In the immortal words of Eddard Stark: winter is coming. Beijing is quite cold. And, since it's Beijing, when you breathe in the sharp crisp air, the smoggy hands of the city's pollution aren't far behind to massage your lungs with a tight grip. It's not as bad cold-wise as Bard or Ulaan Baatar were, but I can tell it's gonna get pretty chilly as we move deeper into the winter season. The strong winds don't help people out much either.
I first noticed the cold while I was coaching my boy's high school basketball team. I think that virtually every high school in Beijing holds their basketball practices on outdoor courts - and my teams are no exceptions. Playing outdoors makes sense in the spring, the summer, and even fall. But it seems silly and reckless to play outside during the winter. Nevertheless, we keep on marching into it week by week. Last week, it was especially cold and the winds were really a blowin. I had to stop in the middle of speaking several times and turn my back toward the wind because I couldn't yell over the strong gusts of dust and pollution. The day had started warm so I only had on my jeans, a sweathshirt, and a beanie. All of the high schoolers wore matching sweatshirts and sweatpants. They looked like a bunch of Umpa Lumpas. I'm more concerned for what's going to happen with the players in the severe cold - I mean, for guys who already have trouble with their hand-eye coordination, adding numb hands and stiff limbs certainly won't help. It's going to be a long season.
By the time practice was over, I couldn't feel my hands at all and I was shivering so I waddled to the subway stop and went home. I will definitely be better prepared next time. A shout out to Momma Bennett for insisting that I bring my old Goretex Northface snowboarding gloves, those are going to be handy (HA). I've got a lot of warm clothes too, so next time I'm going to make sure that I'm more insulated than a starving Eskimo floating on a piece of drift ice on the Arctic.
Last week's practice couldn't have been more than 40 degrees, but it certainly wasn't freezing like I'm pretty sure it will be in January and February. I don't envy those kids, and that's coming from someone who had to wake up at 5:30AM every weekday during college to go to basketball practice.
I first noticed the cold while I was coaching my boy's high school basketball team. I think that virtually every high school in Beijing holds their basketball practices on outdoor courts - and my teams are no exceptions. Playing outdoors makes sense in the spring, the summer, and even fall. But it seems silly and reckless to play outside during the winter. Nevertheless, we keep on marching into it week by week. Last week, it was especially cold and the winds were really a blowin. I had to stop in the middle of speaking several times and turn my back toward the wind because I couldn't yell over the strong gusts of dust and pollution. The day had started warm so I only had on my jeans, a sweathshirt, and a beanie. All of the high schoolers wore matching sweatshirts and sweatpants. They looked like a bunch of Umpa Lumpas. I'm more concerned for what's going to happen with the players in the severe cold - I mean, for guys who already have trouble with their hand-eye coordination, adding numb hands and stiff limbs certainly won't help. It's going to be a long season.
By the time practice was over, I couldn't feel my hands at all and I was shivering so I waddled to the subway stop and went home. I will definitely be better prepared next time. A shout out to Momma Bennett for insisting that I bring my old Goretex Northface snowboarding gloves, those are going to be handy (HA). I've got a lot of warm clothes too, so next time I'm going to make sure that I'm more insulated than a starving Eskimo floating on a piece of drift ice on the Arctic.
Last week's practice couldn't have been more than 40 degrees, but it certainly wasn't freezing like I'm pretty sure it will be in January and February. I don't envy those kids, and that's coming from someone who had to wake up at 5:30AM every weekday during college to go to basketball practice.
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