Hot Water Today!

We have hot water today!

This might seem to an odd thing to be happy about, but we have had only cold water for the last ten days. In most Russian apartment buildings the hot water comes from a central heater which is controled by the apartment complex. In the summer the hot water is often shut off, sometimes for maintenance on the heating units and pipes and sometimes just because it is summer and why would you need hot water when it is hot outside? So, we have had our hot water shut off and on about 5 times so far this summer. Being without hot water makes us really grateful when we do have it. We are both looking forward to a long, warm shower today.

Here is a picture showing how we heat our water for dishes and bathing when we don't have hot water available. The cold water in our apartment is like ice water! it is impossible to shower in it. We plug in this big coil water heater and heat the water with it. It takes about ten minutes to heat this tub of water.