memories, pt. I

drinking hot coffee on a day like today is bliss. it's cold outside (yesh, the weather if finally warming up) and we have another six weeks of winter, thanks to punxsutawney phil. iced coffee on a hot summer day is completely different. it's bliss x 1oo. ok, maybe not that much, but still...

one of my favorite memories took place about a year ago. rin and i were on our way to india and we had a stopover in singapore. we had left the day before and the mercury was holding at 0°f/-17.7°c at home. we arrived in singapore at around 2 in the a.m. and qued up in the taxi line that snaked back and forth. whilst standing in the open doorway, the warm tropical asian breeze welcomed us and warmed our tired bodies. the cabbie came, pulled our luggage and drove us to our hotel outside of little india. a warm bed and a soft pillow made me realize how exhausted i really was.

we slept in, got ready and hunted for lunch. took a bus down to orchard road and crossed over to the hard rock. we ate our lunch and rin texted back and forth with her dad (he and the rest of the family were waiting for us in india). we were about to get up and do some walking around when the skies opened up and the winter rains were let loose. we waited at our table while waiting for a break in the storm. it finally broke. the sun came out and we headed on outside. we walked around a little, looking in different shops. i pointed out things to rin (this was her first time in singapore).

soon, the rains came back and we ducked into a starbucks (one of many, many, many) that lined orchard road. the girl behind the register asked us what we would like and we both order iced coffees. she looked at us peculiar and asked us if we weren't cold enough. it was 85°f/29.4°c with a humidity factor of 94%. cold? we explained that there was snow and freezing weather where we live.

"where do you live?" she asked.

"idaho."

"where's that?"

"in the united states."

"oh," she said and then passed on our orders to the barista.

after our coffee was made, we sat down, dripping wet, and watched the rain come down with more fury. people walking around in there "winter" clothes and holding umbrellas. i checked the time and our plane was still many hours away, so we sat there, enjoying the time.

look for part II tomorrow