Friday Morning, September 2

Strange weather this morning--truly strange. There's a small zone between raining and not raining that some refer to as "misting". Well, this morning, it was definitely misting. It was bright out--the sun shone through the breaks in the clouds (which didn't even look like rain-clouds), but as I biked to school, I could feel the cool droplets of moisture, almost microscopic, alighting on my face and hands. It did not feel like the moisture was coming down from the sky as rain does, but rather as though it were simply hanging in the air waiting for unsuspecting pedestrians to pass through.

As I neared school, the droplets got bigger and, it would seem, suddenly became vulnerable to the laws of gravity once again. All at once they started to splash on me, and what was refreshing a minute before became drenching. Then, minutes later, it stopped raining, stopped misting altogether. The moisture was still there, though--invisible but definitely not undetectable: a perpetual curtain of steam so unbearable that one can't help but wonder when the fever will break.

That didn't stop me from writing a majority of this post outside in the plaza. Remember, I get my outdoors time when I can since my job is predominantly an indoor job. I moved only when the fat raindrops began to fall once again and I moved for my computer's sake more than my own.

We're on the borderline between summer and fall. The heat and the humidity will break down a little bit with every typhoon that passes through (or at least nearby). One day in the next few weeks, it won't be hot or humid at all, summer's intensity will have vanished without a trace. Leaves are also starting to fall from the trees out in the plaza. Not many, but enough to create a mile-post of sorts, heralding the rapid approach of autumn. And so, the seasons change. The school-year is now more than a week underway, today being our second Friday back. We, teachers and students alike, are finding a routine. The initial fears, nerves and excitement of the school year are subsiding and now we begin the task of gathering energy and building classroom relationship for the months ahead.