Sights of Summer

Spring lasted a glorious 8 weeks this year! The last two springs have been noticeably shorter, starting later and ending sooner. But this year it started exactly when one would wish for it. It is quite a spectacle at the campus because someone planted different flowers that would bloom in different parts of spring so there is always some splash of color throughout the season. We started with these yellow flowers (that actually start blooming at the end of winter), ornamental cherry trees and tulip trees and then moved on to lilacs. Then there were some other kind of flowers that I don't know and irises, and we ended with roses, which are still in bloom and a sure sign of summer's entrance.

Swallows dart here and there, kamikaze in their flight patterns looking almost more erratic than the bats which will appear soon. Gnats and flies and mosquitoes have returned (which I am not as delighted about). And the temperatures have risen to the 80's and 90's in the daytime (99 today) with lows in the mid 70's at night. The humidity helps keep everything feeling a lot warmer than it would otherwise, but the winds have given us clearer skies, and we've had more than a day or two of blue with white clouds (my favorite kind of day). Students have summer fever (which is really more problematic than spring fever), which the lack of air conditioning in most classrooms exacerbates. (I still have visions of the students I proctored for last year in June sitting in a 90-something degree classroom trying to take a final examination. I could barely think - I wondered how they could.)

After May holiday, or Labor Day (at the beginning of the month), students came back wearing less clothes, ready to welcome in the warmer weather. (Ironically, we had a 60 degree day with rain not long after the holiday - thankfully it was only one day, otherwise some students would have been in trouble.) Foreigners have long been wearing flip flops and shorts. I have held on to long sleeves as long as I could, though I have definitely appreciated wearing fewer layers. Soon there will be outdoor BBQs and street food vendors will stay out until midnight. And I have a month left to enjoy it all!