Noise, Stench, Pollen, and Sunshine

I just opened my windows. The other day I didn’t even wear a coat to class and I only left on one layer of long underwear. (In that regard, I have become irrevocably Chinese and can’t imagine taking off my long underwear before it is positively causing me to sweat. Besides, I can get cold when it’s 80 degrees outside.) Even my students, besides the determined few down-coat wearers, are have conceeded to wearing mere jackets and sweaters.

I opened my windows and a nice warm breeze is blowing in. The noise of hundreds of voices is also blowing in, as swarms and swarms of students traipse under my window. For the past ten or fifteen minutes, an endless stream of art students have been making their way through campus. There must have been thousands of them, carting their large portfolios and toolbox-like supply kits. I guess they are hosting some sort of a test or performance or workshop or something this weekend. Colored flags decorate the front of the main building – a sure sign that something’s up.

I can’t open the back windows as the smell from Stinky River is unbearable. I have taken up all but sprinting the last block toward my apartment so I can avoid breathing as much as possible. We discovered why they dammed up the river, though. Past the dam, they are putting in some kind of pipes, so they needed the edges dried up for working. Dozens of blue-uniformed men have been sloshing around digging ditches along muddy edges of the river. Dozens of concrete pipes are lined up along the sidewalk ready to be installed. Piles of brick have started appearing on the walk from the apartments to the classroom building. I’m not sure what the brick is for. Still, I love it when things make sense: they dammed up Stinky River so they could do work further down the river, putting in pipes for…some reason or another. So logical.

The warm breeze is apparently also bringing in all kinds of allergens and pollutants. My eyes have been hurting a lot the past few days, and now that my head and throat are also bothering me, I’m thinking it must be allergies. The smelly, polleny days of Springtime have arrived. The sun is shining--did I mention the sun? The sky is still hazy, but the sun makes me so happy. Blossoms and leaves are appearing on the trees. I wake up to hear birds singing. Yep, we even have birds. The stores are restocking ice cream, and any time now the students will pack up their boots and start bringing out their scandalous skirts. Ahh, Spring.