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Culture Clash: Earth, Air and Storms.
It's storming here beautifully. I was sleeping and the crash of thunder woke up me, dragged me out of bed to press my nose against the window mesh. I've got both windows thrown open to their utmost and I'm waiting, waiting, waiting for night to fall so that I can see the lightning crash against a dark sky instead of the pale yellow-grey that the sky is now.
It makes me miss Sri Lanka. No country has storms like Sri Lanka does, especially during the monsoon season.
It's cold here in Wellesley, but the storm makes me want to put on a reddha (basically a piece of cloth wrapped around your body, kind of like a tube dress but casual and made of cotton) and dance under the rain.
You can do that in Sri Lanka. I did that at my grandmother's house for the first time. My mother and I both wore reddhas -- it wouldn't have been as much fun in a t-shirt and shorts -- and went out into the garden. The dirt is red in Sri Lanka. It's not brown like Vienna or Wellesley but red, like cinnamon powdered into the earth itself. When the rain came, it made the mud terracotta red-brown as well and I stomped my feet against the ground and watched it splash up and cling to my ankles.
I whirled in circles under the rain. Again and again and again and I remember how the rain felt. I was only seven, but I remember the sheer joy of being out there in a storm and being warm and drenched and laughing. My mother danced with me and my grandmother watched.
Then the jugguru-jugguru driver came and my mother ran shrieking inside the house, embarrassed to be seen in a garment that clung to her so. I stayed outside and talked to the driver because I love riding in jugguru-jugguru's. My mother hates them but every trip to Sri Lanka, I insist on being allowed to ride in them at least once. There's no air conditioning, the roadside dirt can hit you so easily, the drivers take crazy risks and my mother once saw one get hit by a van and bowled completely over but... They're part of what makes Sri Lanka Sri Lanka to me. That, and the way that the air smells different to Boston and Vienna.
Boston and Vienna both smell the same unless you head down to the seaside in Boston. Sri Lanka's different. It's hot, it's humid and people burn fires in their backyards. Or front yards. The smoke fills the air and the cows and cats and dogs wander the streets freely. Whenever I step out of the airport, one of the first things that hits me about Sri Lanka -- after the heat -- is the smell. My nose adjusts quickly and I forget it within a few hours but the first physical shock of the air being different is one of those things that makes me know I'm in Sri Lanka now.
There are a lot of things that drive me crazy about Sri Lanka but the air smells different, the dirt is red and you can dance in the rain.
It makes me miss Sri Lanka. No country has storms like Sri Lanka does, especially during the monsoon season.
It's cold here in Wellesley, but the storm makes me want to put on a reddha (basically a piece of cloth wrapped around your body, kind of like a tube dress but casual and made of cotton) and dance under the rain.
You can do that in Sri Lanka. I did that at my grandmother's house for the first time. My mother and I both wore reddhas -- it wouldn't have been as much fun in a t-shirt and shorts -- and went out into the garden. The dirt is red in Sri Lanka. It's not brown like Vienna or Wellesley but red, like cinnamon powdered into the earth itself. When the rain came, it made the mud terracotta red-brown as well and I stomped my feet against the ground and watched it splash up and cling to my ankles.
I whirled in circles under the rain. Again and again and again and I remember how the rain felt. I was only seven, but I remember the sheer joy of being out there in a storm and being warm and drenched and laughing. My mother danced with me and my grandmother watched.
Then the jugguru-jugguru driver came and my mother ran shrieking inside the house, embarrassed to be seen in a garment that clung to her so. I stayed outside and talked to the driver because I love riding in jugguru-jugguru's. My mother hates them but every trip to Sri Lanka, I insist on being allowed to ride in them at least once. There's no air conditioning, the roadside dirt can hit you so easily, the drivers take crazy risks and my mother once saw one get hit by a van and bowled completely over but... They're part of what makes Sri Lanka Sri Lanka to me. That, and the way that the air smells different to Boston and Vienna.
Boston and Vienna both smell the same unless you head down to the seaside in Boston. Sri Lanka's different. It's hot, it's humid and people burn fires in their backyards. Or front yards. The smoke fills the air and the cows and cats and dogs wander the streets freely. Whenever I step out of the airport, one of the first things that hits me about Sri Lanka -- after the heat -- is the smell. My nose adjusts quickly and I forget it within a few hours but the first physical shock of the air being different is one of those things that makes me know I'm in Sri Lanka now.
There are a lot of things that drive me crazy about Sri Lanka but the air smells different, the dirt is red and you can dance in the rain.
no subject
And, the way you describe your experience feels quite free... and nice. More than nice. An experience to share, though simple it may be to others.
And. Yeah.
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Hanging out with you and Neko felt utterly natural. It was easy to imagine us growing up together and me always being the one to drag you two into trouble while Neko tried to be the voice of reason and I teased you dreadfully but protected you as much as I teased you.
Utterly darling hikari-toy-pet, I love you very much. And my entry on the weekend that I'm posting on ijay keeps getting rewritten to try to explain all of everything we did. Because we did so much.
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It did, didn't it? Neko was saying the same and I said it too. Strange, but cool. Strange in the sense, but not in a bad sense, you know?
<33333 XD I was going to go into a huge entry about it, but I'm usually the one that does that I was curious to see what both you and Neko would say xD ♥
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Ahhhh. XD Neko's was short. Mine is getting into detail about buying Scope and Sprite and you being a VERY BAD BOYFRFIEND. :P
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XD That is true, there. XD And yeah... hey I just remembered another part of my dream... *goes to edit post*
XD Yeah. Mine was listed - though I should go into more but yeah. XD HEY!
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Thank you for evoking all of that in me. This entry is beautifully written.
no subject
Having the thunderstorm showed up reminded me that even if the very air here is different, the winds will bring me a taste of home. The storm will come and speak to me in the crash of thunder; I will see the skies lit up by lightning and it will be the same sky that cloaks Sri Lanka.
I don't usually write entries like this, just because they seem to be the least popular. They're too personal, I guess. Not enough people properly get what I mean. I really am glad you took the time to comment and tell me what this entry did for you.