I Love a Sunburned Country
... but I don't love that it sunburned me!
I was hoping to make it through Australia without getting sunburned. I figured that if I could spend 10 weeks in Kenya, literally living on the equator, that I could do okay here. I have been even more vigilant than usual here with my sunscreen, reapplying every two hours and everything, which I usually forget to do at home. But on Sunday I came home from the swimming pool (there were shark warnings at the beach this weekend...) with some nice red patchs on my arm. It's pretty clear that it's just a few spots that I happened to miss with the sunscreen, but it still hurts. I just hope that it doesn't peel. Or give me skin cancer.
2 comments:
Better a little sunburn than feeding parts of yourself to the sharks. Peeling the skin off is kind of fun--but maybe only when you are young and willing to gross out adults.
The real reason that you're more likely to get a sunburn is that, contrary to popular representation, the southern hemisphere is actually the top of the globe.1 Ozone (a common air pollutant), being heavier than regular air, sinks down to to the northern latitudes causing athsma, genetic aberrations, and epidemic vitamin D deficiencies.
What you are experiencing is simply the normal transition to a wrinklier, more leathery skinned self. It is Man's natural state. Embrace it. Besides, I've been told by an aussie and even a kiwi or two that you're not really from "up over" until you've tackled melanoma and shown it who is boss at least once.
1. See The Wizard of 'En Zed' for a more accurate representation of the globe and cosmos.
P.S. Be sure to drop us an e-mail when you get to NZ. We'll probably be in the Wellington area.
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