As anyone who lives in Berlin, nay, all of Germany, can tell you, this weekend it was full-on proper summer. We’re talking a high of 98 degrees on one day, and 100 the next, which sounds like nothing to my American friends who live in places like Sacramento. But considering there is no air conditioning in the apartments here, this kind of weather can be rough. Most Berliners coped with it by heading out to one of the pools or lakes, or hitting up air conditioned spots like the mall, IKEA, or a movie theater. But with a newborn, our options were pretty limited, as they don’t do well in the heat… so stay at home it was. For Björn, this meant hanging out in diapers all day. For us, it meant drinking a lot of water, having the blackout curtains over the windows, running the fan on full blast, taking multiple showers a day, and soaking our feet in cold water. Eating fresh watermelon and cherries also helped. Thankfully, we survived the heatwave, and I’ll be happy if I don’t have to suffer through another day of that kind of weather for the rest of the summer (or my life).
Since we didn’t end up leaving the house (with the exception of M. going to get groceries and mail letters and other errand-y kinds of things), we didn’t really do much. I read some more (reading a lot of non-fiction this year, for some reason), played some Candy Crush, finally started with the second half of the last season of “Mad Men,” wrote up the birth story, slept, and stared at the kid while he slept. Now the weather is back down to “normal” temperatures (70s and 80s) so I am looking forward to getting out of the house in the coming days.