Day Fifty-Five: An Alternative Theory

I didn't spill anything on myself yesterday (the whole day!) but it did rain around lunchtime today, so one of the streaks continues.  The rain has brought slightly cooler weather to Istanbul.  Apparently it was 88 yesterday, and since that was "slightly cooler" I can only guess how hot it was for the weeks before that, but the point is the weather's getting nicer.

I have a new theory on the Air Conditioning Crisis after observing an exchange between my coworkers this morning.  The AC was on when I got to the office and stayed that way for about an hour, but once everyone was here the supervisor and Mürşat, the guy sitting across from me, began to confer.  In Turkish, of course.  I have, as usual, no idea what they were actually saying, but the results of this exchange surprised me.  Mürşat turned off the AC as our supervisor opened the windows.  That's right: a coordinated off-turning of the AC implemented by those whom I had thought to be the fiercest opponents in the office on this divisive issue.  After carefully analyzing this occurrence, I'm starting to think that maybe there hasn't been a conflict after all.  Maybe everyone is keenly aware of exactly when they should turn the AC on and when they should open the windows in order to achieve maximum energy efficiency.  Perhaps the Environmental Department is just that good at its job.

In other news, I have two weeks left in Istanbul.  I'm definitely looking forward to going home, but it's sad that our time left here is so short.  We're going with Mujgan to the pool at her college tomorrow and stopping at the same place where we got brunch when we went to the pool with our whole group the day of the music festival, so I'm very excited to be seeing that part of Istanbul again and to have the opportunity to spend the day swimming, reading, and eating.  Reading something that isn't about ecolabelling, that is.  Unless an ecolabel ends up featuring prominently in Balthazar by Lawrence Durrell, which I'm guessing it won't.