Week in review: 23 – 29 May 2022

I would like to dedicate this post to our air conditioner, which this week we switched on for the first time this year.

I survived 35 years of my life without an A.C. First, because I don’t even know if there were any in the GDR. They were definitely not available to the average person. Also, summers in northern Germany can be anything from super hot to winter like. Then, in Istanbul I never felt that I needed an A.C. Yes, summers there are hot. But they are also pretty dry. I just pulled down the shades during the day and then open all windows in the late evening for a pleasant draft.

So moving to the U.S. … how different could it be except for that people love to sit in the cold? In the same way that they love plenty of ice in their drinks (something I still refuse flatly)?

Oh boy, was I proven wrong! Summers in the northeast are hot and humid, sticky and smelly. Apartments in Boston and NYC have windows (most of them at least, I believe), but usually only to one side. There isn’t any chance for a draft. Of course I learned to put fans in the windows, but they do not always fit. And cats. My cats have always liked to push over fans. Also, in my second apartment in Cambridge the trash cans were right in front of the windows. So all the fan did was to spread the smell even more. Oh the memories …

The apartment we rented on Lexington Avenue for two years had an A.C. A lovely, very old A.C. from the 1960s. It also worked accordingly and our landlord didn’t feel like replacing this historic artifact.

When we decided to purchase our apartment in Turtle Bay last year, we checked both A.C. units below the windows properly. They are amazing.

What is even more amazing is that we have a third unit. It is connected to the building’s cooling tower, uses remarkably little energy and cools down our whole apartment to pleasant temperatures (I still pull down the shades every afternoon). This week we switched it on for the first time this year – and it is still absolutely wonderful. All five of us, that is three humans and two cats, enjoy the perfect temperatures and less humidity greatly. I hope it will serve us for many more summers.

|Watched| Küchenschlacht, GNTM, Morbius

|Read| The Tower of Nero, The Sword of Summer

|Listened to| some of my Spotify playlists

|Done| worked a bit, celebrated my birthday, looked after Josephine

|Eaten| polenta and beans, tomato soup and fried cheese sandwich, lemon asparagus pasta, potato salad, peach Melba cake

|Drunk| water, coffee, beer

|Thought| can we all always sleep until 7 a.m., please?

|Been happy| that Arti passed her half-annual vet check-up

|Laughed| when Josephine wriggled Lotti’s favorite toy (a stick string) and Lotti definitely finally realized that the baby could prove to be useful after all

|Desired| a few summery things

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|Bought| I went to Victoria Secret for some “normal” underwear for the first time in forever, a car battery, I ordered a few things from Sephora

|Clicked| I enjoyed reading these kids’ tips immensely: Toby and Anton’s Guide to Life

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