Heatwave!

March 2006

July 2006

For the last 7 weeks, Germany has been in the firey grips of what other countries would call "summer." Hot weather, sunshine, blue skies — this is simply too much for the German psyche. It's being called, The Summer of The Century! Which is funny, because that's what they also called 2003. It's been in the lower 90s here for many days, which I'm told is uncommon for this part of Europe. And I would agree — I have had summers here that did not exist, which was hard for me to accept coming from Kansas, where every summer was a Summer of The Century!, with August temperatures always likening that of an Easy-Bake oven.

Granted, the Germans do not have air conditioning in their homes, in many offices and certainly not in subways or city trains. This tends to make everything kind of shitty. However, the Germans are dealing with it in the only ways they know: complaining and wearing tasteless clothes. This winter was particularly long, so I thought the whole country would rejoice when the summer came. Alas, I should've known better. Rain or shine, the Germans are mailman-like: You can always rely on them to deliver their bitching.

We, on the other hand, bought a kiddie pool for our balcony. No matter how hot it gets, Germany in the summer is a lot more tolerable than Germany in the winter.