Friday, August 04, 2006

Crazy from the heat

Well it's about a quadrillion degrees here in sunny S Korea. On the upside, the monsoon season is over after a two week extension, for maximum loss of life (fortunately, no one I know). You know, I always say it's just like home (Louisiana), but the difference is at home we live an air-conditioned life. You know what I mean: roll out the air-conned door into the air-conned car and drive to another air-conned location. Repeat as necessary throughout the spring/ summer/ fall. Here in the Land of the Morning Calm (LotMC), no such luck. It's a walk to the subway followed by a walk from the subway and if you run your AC all night, the electric company sends someone to your house to see what the problem with the meter is. Then they charge you double as an "incentive" to reduce usage. Fortunately, having grown up in a "frugal" (poor) home with quadrillion degree summers (March to October, roughly), this hasn't happened to me. So I can sit back and laugh at my coworkers from northern climes. Since laughter is the best medicine, of course. That and when the mercury actually busts out the top of the thermometer, it's nice to know someone is more uncomfortable than you. Or is that just me?

In other news (if the previous qualifies as news, then the following will as well), things are getting better with the new co-worker. She's still venting rather much for someone in their first fortnight (aka the honeymoon), but she seems to be settling in to the rhythm. In her defense, starting with a vacation semester is kind of trial by fire. The work level is about ten times more than usual (no hyperbole here, really), so it basically sucks monkey butt for five weeks. I can only hope she isn't permanently jaded by the end of the five weeks.

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