"Hateful Heat" - Hot Makes Hardship
When it's hot, we tend to feel more miserable.
Since time immemorial anywhere in society, anger was artistically represented by looking more heated than other people. (I'd say "hotter than other people" but let's not misconstrue meanings here.)
Also, arguments may be "heated" arguments, and anything to do with heat may have something to do with feeling frustration, upset, and anything negative, frazzling, and harrowing.
We feel even worse when it's also humid. At least when it's hot and dry out, our sweat evaporates, but we feel soaked when it can't, and you know how we feel about getting soaked in sweat. Thanks to all these physical discomforts, our dispositions become more coarse as the climate heats up.
"Friendly Freeze" - We're Friendly When Frigid
On the other end of the spectrum, if it's frigid, we feel a different kind of misery altogether. That misery feels more "pleasant" than the hot kind. We care more about bundling up and staying close to a heat source, and will be friendlier to each other.
The reason for being friendlier to each other is mostly not consciously thought of. Our instincts tell us to be as amicable as we can, because being friendly symbolizes the feeling of "warmth."
Moreover, we hope (subconsciously, most of the time) to earn the favor of letting each other huddle together to warm ourselves up. We want the other person to warm us up by sharing his/her body heat so we become as friendly as possible in order to earn it. These reasons are usually in our subconscious; we'll just do it without thinking about it.
To any of you who are used to colder climates, you notice this, too?
Do you also notice how some people (and/or yourselves) are more personable in the winter, but less approachable in the summer?
My climate now
Nagasaki, on the latitude shared with Dallas, TX, has a hot & humid climate right now. I've not been to Dallas (since I was little, I think?) but I've been to Savannah, GA and it has a similar latitude; it was also hot & humid. I remember how I felt.
It would have been nice had I known about this earlier and chosen a different foreign college. But then again, the most northern Japanese university that has an exchange program with K-State is Toyo University in central TOKYO. I couldn't handle such a huge city; too expensive and easy to get lost. I wouldn't have minded a university in Hakodate, Sapporo, or elsewhere on Hokkaido or the northern quarter of Honshu. Too bad K-State doesn't send anyone there.
From today, I only have 24 days until the last day of class here, and 25 days until I board a ferry to Korea. (Or is it 26? I might leave Nagasaki on the 2nd if I decide to tour around the rest of town on the 1st. But I'm likely to leave on the 1st.) So that's 25-26 more days of putting up with that excess heat & humidity.
...And my climate later
When I study abroad in Seoul at least a year from now, it will be a more pleasant climate because it's quite a bit north, and shares the same latitude with Fukushima prefecture and Wichita! (No way! It's so cool for Seoul to share the same latitude with Wichita!) I was in Seoul 10 years ago, and I remember the climate. Quite pleasant and elating, for the most part!
(You might wonder why I bashed living in Tokyo but not Seoul - cheaper living and the language is easier, so it's easier to learn to get around. I could take a taxi to anywhere in town without feeling a tear in my wallet.)
The prospects for the future look bright for now, so I'll end the note on a positive, well, note. Now there's something uplifting to think about! :^)
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