Hot German Summers

 Living with no A/C

The last 2 years, we've only spent part of the summers here in Germany, so we've mostly missed the really hot days. This year, we're sticking it out and it's quite miserable, let me just say...

I acknowledge that the actual temperatures are cooler than other places I've lived. In Jerusalem, it's 90 degree (32C) weather every day for 3 quarters of the year. In Oklahoma, it can get up to a miserable 113 degrees (45C). In Arizona it's basically 90 (32C) through most of the year and can get up to a sweltering 120 (49C) during the summer. In Jerusalem and Arizona, it was arid or desert heat, which guarantees cool mornings and evenings (a relief!). In Oklahoma, it didn't cool down. It's just a miserable humid heat. I used to hate going outside. As a teen in Tulsa I hated summers. 

But in all these places there was one thing in common: air conditioning. No matter where I was, I could always come home and cool down, and live comfortably. I could wear or do whatever I wanted because at some point, I would be able to cool down and stay cool. I only had to discriminate when I knew I was spending the day outside.

Here in Germany, at this point in august we're in the 90s (32C) range, and it's only cooling down to the 70s (21C) range for a few hours at night, which means the house is warm most of the day, and barely cools down in the evenings. You are guaranteed to sweat all. day. long. As I said before, Dustin and I experienced a couple of days like this in the past, but then it was over and we were gone during the hottest part of summer. Now we are experiencing it in full force, and I'm learning a few things about why Germans do what they do. 

First, when you know you can't cool down in your house, you don't want to move at all. But that's utterly impossible, so you start to find creative ways to cool down out of the house. I knew community swimming pools were a big deal here, but now I understand why they're so huge in size, why there's so many of them, and why they're constantly full of people. Dustin and I are going swimming almost every day during the hottest part of the day. They also swim in the small lakes, which they call, "bathing lakes," or "Badesee." 

I knew Germans loved their Italian ice cream (gelato), but now I understand why the ice cream places are always packed, and why people make it a ritual to go get ice cream in the afternoon/evenings when most other stores are closed. Because some of the few other ways to get relief are to visit grocery stores, and other large stores/malls, sit in your car, or simply take a cold shower and sit in front of a fan. Unless, of course, you have AC in your house, which isn't common... but apparently more and more people are getting it because the summers have been increasingly hotter in the last decade(s?). 

I have been told that in the past, this area might only have a couple of "tropical nights" as they say, but then it cools down. But now it's consecutive days. And I don't think the collective psyche is adjusting to the changes... People keep saying, "Oh, it will start cooling down in a few days," but when I check, there is no cool-down in the 10-day forecast, and there hasn't been in the past weeks. Someone even said, "why would I get AC for a couple of days in the summer?" in my head, I thought, "you mean a whole month of pure misery sandwiched between two other slightly cooler months where you have to keep your window blinds closed to stop the sunlight from heating the inside of your home (sucks when you go out and forget!), plan out when you want to cook in a hot sauna of a kitchen, dread going to work because you are hot all the time, and basically look forward to the night when you can finally do things without overheating?"

I helped a friend prep their new house for moving in, and I was painting the walls in 88 degrees (31C). They opened the door and the kitchen window (which were across from each other on other ends of the house) in hopes of a breeze. While I was happy to be there and help, I sweat the entire day working in that house, which made me extra tired.

I haven't mentioned body odor, but lets just say it's understandably more socially acceptable here. I have never smelled people so much in my life...  

I wouldn't want to work in a restaurant, because you're basically in an oven/sauna all day. I feel the heat when I approach the kitchens. I don't know how they cope. I don't even want to cook at home! It's basically a commitment to being in a sauna for 2 hours of the day. And then the room is hot for the rest of the day. Thank God my kitchen is sealed from the rest of the apartment. I mostly don't want to cook. When I do, it's a batch cook for the week. We're eating salad, cold pasta salads, fruit, raw foods, bread, and things which can be heated in the instant pot or microwave. OR we're eating out. It's a whole new diet.

I work in a church, which does not have AC, but at least has a very high ceiling, so the heat rises, and it's at least somewhat bearable to sit in the sanctuary. Still, it's hot. And the stained-glass windows are placed high up just at the right spot so that during church services, the sun is actually beating down on half the seats. It kinda reminds me of the classic Southern Baptist church because all these people have paper fans which they flutter all through service. They actually have a basket of them in the back so you can grab one when you walk through the door. Like others, I have my own which I purchased for this reason.

