and let me tell you, these little things about make up for everything else. these little mandarin oranges (known as "baby oranges" around our house) are the most delicious fruit i have ever tasted. i came home screaming in mid-October when i started seeing them at the market. once they were out in full force, jarred told me to buy them every time i went to the market for the next 3 months. don't look to see if we already have some. no need to put them on the list. just buy them. every time. and i do. i have my baby orange lady who sees me every monday now and usually gives me a good price. i always say i want a kilogram. surely 2.2 pounds of oranges is enough for 2 people for a week. but without fail she always gives me more than a kilogram. i think i got like 3 pounds yesterday. (this is pretty common: yesterday i handed a man the 2 bunches of spinach i wanted and he added 2 more before weighing them, and when i told the banana man i wanted 3 he gave me 5.) but anyways, as you can clearly tell, just a day later, there aren't close to 3 pounds in our fruit basket (which since october has only held our baby oranges and i have another bowl for the rest of our fruit). we are seriously obsessed. potentially addicted. and very, very happy! i, who would normally take vegetables over fruit any day, could truly live on these things alone. i mean, who can name a bad time of the day to eat a delicious orange? i dreamed about them in america last fall and i will probably cry come the end of january when the baby oranges boxes at the market begin to dwindle. oh, the fall in asia is wonderful.however, today is not fall. i am not sure when winter actually begins here, but in my book it started today. every evening i get a text message with the next day's weather report on it because with our phone contract we had to sign up for some daily text message and this seemed the most practical. i actually think this text message is an ingenious idea and think america should have it because it would save my mom a lot of time waiting for the "local on the 8's." and so every day when i get the message, my eyes usually drop straight to the temperature (i mean, it is the easiest thing to read on it). and yesterday evening, i about fell out of my seat when i read a low of 5 and a high of 9. luckily this is celsius. but still, a high of 49 degrees?! so last night we plugged in our space heater. and this morning when i got dressed, i pulled out my long underwear, under armor, and thorlos wool socks. i was taking no chances sitting in concrete buildings with no insulation or heat. on campus, hats, scarfs, and throwback ear muffs were out in full force. people on their scooters looked like they were in siberia. and my teacher for tomorrow called me to see about changing class because it will be even colder tomorrow. winter came in 1 night! it isn't even 8 o'clock and jarred and i are already under the covers working (though both still in our long underwear!), the rest of the house shut down for the night except our bedroom with the heater. it was painful to take my winter jacket off for the first time all day. i am still holding out hopes that this is just a spell and fall will be back in a few days, at least for a brief encore. i will be sure to keep you posted. nonetheless, there are many things that make me excited for this weather: hot chocolate and chili to name a couple. i am sure i will drink countless cups over the coming months, and tomorrow night we are having chili for the first time of the season. and snuggling with jarred, but he would probably be embarrassed if i wrote that on our blog. seriously, who doesn't look cute in long underwear? just kidding. welcome, winter. just don't stay too long.
