Water

I drink a lot of water. If you are an average person, I probably drink three times as much water as you, if not more.

Just tap water. I live in Washington State, our water sources here are incredible. We have access to direct glacier water which has a wonderful crisp taste.

At least one of you reading this is thinking, "water doesn't have taste!" It does. You just won't notice it if you drink the same water every day of your life, because it is so familiar. You won't notice it if you drink bottled water in 90% of the world, because most bottled water goes through the same filtering system that normal public water sources go through (and several, such as Dasani, are straight tap water).

You will notice it if you drink bottled water where I live. You will notice it if you travel. For instance, San Diego uses desalinized water because the main river has been completely routed to irrigation and farmland before it ever reaches the city. Desalinized tap water is generally a combination of fresh water and ocean water that has been filtered.

The first two weeks I spent in San Diego taught me more about water than I ever wanted to know. Washington was a fairly laid-back lifestyle in a clean rainforest state with mild, wet climate; San Diego, on the other hand, was an extremely hot environment with an extremely physical regimen. Further, I moved there from a cool 65 degree Summer in Washington to the 105+ degree height of August in California. Because of this, water was not only not optional, it was a necessity to prevent heat stroke (or worse).

For those first two weeks of acclimatizing to San Diego's temperature, I was living in water hell. My body knew I needed water; my stomach didn't agree. I must have thrown up not once, but twice a day. The first time was the taste. The second time was when my Drill Instructor made sure I drank several follow-up canteens because I clearly wasn't hydrated enough.


Another experience that taught me to love water was while in Italy. Venice, to be specific. I was traveling with my father and sister.

I woke up particularly early one morning and crossed the main bridge into the city. My father, fluent in Italian since he was a missionary long ago in his own life, stayed at the hotel.

Venice is a beautiful place in the morning. There are no tourists to contend with. You can walk all of the streets and alleys and passages and see things that leave you in wonder. All of Italy was like this. If we can recover any of the images from Italy, I will get them up to this site in a separate blog post.

Venice is also a very watery place. Several hours into my journey through the city, I realized I was parched. I was in a city with fountains, pools, canals, and the Mediterranean Sea on every side of me, and I was literally on the verge of passing out from thirst.

I didn't speak Italian. I had no idea how to interact inside the venetian shops; most of the tourist stands hadn't opened for business yet. The best I could do was go into a small shop, find what appeared to be water, point at it, and hope I get correct Lira in change.

Mineral Water, it turns out, is an acquired taste. If you ever thought it was disgusting, I would have agreed with you until that day. I had unknowingly purchased about a half gallon of Mineral Water... and I was going to drink it no matter what hell it brought on me.

It's for this reason that -- any time I have some money to spare -- I pick up a box of San Pellegrino mineral water, or various other imported water.

Water has a taste. All water does. Tap water, mineral water, tonic water. The human body is designed to learn these tastes. All unique waters are an acquired taste, and all these tastes can be acquired by your body.

I'm going to end this entry now, though I have much more to talk about on the subject of water. Perhaps a future entry?