Oppressive

This is my first time living in Hong Kong in May as an adult and the climate is finally getting to me. It's hot and humid — in other words, completely unpleasant. I've refrained from whining about Hong Kong since January, when I was feeling really low, and I've been trying very hard to like my hometown, but I'm afraid it's futile.

Today I finally saw the first signs of mould on my room walls and on my ukulele case (ugh!). I immediately went out to get a spray bottle and some tea tree oil, to make a vinegar and tea tree oil spray. Results are pending.

Anyway the heat reminded me of the hotel scene in The Great Gatsby. Earlier in the chapter Nick Carraway describes the heat as 'oppressive', and it makes absolute sense now how the heat mirrors the characters' flaring emotions.

136/365

The prolonged and tumultuous argument that ended by herding us into that room eludes me, though I have a sharp physical memory that, in the course of it, my underwear kept climbing like a damp snake around my legs and intermittent beads of sweat raced cool across my back […]

The room was large and stifling, and, though it was already four o’clock, opening the windows admitted only a gust of hot shrubbery from the Park. Daisy went to the mirror and stood with her back to us, fixing her hair.

“It’s a swell suite,” whispered Jordan respectfully, and every one laughed.

“Open another window,” commanded Daisy, without turning around.

“There aren’t any more.”

“Well, we’d better telephone for an axe —”

“The thing to do is to forget about the heat,” said Tom impatiently. “You make it ten times worse by crabbing about it.”