Woof. Last week of July, I think I can declare 2019 as a hell hot summer, and not merely a regular blazing hot Taipei summer. The only thing that mitigates this veritable blast furnace of a summer is reports from other places of incredible, assfault-melting heatwaves with temperatures that exceed the numbers here. Supposedly it's hotter in southern France as Le Tour makes its way to the Alps, with riders in the peloton literally dripping water as ice that they've stuffed down the backs of their jerseys melts. My brother confirms reports of the heatwave in the U.S. northeast ("yea, it's been a little warm") after I suggested it might be as hot as it is here (whoops, he actually called it "crazy hot", -ed.). Korean vloggers suffering in their heat also make me wonder if I'm just being a whiny li'l bitch about the heat here. That's until I see stats on Weather Underground like Taipei being "98° (feels like 114°)" (emphasis mine, but they should put them on their website). Martha Focker. France can eat its foie gras liver with its 40°+ Celsius. And we probably have at least another month of this with September bringing not a whole lotta relief.
I was kinda hoping that the 10-day forecast continually showing afternoon showers every day was just hyperbole, or obligatory for the summer in a "be prepared" sorta way, but they're quite literal this year. The past few years I've been spoiled by a lot of dry weather despite similar-looking forecasts. This year is more like the first few years after I moved here 13 years ago. I was always complaining about the rain and even kept record of how many days in a row it rained just to validate my misery. One summer when I had late afternoon class it was exactly like this. I would ride my bike to school in perfect merely blazing hot weather (pre-hell hot), but during class it would squall like we were under a waterfall, but then the sky would be clearing by the end of class with orange sunlight glistening off the asphalt and through drops falling from trees. I'm currently trying to adjust how I go about my days so that I can be home by the time the clouds change from fluffy-against-blue skies to Voldemort-approved ominous.
Ah, it all comes back to me now, that's when I discovered chocolate really helped whatever the feeling it was that came over me when it rained – tension, antsy, low-level anxiety. It was like in that Harry Potter book/movie after our hero was attacked by death-eaters(?) and a suspicious-looking adult kept giving him something saying, "eat this, it'll make you feel better". Turns out he was a new professor but you still didn't know if he could be trusted or if he was bent on bringing harm to the boy. Turns out it was just chocolate, well-known among muggles, not so much in the wizarding world. Go fig, maybe not entertaining enough as far as sweets go. But when it rains and I get that feeling, I pull out the chocolate and tell myself, "eat this, it'll make you feel better". And I swear it does.
