Rain...

I waited and waited for a time to take my bike out. Waited and waited for my brother and his family to come home, so I could leave mum at the hospital with relative ease.

Tomorrow, I had planned to do the furthest trip I've yet to make on the bike, to Jinshan, to dad's resting place and pay homage to him before I leave.

But it began to pour today, heavily. Beginning of the rain season, which will last for over a week...

Nothing is going according to plan. All my plans are soaked...

Snowfall

Slowly, the snow fell.

Drifting, dancing, silent and smooth, free and flighty. Like white blossom petals, falling gracefully from the heavens above. Some flakes were alone, other fell and clumped together. But one sure thing was their downward journey to Earth. The lucky fell on soft layers of accumulated snow. The less fortunate fell into puddles and vanished as soon as they landed, as if they never existed.

There is a kind of magic in watching the snow fly and fall. A kind of magic that is even more enticing when you are in the midst of it all, feeling the tinkle of flakes on your cheeks, nose, eyebrows. A tinkle that suddenly melts away leaving behind an ever so subtle trace of moisture, like morning dew left behind on leaves.

The covered world seemed to shine like a smooth, soft carpet of white. Trees creeked overhead, their upstretched branches frozen solid. With the coating of ice, the trees glittered in the dim wintry sunlight. Snow crunched beneath my feet, as I shuffled and slid on the road, ever so wary of the treacherous slippery surfaces.

I stuck out my tongue and tasted the snow, like an excited boy seeing snow for the first time. In a way it was. Never before have I seen so much snow, so much white and purity all around me. With each snowfall, a certain tranquility covers the land. When excitement meets and mixes with tranquility, there is an unspoken calm that washes over me that makes me want to go outside and enjoy all that snowfall.

At least for now.

"Why does it always rain on me?"

Why does it always rain on me?
Is it because I lied when I was seventeen?
Even when the sun is shining
I cant avoid the lightning.

Cycling home tonight after a farewell dinner with friends who are leaving.
Rain...
Rain...
Rain...

In the afternoon, while I was out and about at the big funfair, it was just a light drizzle, nothing to be worried about, and actually one of my favourite kind of weather. I love that feeling when little rain drops hang on your eye lashes, and your world becomes a little blurry. I love that feel when the little rain falls and clings to your forehead and cheeks.

But tonight was just pouring, pouring, pouring with rain. And cycling makes it seem so much worse, not just because you drove into puddles in the road, but because cars splash all over you at high speeds! My jacket, trousers, shoes and socks were completely wet. And my woolen scarf, yes scarf I'm using at the end of July, was just soaked...

I cycled as quickly as I could to get home, but it seemed at every stoplight I had to stop. So got even more wet from waiting. And even wetter from cars passing by. Then, I realised... why am I hurrying? It's not as if the quicker I get home, the quicker I'm going to dry! Why not enjoy the rain?

And so I did.

I let the rain soak my clothes even more than it already it, let my shoes become completed drenched in water, let my jeans soak so much it was heavy and stuck to my skin.

Rain... rain... let it fall!

Storm II

Hundreds of kilometers of traffic jams at 4pm. Hours of delays and cacellations on the trains. Buildings being evacuated due to dangers of falling objects. Overflowing dikes. It's a storm, the second one in two weeks.

Been in bed most of the day, still recovering from the cold and nasty dry cough. It's the kind of cough when you cough it hurts, but however many times you cough there still seems to be phlegm stuck uncomfortably in your throat. It's really been a long time since I was so sick. Thanks to another argument in the morning, I managed to wake up early and go to the supermarket to get some groceries and the 'essential ingredients' for my cure against colds and coughs. Not sure where I learned this, but orange juice, fresh ginger slices and honey, simmered for around half an hour till that fruity, gingery, honey-y smell is fills the air, can do wonders. Not just the fragrance, but the drink too.

Listening to the radio you'd think it's the end of the world. Constant updates of the latest incident from all over the country, and people calling in to share what dramatic experiences they've just gone through. It's a force 10 storm, and the most violent in five years, and already causing plenty of damage. A construction crane fell on a school building earlier today, and for the first time ever the meteological the Ministry of Transport issued a 'weather warning', calling people to stay home.

Maybe where I am it's not that bad (yet), and for some reason the sky is clearing up, or at least for now. I've been through worse storms than this (even worse than Katrina), but still hearing and seeing what the forces of nature can do and damage is always awing.

Getting colder...

Finally it's the kind of weather in which whenever you breathe out little clouds of white appear.
It's my favourite kind of weather...something about the dry air makes it all the more refreshing.

After two days of stormy weather, the streets are full of colourful fallen leaves and broken twigs. And today it's what we call here 'wisselvallig' [variable, everchanging] weather. It looks sunny, but look further there are dense grey clouds looming. The sky may be blue one moment, the next it'll be completely clouded over. Rain comes and goes like a random flow of people at the station. And it leaves me sitting in the big empty library shivering.

There are moments of utter stillness, to be interupted suddenly by bombardments of hard drops of rain and hail. The fact that a large part of the roof of law faculty is made out of transparent glass makes it especially enjoyable to look at. Little streams of water, droplets of dew, splashes of rain are a nice are a relaxing change from hard realities of international law on the use of force.

Almost one week has gone by after the mid-term break. The usual routine of classes and studying started again. I had a confidence boost today when I heard that I actually got a 9 (out of 10) for my mid-term exam. Really wasn't expecting it, since when I wrote that exam I really felt I had to 'bluff' my way through. I sort of wrote about anything and everything I know about a given topic, and far exceeded the recommended 100 word we should have used to answer each question. Well, I'm happy.

Besides that, I'm still volunteering one day a week at the moot court organising office. That's really getting busier now, since we're trying to get universities to enter into the competition. And that's just half the work...there's also the problem of trying to get sponsors, finding locations for dinners and a party, finding a caterer, booking hotel rooms for around 200 people. Good that we've got four people sharing the burden. Once the teams have been finalised, and as we get closer to the big event in April, it'll get easier busier...

On the whole, I'm not sure what I'm feeling at the moment... but life has sort of entered into this routine of study and work, work and study and the weeks seem to be passing by so quickly, while at the same time.... so emptily as well. I guess I'm feeling a little lonely again, you know, after a few weeks of the initial excitement of making new friends and socialising, you realise there's only so much you can talk about and only so deep you can go with people.

And when the weather gets colder, you want to get closer.

Late summer's rain

Though the leaves are green, they are yellowing. Just a little bit, on the corners.

I stood under a chestnut tree today, trying to escape from the rain. For many days in a row already we've been having sudden freak showers to be followed by sunshine and clear skies. Just as I was cycling home from the station, it started to drizzle. I thought I could just bear the rain, but then within minutes it poured, poured, poured! Water drops splashed on the road, like peas, disspating in all directions as they bombed the tarmac road and cycle path. I had to find shelter, and I sought it under the arms of a chestnut tree.

For a while the tree was enough to protect me from becoming wet. But only for a while. Soon enough it started to rain even harder, rain to the degree it was reminiscent of horrendous typhoons I experienced last summer. In a scenario reminiscnet of that one chapter in "Loving you, loving me".

And mixed with the falling rain were pea-sized chuncks of hail. They broke through the leafy shield and struck, bombarding my coat, jeans and cheeks. I was soaked, completely soaked like I had fallen in a pond. Water ran down my eyes till all I could see were blurs. My hair plastered to my forehead, and I could just feel the papers and book I had just bought for my studies in my bag go soggy.

And then it cleared. And the sun came out, surrounded by beautiful pure white clouds. Like it never rained.

Still dripping, I cycled home.