It is only one week until Christmas and we just can't wrap our heads around the whole "green Christmas" theme. The Christmas decorations are out everywhere we go, Christmas carols are playing and the world's largest solar powered Christmas tree (above) is set up in King George Square. One of the problems is that it is also rainy season and so the sky gets quite grey and threatening most afternoons. After more than 40 years of grey skies in December meaning cold, it is hard to start thinking that they now mean hot and humid. Someone who has been here for more than a decade told us that it took him more than 4 years to adjust. Overall if getting used to 30C in December is the hardest adjustment that we need to make for our move, we are up for it.
The work culture is different from Calgary when it comes the Christmas celebrations. Instead of getting all dressed up and taking your spouse/partner/date to a party with co-workers, we have afternoon parties with co-workers and are done by 5. It is nice to have an afternoon off to sit in the shade and watch a bunch of mildly drunk men try to play cricket, or to have a Hawaiian theme party in a place that is already tropical. We both had our parties this week and they were really fun! No stress, no worries about transportation or seating arrangements, just a casual afternoon with the office mates.
This coming week we expect the office to be fairly quiet. This coincides with school (summer) holidays, so many people start to take time off now. All of the year-end reserves have already taken place, so it is a really relaxed environment. We have the week off between Christmas and New Years and hope to make it to the beach a couple of times. Other than day trips, we are saving our more serious travel for February and March, when the temperature cools. Our hottest day so far was this week: 32C, 90% humidity followed by a massive thunder storm...at least we didn't need to to shovel the sidewalk afterwards!
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