Adaptation is among the important features of human being. Actually, one of the four main subdisciplines or subfields of anthropology is about this human capability. Biological (or physical) anthropology studies human biological diversity in time and space and is concerned with adaptation among other things. Adaptation refers to the process by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses. There are three ways of adapting biologically: genetic, long-term and short-term physiological (Kottak, 2006).
After I eventually managed to pick up my visa, what concerned me more than the US crime rate was cold winters in northern states like Ohio. Actually, that was one of the reasons that I never thought seriously about applying to Canadian universities (them being very miserly about funding and assistantship was the major reason).
And doing research on Toledo temperature in winter made me panic even more as I was going to land there amid December. Not that I'm spoiled by warm weather (as people here surmise about Iran). I've lived almost all my life in Tehran, and the temperature in winter is usually about freezing, sometimes a few degrees below. But that's about it. And I've been a frequent-flyer to Mashhad which has nasty winters (compared to Tehran).
When I was in Tehran, I used to go mountain-climbing even in snow-storms. But living and doing your daily routines under such weather conditions is different. And whenever I heard about places (including Northwestern provinces of Iran), with winter temperatures 20 degrees below freezing, it sent shivers down my spine. How people would live in such a cold? Me, surviving in such a place? No way.
Then, I found that a temperature of -10 (Celsius) is normal in Toledo over December and January and it could easily go -20C. And add to that windchill. Brrrr. I had experienced windchill in Mashhad, so I didn't need much imagination. To my surprise, when I landed in Toledo, It was warmer than Mashhad. And it made me forget about my fears. Then, time passed by and I could experience the Midwest winter. One night that it was -20C, I was outside for grocery shopping and I had missed the last bus, so I had to walk a long distance amid snow and wind with those bags in my hands to catch another bus. And it was not fun. But I didn't die of cold (homeless people actually die over such nights).
I gradually got accustomed to the cold. But still, I didn't dare riding my bike last winter. It was partly because I had enough negativist nagging people around me discouraging me to do anything beyond their limited routines. And feeling dependent on the terribly dysfunctional public transport in Toledo was even more aggravating than the cold. Being castaway from my family as a result of a single-entry visa and living below federal poverty line was depressing enough. Getting stuck in a home-campus-home routine was too much. Any cap on my mobility and travel is a real killer to me. I was badly depressed over my first winter and if it were not for my field research around churches, God knows how I would had survived.
Then, the winter was over and I started riding my bike around and in retrospect, I realized how much I missed by limiting myself to buses. When I was in Tehran, biking beyond metropolitan area sounded out of question to me and whenever I traversed a distance of 20 miles inside Tehran, it sounded like a great feat to me. But here, I kept riding and riding. I kept exploring beautiful metroparks and nearby towns. And this was a big morale-booster. First time, I rode my bike into Michigan, I felt like venturing into a new country and I felt kinda excited about it. Now, riding 20 miles or visiting nearby towns sounds normal. On my birthday, I biked around Lucas County for about 50 miles.
And as I got used to biking, I really didn't feel like making myself desperately dependent on those lousy irregular buses again, even in winter. And I stopped listening to negativists who can do nothing but disheartening. Now, I'm not afraid of biking in snow and cold weather. I've biked in -15C (4F). Definitely, I don't enjoy such weather, but I no longer let it immobilize me. And I've got used to the cold.
And now that I think about it, I find it funny. Over my trips to Mashhad in winter, whenever it went 5 degrees below freezing, I felt miserably cold, almost felt like dying. Now, whenever the temperature goes up to -5C (or somewhat closer to zero), I feel like it's a GREAT day and I can go out biking. No kidding. That's adaptation.
But the cold weather is not permanent here, even in winter. Boring as life is down here in Toledo, God keeps playing with His thermostat up there to give us some variety down here. One day it's -5, then it goes up to 10 with sunshine and the next day it drops down to -10 feeling like -25 with windchill. Quite an eventful life. I'd never experienced such rapid and drastic changes in temperature while in Iran.
