Whether the Weather

Whether the weather be good, Whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Whether the weather be hot, Whatever the weather, we'll weather the weather, Whether we like it or not.

And I have to say that the weather here has been unbelievably changeable in the last few days. Two days ago it was raining but it was the sort of summer rain where it stays hot even though it is raining. Yesterday was so hot that I was melting in my room and the hotel even turned on the air conditioning. But today is cold enough that I may need a sweat shirt, and tomorrow may be air conditioning weather again. Even the students have begun changing from their winter cloths into something more appropriate, though even though it was sweltering yesterday I still saw people in jackets. I'm not sure if it's just me or if the pollution is really worse this semester. I was up early enough to see a sun rise, or I should say I stayed up late enough to see one, the other day and it was by far the worst sun rise I've ever seen. It went from dark, to sickeningly grey to a lighter shade of grey until it just sort of turned white. It stayed in this white fog until probably 11 in the morning when the sun finally climbed out of the haze that surrounds everything. Seeing the sunset also is a depressing experience since the sun just sort of sinks below this line where it becomes sort of a yellow ghost that you can barley see in the sky. The pollution also more or less swallows all the colors you might normally hope to see with sunrise or sunset.

I wonder if there is a generation of urban Chinese people who have never really seen a sunrise or sunset, only the grey of morning and evening. I've heard that in some parts of China, in sections of the South especially, that it is ever worse. Honestly part of me wants to go to see just how bad it can get. Are there places in China where you can never see the sun except behind a vale of smog? Dave and Ken tell me that at one mountain they went to hiking up early to see the sun rise was a big deal. I bet it's because people basically have never really seen it. At the beginning of the post I put a tongue twister I've been using them more and more this semester to help the students practice sounds they have trouble with. Honestly if the only thing I accomplish this semester is to get the students to say "th" words better I'll be happy. There are way too many people who have studied a lot of English going around saying "Sank you very much." The one I use most is "3,333 thirsty thieves thought they thrilled the throne on Thursday." When the students concentrate they get it pretty well though I get "Sanks" a lot at the end of class.