Umbrellas

I never really appreciated umbrellas before moving to Gwangju.

I believe there are two reasons for this. For one, while it of course does rain in Missouri, rain is by no means a common event – a couple of days a month, perhaps. Why have an item that I’ll use only a few times per year? Second, and more importantly, at home, I had a car.

It’s amazing how much of a difference being a pedestrian makes. If it’s raining hard, and you’re driving somewhere, well, no matter. You’ll get a little wet on the walk to your car, and a little wet on the walk to your destination, but it’s hardly anything worth bothering about. A couple seconds of mild discomfort? Bah! I kept an umbrella in the car for the worst cases*, but otherwise I had no appreciation for the largely-useless contraptions.

As a pedestrian, though, they’re wonderful. No longer do I have the luxury of a roof over my head as I travel – now the walk to work (which is nothing at all to complain about – just 20 minutes, one mile through the city) is weather-dependent.

And it weathers a lot here. I arrived during Gwangju’s rainy season. Every morning, humid air rolls in from the East China Sea and flows down into Gwangju’s bowl. The mountains around contain the clouds, and they build up, and soon enough it’s steadily drizzling. The clear fall days where I can see the mountains are rare (and precious).

It’s been drizzling steadily here for the last 48 hours or so. I am so, so thankful for my umbrella. I’m sorry for every bad thing I ever said about you.

Sometimes you just have to travel a bit to get perspective on things closer to home.

*Once, a year ago, Lona and I went to First Fridays at the Science Center for Harry Potter trivia.** I met her for dinner after work first, and it was – pardon the cliche – raining cats and dogs. It was as if God had decided that humanity was a wicked creation and resolved to purge the Earth of its corruption, and people really ought to look into what that fellow Noah had been up to the last couple of weeks. More water in the atmosphere than air, that kind of thing. I was grateful for my car umbrella that night.

** We got our butts kicked. I know way less about Harry Potter than I thought I did.