A Most Interesting Post About Air Conditioners

The humidity in Seoul today is at 84%. I've not experienced this before. There were days when I was younger, playing cricket near Penrith somewhere, where the mercury rose to somewhere beyond 40 celsius, and the coaches from each team agreed we would have a waterfight at lunch. In those days, in the dry heat of the southern half of Australia, cool water on our skin brought relief. Actually it washed away the sweat which also would have helped in time but I think you'll agree that it's far more enjoyable to dump an esky full of iced water on your wicket-keeper than to sit around keeping still and hoping to catch a breeze.

Here the relief is obtained primarily through air conditioners that draw the humidity from the air. In this country I tend towards sweating like the metaphorical blind lesbian at a fish market, then arrive at school after my morning walk along the Tancheon stream looking I've been swimming in it with my clothes on. So when they told me the other week that I now had permission to crank up the LG, I was making a beeline for it every morning without even the most perfunctory nod of the head to my fellow staff members and drying out underneath it for the first 5-10 minutes of my day. Early on in my residency, however, I have learned through anecdote and experience not to overuse them. Why? Primarily because the extremes of temperature and atmosphere one experiences between the air-conditioned room and the greater outdoors of Seoul are enough to cause respiratory problems. Maybe that's not a common thing and has only affected me because I am deeply sensitive by nature ;-) I don't know, but whatever the reason, I find it better to go a/c moderately and short term only. Koreans mostly set their a/c on 18 degrees celsius, the lowest they will go. That's too freakin' cold for me and I won't go that low.

And I never thought I'd use those particular words.

Many superstitious Koreans believe in a phenomenon dubbed "fan-death." They hold that if one is to fall asleep in a room with no windows open and a fan trained on their face, they will suffocate in their sleep. This conclusion was reached by scientists of this country who found that if there is no fresh supply of oxygen entering the room (through the open window), the blades of the fan will then chop up the existing supply and leave the slumberer with no oxygen to inhale. A friend of mine recently attempted a Buddhist temple stay. She did the harry during the night however, because the grandmothers of the group adhered to the notion of fan death and kept getting up to turn off her fan in the unreasonably hot dormitory. Koreans. I love them. I love this country. My cab driver watches tv. He does this while he does a u-turn across 8 lanes of traffic. That won't kill you. He has luck you see? But fans. Kill you? Yes, they will. Watch fans. Death traps. Korea knows. No luck there. It's science. Korean science. The same kind as this:

http://technology.newsplurk.com/2010/06/south-korea-rocket-explodes-in-blow-to.html

Now I'm not suggesting anything so calm down. So before you fill up my inbox with all kinds of accusations of hatred and opposing land rights for gay whales know that some of my best friends are gay Korean whales currently fighting for their government over the issue of - yep, you guessed it - land rights. Ha!