hot, hot, hot!

Official temperature today: 38 degrees celsius . . . for you Americans, that’s 100.4 degrees fahrenheit.

Now let me tell you something about official temperatures.  They are taken 1.5 meters (5 feet) above the ground, in the shade, not on pavement or surrounded by buildings.  Now imagine that same ‘100.4 degrees fahrenheit’ when the sun in shining on you, there isn’t a cloud to be seen, and you’re walking on blacktop, surrounded by cars and cement buildings.

It’s a whole lot hotter than 100.4 degrees fahrenheit.

Last night at 8 pm it was 85 degrees in the shade.  My friends are all turning dark.  I’m still very white with a slight farmer’s tan on my arms and neck.  My hair is bleaching out more and more.

Last Thursday was a day that will live forever in my mind.  Why?  They started using air conditioning on select buses in Bucharest!  Oh, happy day!  About 10% of the buses claim to have air conditioning, and there must have been an official decision to start using it last Thursday.  These are some of the shnazzy new Bucharest buses (Mercedes!).  There are other shnazzy new Bucharest buses that don’t claim to have air conditioning.  The driver’s compartment does have it, because if you’re lucky enough to be in the front of the bus, you can feel the cool air coming out in a crack down by your feet.  Of course, I’ve only managed to be on one bus since Thursday with the blessed air conditioning.  The rest have been their usual 120 degree selves.

My apartment averages around 80 degrees these days.  The other night I left my window open for fresh air.  I woke up at 5 am scratching four new mosquito bites . . . I don’t have screens in my windows.  I don’t have air conditioning but I do have a fan.

The way I experience air conditioning most often is getting dripped on by air conditioners high above as I walk down the sidewalk.  There’s always a cross of being happy at the sudden cooling, and disgusted thinking of the sort of water that falls out of an air conditioner.

I think it’s time to go back to the mountains.

~ by bemis on 8 July 2008.