Asian Puddles

Rain and clouds are all the rage in Xi’an. Must be sumthin in the water. In my first seven weeks here, I’ve been trudging under gray skies and through my fair share of puddles.

While putting one foot in front of the other around campus and downtown, I’ve had to look to the ground more often to avoid wet shoes, wet socks, and, what it all comes down to, wet feet. It’s this view where I’ve found the equal and opposite world that appears below us after a good (or bad) rain. With the help of Chinese drainage, water sticks around because subtle peaks and valleys along sidewalks and streets pool water in the most inconvenient places.

These inconvenient places include inside my Xinxiang, Henan apartment last year. With any good (or bad) rain, my leaky windows invited the water inside to gather. Both my kitchen and bathroom sat at opposite ends of the hallway, so constant mopping or frequent wading were my options. Neither was ideal.

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Rashes of gray and rainy weeks sometimes bring on feelings of ill-motivation. However, the reflections that appear at our feet provide the ultimate buddy system. We’re never alone on a puddled street, or in my case, a soaked hallway floor. Small clusters of palm trees in Singapore find themselves among a small plantation as their numbers double in the rain during the summer of 2009; one guy with one umbrella suddenly turns to two guys with two umbrellas, and they always keep the same pace; a student basketball player gets a teammate (or opponent) as he plays the morning after a rain shower.

Just an Asian phenomenon? Obviously not. But let’s be honest, “Puddles” without the “Asian” in front of it lacks the splash I need in a blog post title. In an attempt at equal playing time, I’ll give North American puddles some of my written attention now. I was in New York about 18 months ago and flew in on a rainy day. One pair of yellow New York galoshes turned into two thanks to a messy, in-the-middle-of-the-walking-path puddle.

Call to action: from my wet experience in Xi’an, puddles are here to stay. A closer look into the rippled world at our feet may just be the best way to double the fun on an otherwise average walk.

The Word Is: Puddle 水坑 [shuǐkēng]

下次见 [Xià cì jiàn]! See you later!