It is 6:15am. I have just completed my morning walk and must sit directly under the fan (which is set on high) for at least 15 minutes to cool off. To put things in perspective, I am a 50 year-old woman with a 30-year history of sitting at a desk most hours of the day, and not taken to vigorous workouts...or workouts of any kind, if truth be told.
So, my morning workout consists of a hearty walk - 3 times - around the campus, combined with jogging up three flights of steps four times. Divulging the sore state of my physical being, however, was not my purpose.
It was, rather, to ponder the capacity of the human body to adapt...
My question, then,
Is is possible for a body forged in the ice caves of northern Europe to acclimate to the wet heat of the tropics? If so, how long would it take? And if said person carefully and systematically exposed herself to the climate of this tropical land and avoided the artificial, albeit comforting, climes of air-conditioned rooms, would this transformation occur more quickly?....like say in time for the summer months?
They say spring is short here. Summer will bring with it temperatures averaging 95-100 F and equally high humidity. We are in spring and I am already developing coping strategies to avoid looking like the sparkling, wet tomato of HCMA. And, to add to the already humorous situation, my 50-year old body is going through its own changes, unbidden by me. At the slightest increase in temperature, it will flash hot as an oven So, as if in league, the heat and humidity of this fair land and my body join to challenge my ingenuity and my sense of humor.
And I wonder...maybe I can be trend setter. The new look of middle-aged women in Asia... red, glistening faces and really huge portable fans!
So, my morning workout consists of a hearty walk - 3 times - around the campus, combined with jogging up three flights of steps four times. Divulging the sore state of my physical being, however, was not my purpose.
It was, rather, to ponder the capacity of the human body to adapt...
My question, then,
Is is possible for a body forged in the ice caves of northern Europe to acclimate to the wet heat of the tropics? If so, how long would it take? And if said person carefully and systematically exposed herself to the climate of this tropical land and avoided the artificial, albeit comforting, climes of air-conditioned rooms, would this transformation occur more quickly?....like say in time for the summer months?
They say spring is short here. Summer will bring with it temperatures averaging 95-100 F and equally high humidity. We are in spring and I am already developing coping strategies to avoid looking like the sparkling, wet tomato of HCMA. And, to add to the already humorous situation, my 50-year old body is going through its own changes, unbidden by me. At the slightest increase in temperature, it will flash hot as an oven So, as if in league, the heat and humidity of this fair land and my body join to challenge my ingenuity and my sense of humor.
And I wonder...maybe I can be trend setter. The new look of middle-aged women in Asia... red, glistening faces and really huge portable fans!
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