The sky is still blue!

Well, whatayaknow! The sky is in fact still blue! Brasil really just has two seasons: rainy season and dry season. And let me tell you, rainy season is upon us! This is the most blue sky that I've seen in over a week, and it has rained most of the day for everyday the past 2+ weeks. (Today included, it just decided to stop for about 30 minutes and a little blue peeked out from behind the clouds.)
.
I think the thing I love most about weather is people's reaction to it. For example, data shows that December through February are very wet months in Belo Horizonte. When we returned back from the US the first of January it wasn't raining that much and everyone told us how strange it was to be so dry. Now, for the last couple weeks it has rained everyday and everyone is saying how odd this is. Seriously, can it be that weird that it is raining? I've seen the charts.(It really reminds me of people living in places with cold winters. During the days or weeks when it gets the coldest everyone says "wow, this is one of the coldest winters I can remember!" But then, once it warms up in spring, everyone changes their tune to "well that was a really mild winter!") I think we as humans just have this mental block that allows us to forget the nasty weather so that really deplorable parts of the world (you know, mostly those places that get way too cold, yes, like Iowa haha) are still inhabited.
.

So even though we don't get winters down here in paradise, our summers are not always the most pleasant either. All the cloudy, rainy, dreary days don't exactly leave you peppy! In fact yesterday I saw a guy across the street go walking out on his balcony and lean over the edge. I felt this urge to run over, throw open my window, and yell, "Don't do it!!!" As it turns out, he was just looking around, but you never can tell on days like these! ;)

.

I started writing this to advise people against visiting this time of year. But then I remembered the forecast I saw yesterday for Iowa: something along the lines of actual lows around -10 (yes, Fahrenheit!!!) with wind chills down to -30 or -40.

.

Hmmm, come to think of it, this rain ain't so bad.