100 degrees and open windows

A few days ago Bailey, a contract teacher from the US, and I were sitting in a hot office with our interpreter, Mr. L., sweating miserably as we struggled with the university's computer grading system.  Every teacher knows the potential for confusion and frustration when entering end of semester grades on an unfamiliar system.  That alone is challenging enough, but we also had the added joy of not being able to read anything on our screens, so Mr. L. had to hop back and forth between our computers translating.

I arrived at 9 am, completely drenched in sweat from my climb up the mountain to the upper campus.  The temperature was already 88 degrees; it just doesn't cool off much at night.  All week Chongqing's weather has been hot and humid with temperatures ranging from 80 degrees at night to 100 degrees during the day.  We get those temperatures in Idaho, but it's the 45%-100% humidity that's killing me.  Friends from Iowa say that's the way it is in the midwest.  How do people survive?  Some local Chinese friends speculate that the lake from Three Gorges Dam affects Chongqing weather.  I missed the full explanation about the reasons.

Bailey and I roasted for hours in that office where the air conditioner didn't work and the windows were open.  Even if the AC did work, the windows would still be open.  Mr. L. would get us both going, and then leave us to cool off in the office across the hall where the windows were open and the AC was running full blast.  Leaving windows open in winter and summer is a way of life in China.  In winter, there's no heat in Chongqing so people use space heaters and bundle up in quilted snowmobile suit looking pajamas, and they leave the windows open.  In summer, the AC is on and the windows are open.  They believe it's important to have "fresh air," otherwise we will get sick.  Never mind that Chongqing is one of the most polluted cities in the world and breathing the "fresh air" is actually like smoking cigarettes. 

Health aside, I'm really questioning the environmental ethics of this practice.  Isn't everyone in the world supposed to conserve energy?  Look for ways to reduce our carbon footprint?  Global warming is happening and it's everyone's problem.  

Mr. L. didn't listen to my mild protest about having the AC on with the window open in the adjacent office, so I tried:  "If we close the windows in both offices, maybe this office could cool off too."  Nope, apparently not.

At one point Bailey looked over at me with sweat clouded eyes, or maybe it was her I'm-going-to-kill look, and said, "I'm 45 minutes from blowing."  All I could do was laugh, I mean, that precise time only comes from experience.  Almost 6 hours later, we were finally done entering grades, exhausted, needing showers, and feeling that end of semester teacher euphoria.