As I was walking home from work today, it started raining. This isn’t really that out of the ordinary, but this time it caused me to reflect on a couple of things. First of all, as I watched a number of people cowering under trees to escape the rain, it occurred to me that Vizzini should have included one more thing in his list of classic blunders: going out in England without an umbrella. It's really just silly not to. It may look like a perfectly sunny day, but that's when it gets you. It only took getting caught, and subsequently soaked, once or twice for me to make the decision to sacrifice the space and endure the added weight of an umbrella in my bag literally everywhere I go.
Secondly, rain is a totally different game here. Growing up in Utah, I’m accustomed to about two kinds of rain: the kind that boils up during summer afternoons, pours down for a few minutes, and makes everything smell clean and fresh and; and the kind that rolls in from the west during the spring and autumn months, lasts all day, and makes you want to eat soup and fresh baked bread. Either way, there’s usually plenty of warning. Here in England, though, rain is a way of life. As such, there is a myriad of different types of rain and ways to describe. Having lived here now for nearly two years, I feel like I’m starting to get a grip on English rain. There is rain the comes down in bucketfuls, rain that comes out of nowhere, rain that goes sideways, rain that blows up under your umbrella, rain that soaks through all your clothes in one minute, rain that lasts for days on end, rain that is really nothing more than mist, rain that gushes out of the sky and floods the gutters, rain that… The list goes on and on. I think they’re sort of like the Eskimos who reputedly have more words for snow than anyone else. The English have more ways to describe rain and the way it’s raining than anyone else. I think the best new word that has entered my vocabulary on the topic of precipitation is the word ‘spitting.’ It’s used to describe the type of rain that is literally like someone blowing raspberries in your face. It’s not raining enough to actually need your umbrella, but is quite enough to get you wet. You can’t use your umbrella without people thinking you’re a wuss, but it will definitely mess up your hair. I’d almost rather it chuck it down and get it over with.
