Zu heiss (Too hot).
The past week has been almost unbearable with the current heat wave affecting Europe. The unusual temperatures, in the nineties, are leaving us all sitting in pools of our own sweat wishing we could sit in a freezer (if they had those here, which they usually don't).
The Germans are very proud of their "Weltmeister" status as energy-savers. This means that they don't use air conditioning because it is a "waste" and is "environmentally irresponsible." This is all well and good, but when the humidity is at X, the temperature is near 100, a little air conditioning would give us a much-needed break.
Dave and I have invented a lot of creative ways of staying cool. First, every day we roll down the metal blinds ("rolladen") outside our windows to block out the sun. Then at school all day (which is, of course, not air-conditioned), I jockey with my classmates over who sits near the window. Two days ago somebody gave us a fan, but it disappeared after class yesterday. We talked our instructor into holding class on the balcony today, and that helped (except for the beehive on the corner of the balcony that we all had to dodge). Since Dave is at a higher level, his class can take field trips to the History Museum nearby, which is one of the few places we have noted that is air-conditioned (apparently the basement, which houses Roman ruins, is the best (i.e., coolest) part of the Museum.
One important German lesson I've learned this week is the word for humidity, which I'm told I have to be careful using because it's one umlaut away from a slang word for a gay man. (Es ist zu Schwül is NOT the same is Er ist zu Schwul).
Once class is out at three, we are all released to search for relief in Bonn. One day Dave and I went to a Biergarden near the Rhein. It was windy, which in theory would help, but the effect was more hairdryer than seabreeze. The next day we tried to find a restaurant with air-conditioning, but apparently they don't exist. So we cooled down by eating Gazpacho and drinking mineralwater, even if it is more expensive than beer. On Wednesday we tried a Turkish place where we could eat outside, thinking we could eat Doner (lamb Kebab with salad in bread). We saw on the menu that they had fries and ordered them, but when the food came, it was sans salad, sans bread - just a pile of fries topped with meat and a yogurt sauce. Strike two.
Yesterday we went back to the house and sat inside with the shades rolled down. If you take of most of your clothes, sit around in your underwear, and try not to move, it's not too bad. Sleeping is pretty difficult too, because it doesn't cool off much at night since the streets and stones radiate the heat from the day until sunrise (usually around 4:00 am).
We keep trying to remind ourselves that we'll find this heat hard to comprehend this winter, when the days are short and the weather is freezing. Yeah right....
The past week has been almost unbearable with the current heat wave affecting Europe. The unusual temperatures, in the nineties, are leaving us all sitting in pools of our own sweat wishing we could sit in a freezer (if they had those here, which they usually don't).
The Germans are very proud of their "Weltmeister" status as energy-savers. This means that they don't use air conditioning because it is a "waste" and is "environmentally irresponsible." This is all well and good, but when the humidity is at X, the temperature is near 100, a little air conditioning would give us a much-needed break.
Dave and I have invented a lot of creative ways of staying cool. First, every day we roll down the metal blinds ("rolladen") outside our windows to block out the sun. Then at school all day (which is, of course, not air-conditioned), I jockey with my classmates over who sits near the window. Two days ago somebody gave us a fan, but it disappeared after class yesterday. We talked our instructor into holding class on the balcony today, and that helped (except for the beehive on the corner of the balcony that we all had to dodge). Since Dave is at a higher level, his class can take field trips to the History Museum nearby, which is one of the few places we have noted that is air-conditioned (apparently the basement, which houses Roman ruins, is the best (i.e., coolest) part of the Museum.
One important German lesson I've learned this week is the word for humidity, which I'm told I have to be careful using because it's one umlaut away from a slang word for a gay man. (Es ist zu Schwül is NOT the same is Er ist zu Schwul).
Once class is out at three, we are all released to search for relief in Bonn. One day Dave and I went to a Biergarden near the Rhein. It was windy, which in theory would help, but the effect was more hairdryer than seabreeze. The next day we tried to find a restaurant with air-conditioning, but apparently they don't exist. So we cooled down by eating Gazpacho and drinking mineralwater, even if it is more expensive than beer. On Wednesday we tried a Turkish place where we could eat outside, thinking we could eat Doner (lamb Kebab with salad in bread). We saw on the menu that they had fries and ordered them, but when the food came, it was sans salad, sans bread - just a pile of fries topped with meat and a yogurt sauce. Strike two.
Yesterday we went back to the house and sat inside with the shades rolled down. If you take of most of your clothes, sit around in your underwear, and try not to move, it's not too bad. Sleeping is pretty difficult too, because it doesn't cool off much at night since the streets and stones radiate the heat from the day until sunrise (usually around 4:00 am).
We keep trying to remind ourselves that we'll find this heat hard to comprehend this winter, when the days are short and the weather is freezing. Yeah right....
posted by Erin at 1:23 PM
2 Comments:
Oh dear so I have had to catch up on my reading...
1-The heat wave continues on the plains too (i.e. corn harvest will be early this year and that could throw our Labor Day plans off, like always).
2-How is mineral water more than beer? The main ingredients are the same?!?!
3-Thank goodness for a built in tour guide/translator/train riding buddy/husband...I can only imagine that I would have still been back just trying to figure out that grocery store for skim milk vs whole milk.
4-I obvisouly am learning how behind the times Sam-O-Grams are by seeing this instead.
Til later and lots of love-JAM
Armes kleines Amerikanerl,
so ein Pech aber auch, dass wir mal wieder einen Jahrhundertsommer hinlegen. Aber der Deutsche hat seine Erfahrungen mit dem wechselhaften Wetter und die passenden Klamotten. Wir schlafen weniger und bewegen und tagsüber weniger. Die Kühlung erfolgt mittels Getränken und unter Ausnutzung der Rolläden, die ihr ja auch schon entdeckt habt. Ventilatoren, Fächer und Airconditioning in moderneren Gebäuden tun den Rest. Abends muß man die graduell kühlere Luft ins Haus lassen und beim Schlafen für Luftzug sorgen. Außerdem kommt der Herbst bestimmt! Das Beste aber ist, ihr habt so echt beeindruckende Erlebnisse und könnt noch euren Enkeln davon erzählen. Schlimmstenfalls kann man auch im Keller Abkühlung finden... oder beim Duschen mit kaltem Wasser. Herzlichst Angela
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