And clothing... I am learning just this week that polyester summer clothes are a joke. You might as well wear a plastic bag and end up dehydrated come nightfall. It's like wearing a hot suit. I put on an outfit, stand there for a few minutes and find myself suddenly sweating buckets, having a mild panic attack, and then I have to change into something with natural fibers like linen or cotton. So half the summer work clothes I brought here are not wearable. Polyester satin is the worst offender. I'm understanding now why so many women here wear these linen or cotton summer dresses almost exclusively. It's the only bearable thing to wear. It's not a fashion choice, it's a necessity. Some of these women don't wear dresses all year long, so it's almost shocking to see them in the summer. Dustin has had to invest in some linen short-sleeve button down shirts... which have never been his style in the past, but I'll say he found some flattering cuts. He survived this Sunday in pants because he had an electric fan on him at full blast while he played guitar on stage.

Speaking of the fan, other weeks we put the fan there but it got moved or turned off for random reasons: someone else used it for a moment to cool down and forgot to put it back, or this week, a young toddler was roaming around, saw the button and turned it off without anyone noticing. Luckily I happened to see that it was off a minute before service started and turned it back on. Dustin was like, "Oh yeah, oh, thank God!" Because once you start playing your instrument, you're kinda stuck there for the next 20-30 minutes. You can't just stop playing in the middle of the song, unplug yourself from all the wires you're connected to, put your guitar down, walk across the stage and turn on the fan... while the rest of the band and the whole church waits for you. Haha! So previous times, poor Dustin was just soaked in sweat by the end.

But back to trying to wear clothes that make the temps bearable... Now that I'm in my 30s, I'm finally putting an effort into finding clothes that actually flatter my body. I have slowly built up a wardrobe that is working for me... As much as I want to have all natural fibers for environmental reasons, I have admittedly compromised a lot for the sake of affordability and fashion. And I certainly never accounted for the problem of polyester in the heat. But now I see that it's simply not tolerable. So, this summer, I am often scrounging around my wardrobe, trying to find what I can wear that I won't suffer and dehydrate in, but is also presentable for church, and I'm usually unsuccessful (and late for work)... I'm pulling out the few dresses I only wear on special occasions, and they aren't cutting it. They're either slightly less modest than what I'm comfortable with on a church stage (and I won't cover up more to compensate because it's too hot!), or their materials are all wrong for the heat. I've bought 2 dresses, and a couple more were given to me, and they happen to look good! Now I have 4 wearable dresses, which will get me by for a while...

Because of my body type, dresses tend to make me look... matronly... So this is one of my un-explored areas of fashion. I don't intuitively know which cuts will flatter me. I have to try on 50 dresses before I find one that makes me not feel Amish. Even the same style can have a variety of cuts which are unflattering. So it's an ordeal for me to go shopping for them. Hence I have avoided it until now. And everything is polyester now, so it's amazing if I can find a breathable material that flatters me. Ha! I know... first-world problems.

We did finally get an AC unit. Finding the right unit, getting it, and installing it was a whole ordeal of new factors we didn't know to consider, which we put off until this summer (if I'm honest, that was all Dustin's effort). We finally installed it a few days ago. Now that we have it, it's kinda loud and only cools one room. It's boring to bunker down in my bedroom all day, and my ears get worn out from hearing the noise. We can't install it in the living room because of the way the windows are: it's impractical. Furthermore, it uses a lot of power, and the energy prices here have tripled since the war in Ukraine. We're finally starting to feel that, so we are trying to be frugal and only use it when it's practical (i.e. at night when we have to be home and sleep). But it definitely helps me not dread going home, so it's worth it.

What funny is, I thought I was already getting used to not having AC. I thought I'd already had the full experience of no AC in Europe because I went through suffering in other ways, and was noticing differences when I came into air-conditioned places. Sometimes I don't even like AC anymore. But no... this relationship with the heat is on a whole new level. Like, just imagine: the schools, the office buildings, the restaurants, the churches: they aren't air-conditioned either. Even if you're not sweating, your internal heat is just keeping you on the edge of nausea, and there's only fleeting, temporary relief. You can't even look forward to going home and cooling down after a weekend camping or a day outside. Normal activities start to carry a certain feeling of dread... To a European, I know I just sound whiny. They have learned to cope. But I am clearly not used to this. I have lived in hotter places than this and still not had to deal with this.

I suppose I should feel grateful: I have truly been blessed my whole life enough to genuinely not know what it's like to live with the heat.

Sometimes I'm hard on myself, wondering why I can't seem to get myself in order. Why does it still feel like I'm just surviving? This summer I have less work, and yet I feel more exhausted. I often think, "by now I should have this down, so what gives?" Until I take time to think it through, I don't realize just how invasive the new challenges are. This summer living with no AC has been a huge new challenge which has affected everything I do. And this explains why I haven't been able to spend my time the way I normally would. And realizing this helps me be a little more patient with myself. 

Photo by Mateo Krössler on Unsplash