The trade off

Last week, I wrote an email that we did not have any heat in our apartment, and that it was starting to get a bit chilly. Well, this past week has certainly been an adventure in apartment living in Russia!

Last week, Tuesday-Thursday, we were told that we would not have hot water from 9-5 due to some sort of construction work. Well, it also turned out that we didn't have any cold water for part of the time, as well. So, we were both waterless and without heat for short time.

All last week in Tver the conversations on most peoples' lips regarded when the heat would come on and why there wasn't any heat. With our Russian teachers, as well as those we know at the language school, it was always a guessing game as to when. On Friday morning (at 2 am, via a night train), I let Julie and David to go to St. Petersburg with my boss Brent to participate in the Ingrian church's annual synodical convention. When I left, we were still without heat in our apartment. Furthermore, when I called Julie on Friday night, she informed me that we were also without hot water.

Well, on Saturday, we were given heat in our apartment. In fact, our apartment is toasty warm, almost to the point of being TOO warm--perhaps because we are also on the top floor, we receive residual heat from the apartments below us--(and since there is no way for us to regulate the temperature in our apartment, all we can do is open the window, which seems like such a waste to me).

But, while we do have heat, we have traded hot water to get it. Now, in hindsight, I am not sure which is better--cold apartment with hot water, or hot apartment with cold water. I think the former is better, simply because of the inconviences caused by having to boil water to take a shower or wash dishes.

BUT, that being said, we still have plenty to be thankful for. Olga, my Russian teacher, told me that she just got hot water after 3 weeks of being without. Dasha, one of the English teachers at the school was without both heat and hot water for an extended time--several days, if not weeks (though she just got hot water today--still no heat, though). The more time that I live here and live through these situations, the more I am impressed by the the perserverance found within the common Russian who has experienced these difficult realites for so long.