Someone turn off the Oven!!

I just can't win. Last year (the last 4 years for that matter) I was complaining about a fogged in San Francisco July that resembled nothing close to Summer. Well looks like the Summer gods are making up for lost time in Nicole-land because DAMN!!!!!! its HOT in Shanghai! I probably sweat more in the walk from my bedroom to bathroom than I did in all 3 marathons. Yes I have AC, central AC actually, and it goes on very frequently but I am from California. We're genetically programmed to be "green" (and when I eventually meet Leonardo DiCaprio he will be captivated by my ability to stay environmentally conscious and fall in love with me and....hey, a girl can dream can't she??).

Anyway it's running a consistent 97-100 degrees the last week or so with about 70%humidity. For example: right now as I write at 10pm Accuweather is reporting a temp of 100! 100!!! At 10pm!! I have basically kissed good hair days, dry clothes, clear skin and the likes goodbye. I just made myself sound so hot! It doesn't help that I have to deal with THIS every day. It's one thing to be sticky and hot in your own space but when you have to be arm to arm with people in the same, and usually worse, condition it makes things slightly more unpleasant. I will say one thing for China, they're not a smelly bunch. Thank God. I think that purely derives from luck though b/c you can't find deodorant in abundance and most clothes are worn several days in a row. I mean there are definite "scents" but BO is not one of them. Again...thank god because I've been on the bad end of exposed armpits more times than I care to think of.

So this heat comes right when I have included a walk of about 20 looong minutes to my daily routine. That would be the walk from the metro to my new classroom at Jiaotong University. In order to maintain my visa and not have to return to the US I had to sign up for Summer school. If you're wondering if I'm at all concerned about being 26 and have to say that I am in Summer school the answer is a big fat YES...but I am encouraged by the fact that I have 2 40+ classmates in my class of 7. Although, I did grapple with a bout of discouragement when my sweet looking, 40-something, Chilean classmate leaned over during our break and said, "The American students always do the best in my classes." (Umm...have you heard of a little country called Korea, honey?!?) I responded with, "Well I hope I don't prove that wrong (wink wink, smile)." She replied with not the most jovial of faces and said, "Oh we'll see." For the next 3 hours I sat there petrified of flubbing up business Chinese as if I held the fate of American student's image around the world in my hands! The chick was watching me too, I swear! I answered a question and she leaned over again and asked how I knew that. Score one for America! Take that World! Sadly in the end, I think we ended up sub zero in the scoring due to my unwavering inability to remember characters. Sorry America...at least we have our good image in other sectors to stand on...you know like the economy, foreign policy, etc.....................................................