Summer: from hate to love? 🌞🌊

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I wouldn't say I love summer, but now I like it a little more, or quite a bit more, than I did a few years ago. Every country is different when it comes to the seasons, and for me, my opinion of summer has changed dramatically.

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How can I explain what summer was like during the first forty years of my life: suffocating, scorching, unbearable, deadly. I suppose there are more words to describe it, but that's how I experienced it. The city of Bahía Blanca, where I lived, is located in a low-lying area, in a basin.

Winters were very cold, with temperatures dropping below zero and wind chill factors of up to 15 degrees below zero. It was a cold that you felt in your bones, especially when it rained and was humid. The summer is dry and windy, I felt suffocated and always said that when I stuck my finger out into the garden, it turned black from the burning air.

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But worst of all, I have low blood pressure, that is, my normal blood pressure is low, 10-6, or as they say here, 100-60, I think. So summer was real torture for me. I hated it deeply, because my blood pressure dropped even more and I couldn't even breathe. I lived lying on the floor, the coolest place. Of course, I didn't have air conditioning. I couldn't afford it, and even if I could, the electricity supply in my neighbourhood was so low that electrical appliances would burn out... it was impossible.

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That's why I eat so many cold things; they keep my body temperature down. I even ate ice. I suffered so much in the summer that I never want to go through that again. I spent January and February lying on the floor or in bed. I even remember one day my brother looking at his phone and saying, ‘It's hotter than Africa!’ And it was. I hated summer with every fibre of my being. The highest temperature I remember is 45 degrees with a heat index of 54. I wanted to die, you know, especially because my blood pressure was so low. When summer was over, I came back to life and that's how I came to love winter.

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There's a lot more to say, but I think that gives you an idea.

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Seven years ago, I moved to Spain. I arrived on 13 June 2018, in summer, and you know what? I never had low blood pressure again. I didn't know what it was like to live without low blood pressure, and there I was in July, walking down the street at 2 p.m. in 39-degree heat, and I wasn't dizzy. It was a blessing after all I had suffered. I really didn't expect that, and I was happy to be able to be outside without fear of fainting in the street and to be able to be in an apartment or a house and not have to lie on the floor gasping for oxygen.

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I'm not going to say it's not hot, it is, but it's so different... too different. I hated the other summer... not this one. Here, summer is, I have to say, very sticky, you sweat a lot, which I had never experienced before, but with a fan and ice-cold water, I can cope. Of course, I drink a lot of tereré, which is cold mate, made with yerba mate, ice-cold water, ice and any kind of juice. I add lemon because it has no sugar, and I drink it all day long.

I don't have air conditioning either, but living high up on the fifth floor, the air is different than if I lived on the first floor. And of course, when I go out, I always take my bottle of ice-cold water with me. I know some people can't drink it that cold, but if I don't have it, I'll die. I don't like room temperature water, even in winter. Winters here are spectacular; it never freezes. I never wore the wool clothes I brought from Argentina.

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Another big difference is the sun. I love sunbathing and being tanned; I'm fascinated by it. The sun in Argentina was so hot, even at supposedly optimal times, that it damaged my skin. Here, I sunbathe at any time of day and nothing happens to me. Is it another planet? It might be.

The reality is that I studied this city a lot before coming here, and geographically it is protected by a mountain range that keeps everything behind it from reaching here, whether it's cold or hot. It's shaped like a semi-circle. And to the south is the wonderful Mediterranean Sea, which balances the temperatures, which is why I always say that I live under a dome.

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There is much more to say, but I wanted to start my activity here by making this comparison of how I used to experience summer and how I experience it today. Today I can say that I live it, whereas before I just survived it. I don't know if it's love for summer, but I have a fondness for it now.

I would like to invite @jlufer, @steemflow and @neruel to get to know this great new community and share their summer vibes.

Thank you all for reading today. Best regards. See you soon.
Amonet.

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All photographs are my own.