Most American buildings are air- conditioned between about 20C to 24C degrees. You had a misimpression because few places in Europe, even Paris, have air- conditioning (or even ventilation) in the summer, so you are not used to a sudden change of temperature, from say 32C degrees to 22C degrees (a drop from 90F to 72F in our system).
To get to the other topics: practically no one, then, wears shorts and a t- shirt in winter. I do not know where you were: sometimes in Boston during the summer, it can get to about 20C degrees, because of winds off of Boston Bay, and that can be very chilly. In San Francisco, the temperature can suddenly drop to about 22C degrees in the summer, too, after a warm morning, because of all the surrounding water. Elsewhere, for example, New York or Washington, the temperatures in summer are usually 30C to 38C (about 85F to 100F). Hardly anyone wears shorts below 20C, and usually more like 23C.
I am sorry if I phrased the matter the wrong way. I took the cue of not being willing to admit that you were short of funds, and making up an excuse for not going to a pricey restaurant, but perhaps that is not the right point of generalization. Perhaps I should merely say that Americans have a more casual attitude about money, and are more willing to be "clinical" in talking about it, much as is true about the way we treat sex....... |
