barbecued on the 4th of July

We spent the last week sweltering under a heat wave. And I do mean sweltering. High 30 degree weather, high humidity. Most buildings in Germany do not have air conditioning of any kind. Grocery stores, public transit, and Starbucks tend to be the exceptions, so we actually took a few strolls to our neighborhood Lidl just to cool off a bit.

We also threw a BBQ for the 4th of July. Saturday morning, I hit the town early to pick up a foot-soaking bucket, a big swatch of fabric with which to cover the patio, red, white, and blue candles, last runs for grilling meat, ginger ale, sparkling water, fresh cilantro, and a huge freaking watermelon.

People started showing up at 7, and it was a mix of our common friends like Apo, Ioannis, and another Greek friend, some people from our offices, and a few people from my German course at IFA. Ended up with something like 10-12 people. Most people brought some drinks but many also brought meat for grilling, or some chips, or ice cream.

It was a good party- chill, people just relaxing and chatting. Got a little warm inside but apart from that, the last straglers left around 2 and we are now so old we stayed up to wash the dishes. This, truly, is the metric of 30s.

Sunday was hot. Really hot. It was so hot that it actually broke the autobahn. The concrete and asphalt expanded so much it just buckled and ripped.

I put up a thermometer. Sunday afternoon, inside our apartment, it was 35 C which is 95 F. With this kind of heat, the best thing we can do is to close and shade all our doors and windows starting around 10AM, and then leave them closed until 7 or so, when the outside temperature drops below the indoor temperature. We kept cool with a small electric fan, laying down on the floor, and drinking lots of iced beverages and water, and avoiding speaking too much apart from offers of miee iced coffee.

Sunday night we stayed up late too, to catch the FIFA womens world cup final. 1AM kickoff. It was actually a repeat of the final 4 years ago: Japan vs US. Japan won on PKs. Saori and I watched it together in mom's living room in Astroidtukee. This game though was really good. The US were on fire and delivered a 5-2 game, 3 of those US points within the first fifteen minutes. There was also an impossible scoring shot from the middle of the field.

Cooler today, mercifully, but its going to heat up later in the week and this weekend is going to be another roaster...