One thing I never thought I would miss is… leaving windows and doors open in the house during the day/night while working, year-round.

Like, insulation in Brazil is non-existent (reminder: insulation also helps to keep a place cool when it’s hot), so people just leave windows and doors open to create an airflow inside their house^[1]. This leads to street noise sipping inside which, unless you are on a very busy street (or have terrible neighbors), creates a sort of a nice background noise. It’s a sign the city is alive, people are on the street, and all of that.

It’s a very nice background sound, I would say.

Now I’ve been in Europe for 7 years and still can’t get over the fact that I can’t hear when it’s raining unless it’s heavily pouring. I love the sound of rain. But the double-pane window blocks almost every sound from the outside. And in the rainy season, I can’t leave even a sliver of the window open because the wind is too cold, and it would rain inside anyway because the windows have no cover, they are just flat against the building.

All I hear, all day long, is the sound of my computer toiling away under the table.

And I always notice how much I miss the sounds from the outside when the weather gets warm enough and we open the windows, and suddenly I can hear birds and cars and people. Every year I’m surprised by this same thing after the cold is gone, like I keep forgetting it’s a thing that’s possible.

I dislike Summer, but this is its only saving grace around here.

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1. I would guess this is probably the same for almost every developing nation between the tropics. ↩︎