The Rain in Spain?

Well how about the rain in England? You may have heard it said that it ALWAYS rains in England, but that is not strictly the case. The truth is that it ALWAYS rains in England in the winter! This is the real truth, and it is especially true in January I am told. Well, I have been here for 5 months now, and the weather has not bothered me very much.....that is.... until now. It has been rainy and gloomy for about a week straight, and while that may not sound that bad, you must remember that when it rains here, the daytime does come, but the sun does NOT come out! Yes, that's right, there can be a daytime without sun, but I am not really sure it counts in my book. I feel like the sun has been very lazy around here. For example, last week we had one or two sunny days, but the rest of the days, the sun chose to appear for about 45 minutes around noon-ish and then went back in and didn't return before nightfall. How rubbish!

But the funny thing is that the English are notorious for talking about the weather, even (I might add) when there is nothing interesting to talk about which is pretty much all the time. The weather is pretty constant I think compared to what we got back in NJ, so I ask you- What is there to talk about and Why do they do it then? The answer for this is a simple one, and it goes back to another traditional English custom. They do not talk about ANYTHING personal if at all possible. This I have found to be true, and I am sure that many English folk would agree with me that this is a common custom. Thus they resort to talking about the weather to avoid asking more personal questions such as, "How are you and how is your family?" etc. You get the point, the weather is just about as personal as many people get around here.

For someone like me who craves human interaction and relationships that are meaningful, that becomes extremely frustrating and difficult. How can they cope, without relating personally to another human being? I don't know, but one thing is for sure, if there was more acceptance of going to counseling or therapy of any sort, they would ALL have to go just to get their feelings (if they have any) out! I am sure that they do have feelings, but I believe that many of them push them so far underneath the surface that they do not even realize that they are there. I would consider this unhealthy, but many of the older generation especially lives that way and seems to survive. Whereas the younger generation may be changing the way of the American style of really talking to each other and relating to each other. I am hoping that I can be a pioneer in this social change and contribute much to this culture and its emotional development. So hold onto your hats, England, the winds are about to change and the only thing that may remain truly constant just might be the rain in the winter!