>A New Meaning to High Humidity

>High humidity is nothing new to me. I lived in southern Louisiana at one point and used to say that it was 1000% humidity there. And growing up in the Midwest U.S. we would say that on those incredibly hot, humid days of mid summer, we could hear the corn grow.

But high humidity came to mean something new to us this past week. In Hong Kong we went from being in the upper forties Fahrenheit to around eighty. Eighty is not so bad except for the humidity. Here is what we found:

We can watch the mold grow in front of us in the shower. I now understand why the little cleaning ladies are using soft scrub on the walls of the walking tunnel that goes under the street between the university and the mall, and constantly washing.

You can see bugs sweat. They would rather not exert themselves unless you move the damp clothes and expose them.

You have a choice when doing the wash. You can use the electric drier and bring more heat into the apartment. Or you hang the wash around the apartment, but it won't EVER dry. On one of the first humid days, dehumidifiers showed up in the grocery store, labeled as "dry baby" machines.

I have a confession. Until I understood what was going on, I kept asking Karis why she was spilling water on the floor in the kitchen! In the morning when I went to the kitchen there were pools of water on the floor. OK--I finally got it when I went outside and found all the tile steps wet. It is so humid that at night when the temperature drops "1" degree, all the moisture comes out of the air and condenses on the cool tile. Signs telling of slippery steps and walks arise out of nowhere.

This round did not last long, but it is a warning of what is to come. In the meantime we are experimenting with strategies to keep things cool and deal with the laundry until air conditioning season comes. We put the fan in front of clothes that are hangers, hanging from the ironing board. We sit on the other end of the clothes. The air is cooled as the moisture evaporates out of the clothes.

I think June in Michigan sounds VERY GOOD.