Baby It's Cold Outside

The temperature here has dipped to a frigid 64 degrees, and the denizens of this fair city are bundling up.

Outside today, when it was closer to 70, we saw girls in winter coats, guys in ski vests and both with mufflers wrapped around their ears.

Now as a Southern Californian, I understand the desire to change with the seasons. I get that you reach a point in the fall when you want to put on your tall boots and your sweater. The shops here have been marketing winter wear since we arrived in October. But this goes above and beyond. Girls on the street are huddled together, trying to keep the cutting wind off their faces. (The sea temperature is a brisk 74 degrees, after all).

When the temperature dips like this in SoCal, we just put on a fleece and wear shorts. We don't even change out of flip-flops unless we put on our Ugg boots. It takes 40-degree night temps for us to really bundle up, much to the amusement of our Midwestern cousins.

In point of fact, it is colder in our apartment, during the day, than it is outside. And Hong Kong apartments aren't designed for cold weather. There is no central heating (just as there really isn't much central air conditioning). Our plan, then, is simple: Bundle up. Put on a sweater. Wear socks. Find the blanket that we know is somewhere in the closet. And count our blessings before the stifling humidity returns.