The Coldest Story Ever Told

It is one thing to be warned before moving to China that most of the southern portion of the country subsists without any built-in indoor heating systems; it is quite another to experience this reality in November. One quickly discovers that cold weather, like a Taylor Swift song, is mildly unpleasant in small amounts and grows nearly unbearable when it inevitably becomes inescapable. Taking a hot shower on any given morning morphs into a joy on par with enjoying chestnuts roasted on an open fire, the only difference being that the latter activity does not necessarily require near-nudity upon completion. The Changsha populace mostly takes this meteorological shift in stride, happy to have found another problem for which hot peppers are the solution. I will spend the upcoming week in a more barren region of the country, exploring whether or not the prevalence of heat can equalize the bleakness of mid-autumn nights in desertified China.