First published in Deník N.
Americans laugh at Europeans for not having air conditioning in their buildings. Europeans tell Americans that they would not need it if the overuse of air conditioning in the United States were not contributing to global warming. Both sides are a little bit right, but not by much.
Everyday life in the US differs from Europe in many respects: more cars, wider motorways, almost no public transport, greater social inequality, larger portions in restaurants. And above all, vast space, plenty of room everywhere, horizontal expansion.
Despite all these differences, my most striking recurring experience was how easy it is to catch a chill in America in summer. You land, say, in Houston, where daytime temperatures throughout the summer range between thirty and forty degrees , so roughly as it was in Europe several times already this summer, except with higher humidity, which makes the local heat more oppressive. Within two minutes, your shirt is soaked through.
Then, in that damp shirt, you walk into the lobby of a hotel, a shopping mall, an office or any other building, first breathing a sigh of relief… but after a while you realise it is not such a blessing after all.
