April is here!

April and Spring are here! I don't really feel like it's spring because it feels like summer 24/7 here in Thailand. The daily +30 degrees and the almost +40 degrees that have been cherishing (torturing) us nowadays (& will continue for the next weeks) have only increased that feeling. One thing I like in Finland is the 4 seasons we have although I don't mind living somewhere that doesn't have them. For me it's quite hard to choose the best season because I like something in all of them. Summer is nice with its sunshine, green nature, warmth (if we're lucky in Finland) and well it's SUMMER so of course it's awesome. But it also brings out bugs, sometimes too much warmth (yes this has happened in Finland) and well I think that's pretty much all that is negative about summer...In autumn I love how the leaves turn color and the nature looks nice and although I need to abandon my summer clothes once again, I like that I can start using my autumn/winter clothes and shoes. But I really hate the weather most of the time! It's dark, muddy, rainy, dirty, depressing...you get the point right? The more near winter comes, the worse the weather gets during autumn. When we don't have snow during winter, I hate those same things. It's really dark, dirty, cold and depressing. But if we do have snow, I really like winter. Snow makes everything better! Then it's not so dark which is a huge plus and there are several activities you can do which are not possible without snow. Snow makes the trees, bushes etc look amazing but it doesn't really ease my mind when I'm walking outside in the -30 degrees with a freezing wind and feeling that I don't have any clothes on even though I'm wearing almost everything I own. I just keep thinking it's going to be spring soon... In spring I love the feeling when I go outside in the sunshine and it feels WARM. I know there's not that much + degrees but after winter it starts to feel warm easily and soon. Sometimes it takes more time to get warm but in the mean time I ease my mind by watching how fast flowers and tree leaves start to grow. But in the beginning spring looks quite depressing and the weather can be really bad. Rain, rain and sometimes even snow even though winter should be gone already. Luckily time flies fast and suddenly it's already summer so everything is good and everyone's happy again. 

My friend sent this last weekend. It's from my hometown and it does look depressing doesn't it?
But she was happy that finally it was warm and the road was not wet anymore
so it was a good day to go running :)
During my time here I haven't really been missing seasons in Finland because I was happy to miss last fall and winter's weather (too cold and dark) and be here surrounded by warmth and sunshine. It was better here even during my exchange when it was rainy season in Thailand and it sometimes rained sooooo hard but it didn't disturb my plans and goings many times. Sometimes I just felt like my visits to the grocery store with my friend were cursed because a few times we had to wait until we go outside and get a taxi to the store and once we came from the store with a tuktuk and it was pooring rain so we (+ our bags) got a little bit wet. It really felt like a curse because we were going somewhere almost everyday but only when we were supposed to go to the store, we had problems with the rain. Back then I didn't feel like laughing but now that I think about those very annoying rainy moments, I can't help but laugh. Why do I feel like I'll get wet some day soon because it starts to rain out of nowhere...maybe I shouldn't laugh at those rain moments from last fall. 

About getting wet...During next week there's a high possibility to get wet just by walking in the street thanks to Songkran which is the New Year's festival in Thailand. To be honest I don't really like Songkran because one of the traditions is to throw water at people and have water fights. I know it can be really refreshing during the day when it's really hot but I don't like that I need to protect my phone etc with plastic bags and just pray I won't get my clothes wet and have to be with wet clothes all day everywhere. It would be okay if I go somewhere just to get wet and have fun but other times I really hope no one with a bucket of water sees me. In addition especially this year I'm really against that water throwing tradition because Thailand has a serious water problem which is harming the rice plantations and therefore many people's income etc. The government almost cancelled the whole festival (which was a good idea if you ask me) but they just reduced the amount of days it's going to be celebrated and there are some restrictions with the water and they have encouraged people all around the country to use smaller "buckets" to throw the water so more water would be saved. I know Songkran is a really important holiday for Thai people but I really hope everyone would consider the water situation and not waste so much water. Unfortunately there's one more really negative side about this holiday. Most of the car/motorcycle accidents happen during Songkran and it has been a really high number of deaths and injuries in previous years. I once saw a video where they followed one volunteer rescue group in Bangkok during Songkran so 3 days and it was horrible. The whole group said that they're really crazy 3 days and even though many things have been done to prevent people from driving under the influence, still a large number of people do it and cause accidents. During the video it was also told how many accidents happened, how many of them were car or motorcycle accidents and how many died or got injured during the few previous years. They also told which were the causes, it's not hard to guess which cause "won". Hopefully this year those numbers will be smaller but I doubt it. 

Due to my opinion on Songkran, I decided I would escape to Vietnam but that plan changed. I'm actually going to be in Bangkok for almost a week starting tomorrow evening and next Thursday I will travel to Chiang Mai, which is in the North of Thailand, with my friend. We'll spend a couple of days there and then come back. After a lot of thinking and surprising comment from my mum, I thought it would be more fun to go somewhere with a friend than traveling to a new country alone again. I'm happy to spend time in Bangkok because I really like that place but I'm a bit worried about Tuesday and Wednesday because the Songkran celebrations start on Tuesday and last until Thursday. I'm either going to use only skytrain and go hide in a shopping mall during daytime OR I'm going to hoard food and hide in my hotel room the 2 whole days. But I got a feeling my friend will drag me somewhere from the hotel so I can't avoid being outside the whole time. Despite not fully liking Songkran, I'll try to enjoy my time as much as possible because it's a holiday after all. At least I'm excited to go to Chiang Mai with a friend.

Happy Songkran everyone! 


xoxo, Elina

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