Santiago wins and I lose.

I forgot that in Portland I had a car. I put on my rain-coat to walk 2 minutes to the SAAB or the 5 minute walk to class. I might have arrived wet, but I had a dryer to put my clothes in. Let’s just say in Portland (and Houston) the rain didn’t bother me because I had the means to avoid it.

In Santiago when it rains, I walk to the metro (which is about 10-15 minutes) with my umbrella in hand. No longer in Portland, I am allowed this one luxury item, which unfortunately doesn’t keep me dry, but it helps. I wait for the bus (in the rain) and here is the kicker, I pray that the bus won’t drive into the large puddle that has formed from the torrential downpour and splash me, because unlike Portland, I do not have a dryer and when my clothes get wet, I have to wait at least a day or two for them to dry.

Plus, when it rains here in Santiago, it is cold. It is a cold that chills your down to your bones and unlike Portland (once again, I think this is a recurring theme) we do not have central heat. How am I supposed to warm up in a house that is as cold inside as out? It is impossible!

It pains me to say that Santiago’s rain have gotten the best of me. I am not one to admit defeat, but I give up. When it rains here, I head for the one place that is guaranteed to be dry and warm, my bed.

No comments: