09 August 2004

It's All Relative

Summer has finally arrived in Munich! For the past two weeks temperatures have hovered between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius. (That's between 77 and 86 Fahrenheit.) All through June and most of July it was cool and rainy. And we complained. Now it is warm and sunny and we are still complaining.

The funny thing is, it really isn't all that hot. For example, summertime in Iowa can be quite a scorcher. There are many summer days in Iowa that are above 90 F (32 C) and usually there are even a few days around the 100 mark (37 C). In addition, after living for 2½ years in Texas and another 2½ in Mississippi, I think I can say with certainty that I know what hot is. But the difference is, in all of those places I had air conditioning! Here air conditioning is the exception, rather than the rule. Therefore, when it is 30 C outside and 24 C inside, it seems hotter than it really is.

Because I know it isn't as hot as I would like to think it is and because all through June I anxiously waited for the sun to peek out from behind the clouds, I have tried to resist the urge to complain about the weather. However, I would just about give my left arm to come home to an apartment that has been cooled all day to a comfy 20 C (68 F), sip an ice-cold lemonade, and chuckle at all of the poor fools that don't have air conditioning!

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