Thursday, December 09, 2004

Climate shock

I knew that moving to France meant I would have to endure harder winters than I'd ever experienced before. I even knew that I was moving farther north than most people think: if you look on a world map, South Carolina is actually on a closer longitude to northern Africa, while France is on the same longitude as Canada.

What I didn't expect, however, was that it is so freakin' dry here. At least, compared to the very humid Southern U.S. So the dryness in addition to the cold is really wrecking havoc with my body. Here's some examples:

(Warning: if you're squimish about bodily gooeyness, please skip this post and good read about my shoe adventure.)

  • The skin on my left elbow is perpetually dry. If I forget to put lotion on it, I am reminded by the pain when I lean on said elbow. My right elbow is just fine.
  • I have always had waxy inner ears, and now they are crusty and liquidy. At the same time.
  • My nose is also constantly crusty and runny all the time.
  • My hair, after finally finding it's natural happy state in SC, is now mightily confused.

In addition to this new excitement, I am always cold in the apartment. We have a radiator in the bedroom which is always on and is supplied by the proprietors of the building and included in the rent. The rest of the place is heated by electricity. Because we never sit in the front room unless we have guests, we never turn on the heat. Which is normally fine; the stove heats up the kitchen, a hot bath heats up the bathroom, etc.

But right now, the radiator is not quite as hot as I'd like. I'm sitting right next to it, clutching it for warmth. Yeah, clutching it. I shouldn't be able to do that, should I? Steph is calling me "Grandma" because I've added a wool blanket to the bed and I'm constantly wearing the ginormous wool socks around the house.

The thing that's really bothering me is that Steph tells me it gets a lot colder than this in January and February.

Woo, can't wait! *faint*

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