My favorite season is the fall (of the patriarchy)

Pumpkin spice, cinnamon sugar, apples. Sweater weather. Crunchy leaves, bursts of orange and red and yellow. Halloween and Thanksgiving. Daylight savings.

Leaving aside the commercialized aspect of the season, autumn has always been one of my favorite times of the year. I love the flavors and the crisp, cool breeze and the breathtaking colors that don’t last more than a couple months. But something I hadn’t given much thought about before moving way south is the fact that this autumnal construct is restricted to the Northern Hemisphere. Here in Brazil, we don’t have autumn, or seasons, really.

After almost 3.5 years living in Brazil, I’ve acclimated pretty well to tropical weather and peculiarities of Southern Hemisphere climate. For example, for most of the year, the temperature stays consistently above 25C (77F) and close to or above 30C (86F) for at least half of the year. There are “seasons”, where the temperature drops a bit in the winter, around June through August; the flowers bloom a bit more in the spring, or September. The transition from summer to fall (March-April, though this varies) is marked by more rainstorms.

Brazilian weather, what's your secret for an incredibly hot summer? I'm always hot. (Read that in a Hulk voice.)

So, this time of the year always hits me harder than any other. The pumpkin used for seasonal recipes like pies, muffins, and loaves is native to North America; this type of pumpkin or canned pumpkin puree simply does not exist here. Capitalism is trying to make Halloween a thing, but it is not a cultural habit. People have heard of Thanksgiving from TV shows and movies, but the turkeys sold in the supermarket are for Christmas, and there are no cranberries, anywhere. I never thought about autumn as something quintessentially American about my upbringing, but it is. The fact is, this time of year in Brazil is the transition into summer. Our daylight savings last week jumped the clock ahead an hour.

Apart from feeling an unfillable nostalgic void (try not to read this as dramatically as it sounds!) this time of year, I also find myself thinking about a certain unpredictability of life here in Brazil. It took me a long time to put my finger on what could be a common denominator to explain what exactly feels so different between my experiences here in Brazil and in the United States. I’m not trying to directly compare apples and oranges (a third world vs first world country; historically distinct countries; incomparably different cultures). The distinction I’m trying to get at, is that between two incomparably different places, a clear defining difference is what can be considered predictable and reliable in the United States and what is characteristically unpredictable and unreliable here in Brazil.

In the most basic of comparisons, seasonal changes in the U.S. (in the Eastern/Northeastern regions where I lived and grew up) are predictable, expected; here, they are not. It seems like such a small thing, but knowing that the temperature gets gradually colder over a certain period of time during the year, and being able to plan and prepare accordingly, is not applicable to Brazilian living. The weather in São Paulo is characteristically unpredictable.

Last week's weather forecast. I guess I'll explain the days of the week some other time...

Sometimes, the temperature will swing 20 degrees (celsius) from morning to mid-afternoon. Sometimes, it’ll rain so hard that the power goes out, and it can take anywhere from 1-5 hours to be restored. Sometimes, the forecast will predict rain all day and not a drop falls. Other days, it’ll unexpectedly downpour for a couple hours and the city’s traffic all but stops. Ceiling fans and air conditioning are not standardized features in homes, so these temperature swings can feel like a big deal.

It might seem like a something small, but unpredictability can be exhausting and frustrating to deal with. An unreliable weather forecast can either leave you unprepared without an extra layer or umbrella, or ready to face an imaginary apocalypse. Or, if the 30 minute buffer on my daily commute (yes, this is necessary) suddenly isn’t enough because the public transportation grid is affected by rain (really). It doesn’t have a huge effect on my day anymore. I used to hate getting caught in the rain, but now I have to take it in stride. I’m a stickler about punctuality, but sometimes, you are at the mercy of larger forces. And almost everyone has, at least once, been victim of some these unpredictable occurrences.

Have you ever thought that weather could be “reliable”? How do you react when something unpredictable affects your routine?

Adapting to life in a different country can be challenging on many levels. I’ll definitely explore this topic more, as a kind of “things I wish someone had told me before moving to Brazil”. The first piece of advice: they don’t call São Paulo cidade da garoa, or “drizzle city”, for nothing. Always keep a light raincoat in your bag.