Displaced Desert Rat

I remember the first time somebody told me that Utah is a desert. I was about nine years old, sitting in a social studies class at school - and I immediately rejected the idea. Utah isn't a desert, I mentally scoffed, there are trees here! In my mind, a desert was a place of cracked sand and cacti. There's no way that my homeland - full of such greenery as maple trees and grass - could really be a "desert." The idea was ridiculous.

Well, after I'd lived another decade in the state - and had visited Southern Utah a fair few times - I realized that it really is true. Utah is a desert. We have some (mostly imported) greenery, but our natural plants tend to resemble sagebrush. I remember when we were in a bad drought once in my childhood - because my siblings and I weren't allowed to play in the sprinklers any more, and the grass got all prickly. And though we usually got plenty of snow in the wintertime, summer rain was always a surprise and an excitement.

Now that I've accepted the fact, I've become rather fond of my desert home. It's where I grew up. It's what will always be the most beautiful place to me.

So perhaps you can understand my bewilderment, having been relocated to a city on the water.

St. Petersburg is unbelievably wet. It's right on the coast of the Baltic Sea, and the enormous Neva River runs playfully throughout the entire city. It rains at least four days a week - if it isn't raining at the moment, you're still walking through the enormous puddles left over from yesterday's rain. Rarely have I seen the sidewalk completely dry.

And the humidity! Being from Utah, I'd heard about humidity before, but I'd never really experienced it. Here in St. Petersburg, I finally understand what they mean. There's water in the air! I can taste it on my skin, see it in the obscuring mists, feel it on my sodden gloves when I finally get home.

It's like the city is a wet towel left on the side of a pool - every time it's about to get dry, someone else does a cannonball and splashes a new wave all over it. The whole place is aqueous, clammy, damp, dank, dewy, drenched, dripping, drizzling, foggy, humid, misty, moist, muggy, pouring, raining, saturated, showery, slippery, slushy, soaked, soggy, sopping, soused, teeming, water-logged, WET.

(Thank goodness for Thesaurus.com)

Anyway, it has really stood out to me this entire time. More than ever, I understand now that I am a desert rat. My body still hasn't adapted to the feeling that I'm never going to be truly dry.

It sure does make for some pretty scenery, though. So, for your viewing pleasure, here are some of my wettest pictures from St. Petersburg.