Enduring Dresden's Endearing Dreads

It's not fair, really.

Winter lasted a good two months longer than it was supposed to, and then after a three week taste of summer came back for another couple weeks. So by the time summer weather rolled around to stay in the middle of June we were all kicking our heels up at the thought of nice, warm, 25C days.

But no.

For the past few weeks now it has been so unbelievably hot here that it seems that just as winter never ended, the heat will never cease. I'm a Canadian here, I thrive on a mild summer climate! Throw whatever you want at me in winter, but please, there's only so much one can do in an attempt to remain comfortable in 30C+ heat. And as for the cool breeze of air conditioning, let's just say my best hope to bask gloriously in its refreshment is to hang out endlessly at the only mall in town. Not that I don't love reliving memories of being in junior high school, but...

So what can one do to combat the ridiculous heat? All interior designers would be appalled at our temporary solution to avoid buying majorly expensive blinds for our windows--aluminum foil. Yep. And it seems to help too! Our previously successful tactic of opening all windows during the night and closing them early in the morning was sabatoged recently as it stopped getting cool at night a few days ago. So it seems at present that our best bet is to remain as motionless as possible or "minimizing the kinetic energy," as Grady would say. It wasn't like this last summer...why now? Can a person never know what kind of weather to expect in this city?*

Another funny thing about living in Dresden is the construction. Seriously, how many construction projects can one city have going at once? I know there is some sort of mad rush to prepare for the upcoming festivities--in a couple weeks the celebration for Dresden's 800th anniversary commences and the city is expected to flood with visitors--and it also doesn't help that winter lasted so long. But it seems that one can't turn a corner without running into another bunch of machinery and roadblocks. Not to mention that when they are working below cobblestone roads they have to pull up each of the stones individually and then set them all back by hand when they're done. I wouldn't want that job-!

The last dread I'll mention is the air right now. Don't get me wrong, Dresden has nice air. Clean, fresh (mostly) and breathable. Except for right now. It seems to be attacking my heat-weakened lungs with its "extreme allergins" (as the doctor said) at the moment. This didn't happen last year either! And one would think that after living in every-allergin-under-the-sun-Oklahoma for three years and not suffering that I could easily survive anywhere else in the world. Apparently not. I'll let you all know when I can start thinking clearly (and breathing through my nose) again. Excuse me, I've gotta go blow my nose...

*ok ok, I know it's impossible to actually ever know what to expect regarding weather, but seriously, what about weather trends and general regional climates!?