thirst

One thing I've noticed is that there are a lot of drinks available in Taiwan. Tea, milk, drinkable yogurt, fruit juice, coffee, and many combinations of those. While out with friends this evening, we stopped at a tea stand to get drinks. Then, later, I was in the grocery store looking at all the drink options available because I was thirsty, but I didn't want to just drink water. This made me wonder if maybe the reason there are so many different liquids to drink here is because people need to consume lots of water, and drinking water all the time would be just plain boring.

Think about it. How much water do you drink daily? Maybe 20oz? 40? That's at least 2 standard-sized bottles of water. What about on hot days, how much do you drink? What if it was that hot almost every day for five-odd months at a time? How much water could you really consume on a daily basis before you said, "Man, this is DULL. I wanna drink something different."

I think this is in the States a bit already, what with "flavored" water and all, but I still think it's more like a treat, a way to make the chore of drinking water tasty. Around here liquid is essential to your day. Some mornings I sweat a profuse amount just getting from my front door to work. Then I sweat when I'm in the classroom, and when I go outside for lunch, and then when I go home, and again if I go outside for dinner... See where this is going? Plus, when you're moving around so much, I think you lose more water anyway, so drinking something to put water back in your body is really important.

And that's my random thought for the day.