To Bloom in Warm Climates

A few months ago I listened to a BBC Witness podcast episode about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's remarriage in Botswana in 1975 (see picture below; and side note: I love the picture of them above!). The journalist quoted Richard Burton who once said that "Elizabeth bloomed in warm climates." What a romantic and intriguing thing to say! I love the idea of someone blooming, and just generally being better suited, to warmer climates. What does blooming actually entail though? Does it mean you always look pretty and put together and not sweaty and shiny (like me in warm climates!)? Does it mean that when some people just want to take a long nap from the heat you have boundless energy and are awake & bright eyed and take long walks and/or swims followed by a glass (or several) of wine or tropical cocktails? Or maybe it means that your personality just gets bigger and better and you as a person feel happier? Though I suppose I wish some dark handsome man would say I, too, bloomed in warm climates I know that is not possible/true, as the following story illustrates.

In July 2004 N. and I went to Playa del Carmen on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico for a week with L., her parents, her brother, their close family friends, her uncle and her aunt. On our second last day her aunt and uncle rented a van and took us to the famous Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza (see picture below). The van broke down before we even left Playa del Carmen and so we were delayed while L.'s uncle R. fixed it. We finally got on the road but then got lost multiple times on our way there. (We also got lost multiple times on our way back, and we got a flat tire about 20 minutes from Playa del Carmen. In total, our day lasted about 10 hours when it should have been 6, we didn't have a cell phone to call and say we were late, and L.'s parents were really worried that something bad had happened to us.) When we reached the ruins, I was already pretty sweaty and hot from the car. But then once we got inside, I guess it was even hotter and I started to sweat even more. I mostly just felt hot and thirsty, but definitely not sick or anything. However, L.'s aunt J. became convinced that I was about to get heat stroke. "Oh my gosh your back is drenched in sweat" she told me, and so of course everyone, including our guide, had to look at my back. "Your face is so red!" she also told me, and so of course everyone had to closely stare at my face. The number of times I've been told I have a red face (usually by acquaintances or complete strangers) is too numerous to count and needless to say, even when it's true, it really annoys me! The clincher in terms of my annoyance was when J. announced that it was because I was from Canada (argh! Canada is a huge country. I am from Toronto!) that I was so unused to the heat. I know J. was just concerned, and I did appreciate it, but I honestly believe me being from Toronto (which has hot summers!) had nothing to do with how I looked/felt that day. I never felt as bad as J. seemed to think I looked. However, clearly that day serves as a definite confirmation that I don't bloom in warm climates.

Do people ever bloom (or some similar adjective that is positive? maybe toast (as in toasty warm)?) in cold climates? Maybe avid skiers? There must be people that are the equivalent to Elizabeth Taylor in cold climates and just love the cold, ice, snow, etc. I don't bloom/toast in cold climates. In fact, despite being from a place that most definitely has winter, in particularly cold weather (like minus 20 celcius and below) I have to make sure my face is completely covered by a scarf or else my cheeks will get frost bite. In a way that is kind of sad since I can't seem to win in cold or warm climates. Maybe I bloom in temperate climates. But regardless, despite being prone to sweating in warm climates and frost bite in particularly cold ones, I still like experiencing both of those climates. So I think I should just count myself lucky that even though I may not bloom in those climates, I can still appreciate them.