Cold Feet

With the onset of December, temperatures have dropped dramatically in Shanghai. Ice formed on the fountains in the complexes over the weekend, making it the coldest Saturday I can remember in Shanghai. With the fall of external temperatures comes a distinct loss of warmth in our apartment. I know I've blogged about this recently, but I can't keep my mind focused on anything beyond the warmth of my feet.

When outside, my jogging shoes allow cold breezes to shoot icily through my toes. When inside, two pairs of fuzzy socks are not enough to keep my feet from being chilled.

I attended a training for Music Together this weekend. I am not a certified teacher. For three days, I spent 10 hours in a classroom with heating no better than ours. In the morning, we'd stoke the flames and the room would be too hot within 2 hours. For the rest of the day, we left the heater off. No one else complained, but my feet were frozen within 30 minutes. I could not warm up all weekend, after spending my long days with such cold feet.

Last night, I took a hot bath. The bathroom has no heater, and so I left the heat lamp running for nearly twenty minutes before stepping into the steaming water. My toes burned with the abrupt change in temperature, such that I could hardly bear it. But I persevered, and after a long bath my feet felt the same temperature as the rest of my body.

But when I stepped out of the bathroom - warmed by heat lamps, remember - the ice immediately began seeping into my toes. As I walked across the room, I noted that my feet stayed warm while I stood on the carpet but chilled immensely when I stepped off. After wrapping myself in a warm robe and coating my feet with fuzzy socks, I leaned down to investigate. The floors in our apartment may be actively chilled. I believe water would set into cubes merely by being placed on our floor. That sucker is really cold.

After this discovery came the desire for slippers. They've been placed on my Christmas list, and I'm hopeful in Santa's abilities to provide. But until then, I've found a stock of slippers that the landlord had left for us in the bathroom. Apparently these cold floors are no surprise to anyone around here. Our ayi has slippers that she leaves at our home - she's no fool.

Now I just need to figure out how to keep my fingers warm.