And this is a regular pattern here, not just happening once in a winter. We have almost four seasons in a week. And this challenges what we were taught in science at elementary school. Big bodies of water (seas, oceans, big lakes) are supposed to have a moderating effect on temperature, buffering climatic changes. It appears that the Great Lakes act quite the opposite. And that's not all.
Before coming here, I comforted myself that by enduring this cold winter, I can at least enjoy a moderate summer. At least, that's how things go in Iran; provinces with cold winter have mild summer and vice versa. I was wrong. Here, with chilly winters like Northwestern Iran, summer was as stifling as Southern Iran, hot and humid. Oh my God, give me either hot summer or cold winter, not both.
Yet, we had summer days here with torrential rains. And I cannot say I was quite successful with adaptation to such muggy weather. All the while, I remained loyal to my orthodox dress code; long sleeves, long pants. And there were days that I was drenched in sweat or rain (or both) and had difficulty breathing easily, but even that didn't stop me from biking long distances. Maybe that's adaptation, American style.
And it appears that this year, God has decided to give people in my country a sense of life in the Midwest, at least climatically speaking. Over my life in Tehran, I remember very few wintry days below -5. Then, there was this arctic blast this winter all over Iran. There was heavy snow and frigid weather for 2 weeks, with temperature staying below -10 for several days in Tehran. In Mashhad (where my parents have migrated 3 years ago), temperature remained around -15 (or below) for about 10 days. And I was thinking of my snow post a few weeks ago, mocking road closures and emergency levels in the US. My people went through the same thing, with schools and even universities remaining closed for a week. Well, that snow in Iran was much heavier than what we got here. But anyway.
Speaking of biological adaptation and temperature makes me think of another adaptation as an engineer. In Iran, we use metric system for measurement. Even the British have got rid of their old lousy units. Ironically enough, Americans who tried to distance themselves from the British in everything after Independence, have stubbornly remained loyal to the English units.
And as an engineer used to SI units for so many years, it was a challenge to do my shopping in pounds and gallons instead of kilograms and liters or getting a feeling about temperature in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius. And I think of my engineer friends who are continuing their education in engineering. To them, it's more than feeling about the temperature or shopping. Those units are all their life. And I don't know how this engineering adaptation feels to them.
After I eventually managed to pick up my visa, what concerned me more than the US crime rate was cold winters in northern states like Ohio. Actually, that was one of the reasons that I never thought seriously about applying to Canadian universities (them being very miserly about funding and assistantship was the major reason).
And doing research on Toledo temperature in winter made me panic even more as I was going to land there amid December. Not that I'm spoiled by warm weather (as people here surmise about Iran). I've lived almost all my life in Tehran, and the temperature in winter is usually about freezing, sometimes a few degrees below. But that's about it. And I've been a frequent-flyer to Mashhad which has nasty winters (compared to Tehran).
When I was in Tehran, I used to go mountain-climbing even in snow-storms. But living and doing your daily routines under such weather conditions is different. And whenever I heard about places (including Northwestern provinces of Iran), with winter temperatures 20 degrees below freezing, it sent shivers down my spine. How people would live in such a cold? Me, surviving in such a place? No way.
Then, I found that a temperature of -10 (Celsius) is normal in Toledo over December and January and it could easily go -20C. And add to that windchill. Brrrr. I had experienced windchill in Mashhad, so I didn't need much imagination. To my surprise, when I landed in Toledo, It was warmer than Mashhad. And it made me forget about my fears. Then, time passed by and I could experience the Midwest winter. One night that it was -20C, I was outside for grocery shopping and I had missed the last bus, so I had to walk a long distance amid snow and wind with those bags in my hands to catch another bus. And it was not fun. But I didn't die of cold (homeless people actually die over such nights).
I gradually got accustomed to the cold. But still, I didn't dare riding my bike last winter. It was partly because I had enough negativist nagging people around me discouraging me to do anything beyond their limited routines. And feeling dependent on the terribly dysfunctional public transport in Toledo was even more aggravating than the cold. Being castaway from my family as a result of a single-entry visa and living below federal poverty line was depressing enough. Getting stuck in a home-campus-home routine was too much. Any cap on my mobility and travel is a real killer to me. I was badly depressed over my first winter and if it were not for my field research around churches, God knows how I would had survived.
