leigh ann

oct 07, 2023

Let’s start off with the altitude.

The highest point in The Bahamas is 207 feet above sea level. I’ve never been there. Vernon is 1,280 feet above sea level.

I can literally feel how thin the air is when I breathe. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, maybe that’s not. But the first time I walked up the hill to my new apartment I struggled to catch my breath. I know I’ve climbed bigger hills before. I can’t be that badly out of shape. Breathing through my nose didn’t help because the air was so cold it caused my nose to bleed. So I was a gasping, bloody mess by the time I reached my apartment.

The cold is the obvious difference. I didn’t start with that because everybody would have expected it. Not that a ten-minute walk is making me keel over.

It’s freezing! (to me). My first week at school the temperature dipped to 40F, sorry to the Celsius users because I can’t convert and I can’t stop thinking in Fahrenheit. My classmates had a good laugh because I showed up in a full-lined jacket, tam, and gloves. And I was still shivering. I was late to class because I had to stop for a cup of tea to warm my hands. I couldn’t take off the gloves.

It was only going to get colder, they said.

I believe them, 100 percent. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s literally the coldest I’ve ever been. I don’t think the weather ever dipped below 50F back home. I feel like I’m slowly acclimating to the weather, not the altitude yet, because yesterday, although it was cold, I was able to take off my jacket. The sun was shining though so I think I have to give it all the credit.

 And now onto the inspiration for this blog post, the leaves.

The Bahamas is so green. Like really, consistently, always green. And when it’s not green it’s brown and brittle. If I had to assign The Bahamas colours it would be blue (for the sea and sky) and green (for all the trees). The place is unaffected by the months, unchanging. Seasons are suggestions. Fall is when the hurricanes stop :(climate change may have a thing or two to say about this). Winter is when you’re not sweating all the time. Spring is rain. And Summer is unending, oppressive heat that makes BPL generators explode. All year round everything is green.

Vernon was green when I arrived. And in my head what is one colour should stay that colour forevermore. It wasn’t until a scooter ride to school this week that I realised Vernon was turning yellow. And just like that I began noticing the half-coloured trees – yellow in more spots, green in others. The Downtown walkway covered in bright yellow debris. The crunch of leaves dead on the ground.

It’s oddly spectacular.

I never experienced this phenomenon of Fall before therefore I did not think to look for it until suddenly it was everywhere and now, I can’t stop taking note.

And don’t get me started on the orange and red. I’ve seen leaves dry yellow before. Not on the trees but on the ground but still. However, watching the other colours bloom on the branches is fascinating. I saw a little of it on a trip to Toronto once but when you only grasp a snippet of time you tend to freeze it, thinking that’s the way it always is. Of course, the trees in Toronto have orange leaves.

But nope, the trees are turning colours.

And I finally get to watch.

aug 30, 2024

another fall approaches and i can’t believe i’ve been here in Canada over a year. i’ve sat through fall, winter, spring, and summer and the cycle is going to repeat itself all over again.

i spent the changing seasons enraptured by the colours and the leaves and jumping in piles of dead debris and snow and looking back it’s amazing how joyful life can be sometimes.

i’m a pessimist so i tend only to remember the bad, fixate on it until i can’t breathe. but yesterday i went up a mountain and hunted bones and got a slushee and life was good. i reread this entry and i remember the wonder of my first change of seasons. i will sit here and wait for more.