Because Americans love air conditioning, in any weather and during any season. Sure, in the summer, one might think air conditioning is a good idea. After all, what we would give for air conditioning on the often-sultry days in the Czech Republic, where it is far from commonplace, even though the number of "thirty-plus degrees Celsius" days is increasing every year. The problem is that air conditioners in America only seem to have about two positions. "Off" and "deep freeze". Nothing in between. Even on the hottest summer days, many people are wearing sweaters and sniffling inside buildings. There's probably some truth to the idea that air conditioning in buildings has been set up for decades to make men feel comfortable in a three-piece suit.
The atmosphere on a plane heading across the ocean will often be the first clue that you're heading to a country that, in addition to its proverbial love affair with the car, also has a passionate relationship with air conditioning. If you're flying on a European airline, you're looking at pretty standard room temperature. But the air inside the planes of American airlines is freezing cold, so the blanket you'll get on a trans-Atlantic flight will be that much more appreciated. While this is an icy blast of home for returning Americans, it is a sign of things to come for warmth-loving Europeans.
After landing, you will find yourself complaining repeatedly about the air conditioning “working overtime” and icy drafts. Especially before you at least partially get used to it. But the welcoming cold doesn't usually pass you by anyway. It's a bit comical that if you complain about how cold you are, your American colleagues will generally agree with you, saying "yes, it's really a bit much", only to order ice water in a freezing restaurant. It would seem that they've sort of grown accustomed to the cold air.
But in time you get used to it, as I did. Eventually, you'll find that it's actually practical. You can always put on an extra layer, and when you're able to function all day, even during a hot summer day, without feeling like you're going to melt already by noon, you'll admit to yourself that there's something to this penchant for the cold. While in the Czech Republic the second half of the summer workday, when the office turns into a sweat lodge under the sun, can be a fight for your life, in America you still feel the same as on any other day. Cold. At the end of the day you go home refreshed, with a sense of dignity, not dried out like a dehydrated piece of fruit. In the end, it even occurs to you whether by any chance the performance of the American economy does not actually depend on the performance of its air-conditioning units.
In fact, if it weren't for the sometimes much-maligned cold drafts, life would be tough in much of the United States from spring through fall. And you don't even have to live in the Deep South. Even the proverbial stuffy capital city, where your glasses get fogged up on the way out of the building (that is not the other way around, as is usually the case), will eventually make you take those droning, cold-air-spewing machines as an act of mercy. After all, it's no coincidence that among the statues depicting the giants of American history on display in Congress is the immortalized John Gorrie, inventor of artificial refrigeration, the forerunner of today's air conditioning. He constructed and operated his greatest invention in Florida. Unsurprisingly.
Martin Jirušek
Department of International Relations and European Studies, FSS MUNI
Currently a Fulbright Scholar at George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
On the last Wednesday of June, the courtyard and auditorium hosted our traditional Semestr-End gathering. The afternoon offered space for informal get-togethers across the faculty, complete with refreshments, a relaxed atmosphere, and a well-deserved break after the demanding end of the semester.
Read the latest installment in our series introducing colleagues from various units across the faculty. In each edition, one colleague answers the same set of seven questions. This time, we spoke with Michaela Kolková, who is responsible at the Communication Office for coordinating outreach to prospective and newly admitted students and for strengthening partnerships with secondary schools.