Then, the winter was over and I started riding my bike around and in retrospect, I realized how much I missed by limiting myself to buses. When I was in Tehran, biking beyond metropolitan area sounded out of question to me and whenever I traversed a distance of 20 miles inside Tehran, it sounded like a great feat to me. But here, I kept riding and riding. I kept exploring beautiful metroparks and nearby towns. And this was a big morale-booster. First time, I rode my bike into Michigan, I felt like venturing into a new country and I felt kinda excited about it. Now, riding 20 miles or visiting nearby towns sounds normal. On my birthday, I biked around Lucas County for about 50 miles.
And as I got used to biking, I really didn't feel like making myself desperately dependent on those lousy irregular buses again, even in winter. And I stopped listening to negativists who can do nothing but disheartening. Now, I'm not afraid of biking in snow and cold weather. I've biked in -15C (4F). Definitely, I don't enjoy such weather, but I no longer let it immobilize me. And I've got used to the cold.
And now that I think about it, I find it funny. Over my trips to Mashhad in winter, whenever it went 5 degrees below freezing, I felt miserably cold, almost felt like dying. Now, whenever the temperature goes up to -5C (or somewhat closer to zero), I feel like it's a GREAT day and I can go out biking. No kidding. That's adaptation.
But the cold weather is not permanent here, even in winter. Boring as life is down here in Toledo, God keeps playing with His thermostat up there to give us some variety down here. One day it's -5, then it goes up to 10 with sunshine and the next day it drops down to -10 feeling like -25 with windchill. Quite an eventful life. I'd never experienced such rapid and drastic changes in temperature while in Iran.
And this is a regular pattern here, not just happening once in a winter. We have almost four seasons in a week. And this challenges what we were taught in science at elementary school. Big bodies of water (seas, oceans, big lakes) are supposed to have a moderating effect on temperature, buffering climatic changes. It appears that the Great Lakes act quite the opposite. And that's not all.
Before coming here, I comforted myself that by enduring this cold winter, I can at least enjoy a moderate summer. At least, that's how things go in Iran; provinces with cold winter have mild summer and vice versa. I was wrong. Here, with chilly winters like Northwestern Iran, summer was as stifling as Southern Iran, hot and humid. Oh my God, give me either hot summer or cold winter, not both.
Yet, we had summer days here with torrential rains. And I cannot say I was quite successful with adaptation to such muggy weather. All the while, I remained loyal to my orthodox dress code; long sleeves, long pants. And there were days that I was drenched in sweat or rain (or both) and had difficulty breathing easily, but even that didn't stop me from biking long distances. Maybe that's adaptation, American style.
And it appears that this year, God has decided to give people in my country a sense of life in the Midwest, at least climatically speaking. Over my life in Tehran, I remember very few wintry days below -5. Then, there was this arctic blast this winter all over Iran. There was heavy snow and frigid weather for 2 weeks, with temperature staying below -10 for several days in Tehran. In Mashhad (where my parents have migrated 3 years ago), temperature remained around -15 (or below) for about 10 days. And I was thinking of my snow post a few weeks ago, mocking road closures and emergency levels in the US. My people went through the same thing, with schools and even universities remaining closed for a week. Well, that snow in Iran was much heavier than what we got here. But anyway.
Speaking of biological adaptation and temperature makes me think of another adaptation as an engineer. In Iran, we use metric system for measurement. Even the British have got rid of their old lousy units. Ironically enough, Americans who tried to distance themselves from the British in everything after Independence, have stubbornly remained loyal to the English units.
And as an engineer used to SI units for so many years, it was a challenge to do my shopping in pounds and gallons instead of kilograms and liters or getting a feeling about temperature in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius. And I think of my engineer friends who are continuing their education in engineering. To them, it's more than feeling about the temperature or shopping. Those units are all their life. And I don't know how this engineering adaptation feels to them.
