Just when I thought I had been lucky to leave Spain right before the brutal summer heat set in, I returned home to find that the US was no better. In fact, the states just experienced the hottest week that I can remember, coupled with a drought, that has resulted in lakes drying up, highways cracking, and people dying. I was completely, absolutely miserable for about 3 days before I realized that this is the heat that Andalusians deal with all summer: 115 degrees and humid. God bless their little hearts for creating siestas, white houses, and narrow streets with canopies overhead. America could learn a lesson or two.
Jimena de la Frontera, a pueblo blanco near Algeciras.
[Source] Canopies over the streets of Seville.
This past week Wisconsin experienced above a 110 degree heat index for 4 days straight.
I would wake up in the morning and brush my teeth, and by the time I was done, sweat was already beading on my face. Sleeping only happened after I channeled my inner zen to imagine that I was actually napping on a beach with the sun on my face, and not baking in the oppressive heat at 11pm at night. All four of us roommates (plus my roommates dog) spent our days splayed out on our backs, moving as little as possible and trying in vain to cool down.
This made for an interesting 4th of July. Matt and I went with our roommate and his girlfriend to a local town parade. We lasted 20 minutes before we had to call it quits from the heat. I felt so sorry for the marching bands, who were wearing dark pants and long sleeve shirts. That is the one day that it would have been acceptable to "call in sick".
Some places cancelled fireworks, because they didn't want to risk a spark landing on the grass and setting the whole place on fire. Other places kept the fireworks, but made sure they had the entire fire truck squad on hand, in case anything were to happen. Matt and I watched some fireworks from a nearby park, and sweat out a couple liters of water just walking there.
Thankfully, the heat wave finally broke Saturday morning. It actually got to the point of being chilly at night, but I refused to put on a sweatshirt. The novelty of being cold was just too good to pass up :)
Now if we could just get some rain...the grass is so dry it hurts to step on.
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