by Wesley
Home >> The Dominican Republic: if you visit in the winter, you won't want to come home
I am a northerner, through and through. My childhood winters reached lows of -30º. Now I shudder when I see anything below about 12º (Celsius!). I only need cold once a year: December. The rest is totally unnecessary. The older I get, the more I hate the cold. I used to think four distinct seasons were ideal. I am beginning to think I was wrong. I suppose spring is OK in May and autumn is OK in September and, as I said, winter is OK in December, but that’s enough. I don’t need October, November, January, February, March, and April.
So anyway, I went to the Dominican Republic for a week. I got all the rest I needed, I got all the sun I needed, and I got all the food I needed. I recommend a mid-winter tropical trip to anyone. Sure, the homecoming is hard, but I think it’s worth it. The winter gets us down; it gets me down. It’s cold, it’s dark, it’s boring, and after Christmas, offers basically nothing but Carnival, which I am not a fan of. The first three months of the year are the purgatory that lead up to the glory of Easter vacation.
I also think we need all kinds of vacation throughout the year, not just the run-around, sight-seeing, museum-hopping type and certainly not just the lazy on-the-beach-all-day type. We need both. So many times I have gone on vacation only to come home more exhausted than when I left (though true, it is a different kind of exhaustion). And more than physical rest, we need psychological rest, a time not to think about anything. The Dominican Republic was perfect for this. The only stress I encountered was in choosing what to have for breakfast or trying to find an unoccupied deckchair near the pool. We went out to see a little of the country but mostly just enjoyed ourselves.
Cultural observations? These people don’t stop dancing!
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Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2008-02-07 11:00:00 +0100
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I moved to Madrid four years ago and I have to say that I don’t miss the rain too much. What a good idea to substitute the horizontal Basque rain for a warm pool by a cocktail bar!
I HATE being cold. I don’t care if it’s in my house or outside in a blustering wind, I don’t like to be too cold, or too hot for that matter. When I complain about being cold people ALWAYS say something like “But you’re from Canada! You can’t be cold. It’s much colder in Canada!”
I’d like to take this opportunity to set things straight. First, Canada is not all snowmen and igloos. Second, just because I’m from Canada does not mean I am resistant to cold, or that somehow I am permanently acclimatized to the temperature of my home land. I don’t like the cold – here, in Canada, in the North Pole (brrrrrrr), it doesn’t matter; cold is cold. And finally, although I grew up in Calgary, Alberta (one province to the east of British Columbia), where it can get very, very cold, my home city is Vancouver on the West Coast. Vancouver’s weather is almost identical to San Sebastian’s! It’s hot hot in the summer and rain rain in the winter.
So, if you see me shivering, please pass me a blanket!!
My dad always gets maladies the weeks before we go on vacation. That is, when he has a malady, it’s time for a vacation. One time it was severe backache. Another time it was rashes on his hands. Yet another time it was a wart on his arm. Then we go on vacation and the malady disappears overnight, literally overnight.
I HATE being hot. I don’t care if it’s in my house or outside under a stifling sun, I don’t like to be too hot, or too cold for that matter. When I complain about being hot people ALWAYS say something like “But you’re from the Philippines! You can’t be hot. It’s much hotter in the Philippines!”
I’d like to take this opportunity to set things straight. First, the Philippine Republic is not all coconut trees and nipa huts. Second, just because I’m from the Republic of the Philippines does not mean I am resistant to heat, or that somehow I am permanently acclimatized to the temperature of my home land. I don’t like heat – here, in the Philippines, in the sauna (ughhhhh), it doesn’t matter; hot is hot. And finally, although I grew up partly in Manila, in the Tagalog region and west of the province of Rizal, where like elsewhere in the country it can get very, very hot, I also partly grew up in four-season places.
So, if you see me sweating, please pass me a paypay!!
I like being hot, but not when it is artificially produced (i.e., hot, dry, dirty air being blown at my face). I am usually hot, especially at home. When I get hot, I turn red.
And indeed, being born in X_ climate does not mean we like it or are used to it. I know lots of Basques who do not like rain at all. And about the coldness one might find in Iowa or Canada: yes, it’s cold in the winter but never when you are _in your house, something I can’t say is true here!
Vacation is the cure for everything.
This Global Warming is kinda cool, because it means that we’re getting summer weather now. In February!! Do you reckon it will snow in August? Will the Bahía de la Concha reach our office? Will San Sebastián disappear? I need a holiday.
Hi everybody!
For me, BEACH, from Cadiz if it’s possible, relaxing, take a bath in the larges, white beaches, I like to take for a walk and to feel the sand in your feet. The holidays in my childhood were always in the beach with my parents and my brother and I continue in the same way. I like the sea more than the mountain.
True to being a Libra, I don’t like very cold weather nor very hot weather. If my face is sweating, it’s too hot. If I need to wear a coat, it’s too cold. So anything between 10 and 30 degrees Celsius is fine for me.
I probably won’t have vacation again till August. I plan to visit Ayers Rock, which, changing the subject a bit, is a sacred place for many Aborigines. Today is Sorry Day in Australia (see Joe’s comment in the previous Weekly Letter). A joyous day indeed!
I have never ever ever been too hot anywhere or anytime in my life, and this includes a few gorgeous days oneJune in Death Valley. Air conditioning sucks. Global warming is, unfortunately, a lot of hot air not backed up by science. I wish it were true.
On the other hand, if anyone wanted to get serious about possible causes of global warming, he should look into the gasses expended by politicians (look at Spain and the USA and the Philippines currently); and do not forget the millions of cubic feet of cigarette smoke expelled into our poor atmosphere every day all over the world (look especially at Spain, the ashtray of Europe).
Well, I hope I hav e now offended everyone, and can sign off. Abrazos a todos.