Heating up the pool

I miss the smell of a cool morning performing the opening act for a beautiful, clear, hot day. The smell of still air and sprinklers. You can sense this type of day before you even go outside. It makes waking up, which is always a long and painful ordeal for me, a little bit cheerier and the start of my day a little bit less sluggish.

Though the weather is warming at an alarming rate here as the short Spring melts into Summer, I'm finding there is something lacking in the freshness and zest of the season here. Perhaps being landlocked, its the cool air from the sea that I'm missing. Perhaps, there being no lawn in Korea (save for the cemetery), I'm getting nostalgic for the smell of damp grass and sound of sprinklers clicking. Many will laugh at my idea of hot weather just as they laughed at my chattering teeth and concerns with frost bite back in February. Fair enough. The Bay Area isn't exactly extreme when it comes to weather. But that's just one more thing I can say I learned here: an appreciation for pleasant weather. That, and pleasant smells. Because the truth is, putting the absence of dew on the grass and fresh ocean air aside, Korea really stinks. And the heat is making it worse.

The dark window in my cave apartment is no big tease when it comes to beautiful mornings. The fact that I break a sweat just getting dressed is promise enough of a nice, hot day. But the morning air that manages to get in my screen isn't cool or fresh. And the smell that hits once I get outside is a far cry from dew drops and salt water. In Korea, the sewage brews like morning coffee. I don't know what goes on beneath those metal sewer grates that dot the streets and alley ways, but it isn't treatment. I dread July and August when the humidity will clog the air. We'll all be swimming in a steamy public park bathroom.