HOT
The UK is experiencing one of their hottest summers ever on record. Weeks and weeks of sunshine and not a hint wintery storms or rain. 90 degrees is hot, but after living in Japan and being raised in California, I should be able to deal with this, right? Wrong.
In countries where hot weather is expected if not guaranteed, buildings are designed to cope. In SoCal, there is A/C everywhere. Houses are spacious, painted light colors, and large windows are equipped with screens so that they can be opened wide to let in cool evening breezes without the fear of little children falling out or wildlife getting in. In Japan, A/C isn't nearly as ubiquitous, but it is there where you need it most. There are fans and large windows to generate refreshing air flow. However, in the UK, there is no A/C, no fans, and no windows to open. This translates to stifling heat at home, at work, and outside. There is no escape.
My dorm room is on the fourth floor of a building having large glass (untinted) windows that face directly east or west so that aside from high noon, the building is bombarded with direct sunlight for 18 hours a day. What's more, these windows don't open so the entire building becomes a greenhouse and is often much hotter inside than it is outside. Top that off with the fact that hot air rises, and my top floor room becomes a veritable oven.
At work, it's not much better. There is a ventilation system that doesn't necessarily cool the air, but by pure virtue of good circulation, the temperature remains comfortable most of the time. However, said ventiliation system has been BROKEN in my wing for the last couple of weeks and as we speak, my forearms are sticking to the desk as I type up this entry. Gross. The only escape is the cold room where we store things that need to be kept refridgerated. But I can't exactly sit in there too long; being only 39 degrees, it's a bit too cold for comfort. And oh, as luck should have it, my lab is also on the top floor, right underneath the sunroof-type thing which merely compounds the problem by letting in more unwanted sunlight.
Outide is actually not any better than inside today. The previous two set-backs were tolerable up until today because the weather, while hot, has remained dry. The lack of humidity kept the sun bearable and the evenings and mornings are actually pretty nice. Cool and breezy. Today, the day started off with some thunderstorms which did nothing but to make the air heavy with moisture. This is expected to keep up for the next few days.
Blargh... I need central air conditioning.
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