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4.23.2004 ||>
I cannot accurately describe the visceral pull that spring has on me in Uzbekistan. So imagine, if you will, three months of a bleak landscape with no grass or leaves. The buildings can only be described as large, drab concrete slabs with no endearing feature other than decay. The cold is insidious, with the outdoors like a freezer and the inside like a refrigerator. There is no escape from the coldness or the weariness.
Finally, one day, you notice that there are cherry blossoms on a tree. Then buds sprout all around you. The clouds become grey with rain and are no longer white from snow. A day after a hard rain, you go outside and are hit with a riot of color! The sky is electric blue, there are little purple and yellow flowers growing wild and everywhere else you look there is green. The air even smells nice (or as well as Uzbekistan can ever smell) and for the first time in what seems like forever, you are warm. The sun literally feels like a caress on your arms and you can finally burst free from the uncomfortable winter clothing that has been so confining for months.
Oh, and the food! After eating only dairy, potatoes, carrots and preserves since December, the market begins to fill with fruits and veggies. They're still expensive, but they're fresh and the mouth waters just at the thought of biting into the juiciness.
Having lived in Arizona for well, my whole life, I never really experienced seasons like this. Winter doesn't feel as death-like, which is nice. But at the same time Arizona never gives me that liquidy pull that spring does here.
0 snow blossoms
