Жара

We've had Ankara weather in Kazan for the past four or five days - above ninety degrees, no cloud cover and low humidity.

Fine. I don't have air conditioning, but I deal with heat pretty well, and my apartment is on the first floor of a Stalinka, a Stalin-era apartment building characterized by good construction, thick walls, high ceilings, and neo-Classical style. Say what you will about Stalin - the man knew how to build stuff. (See also: Moscow Metro, Moscow State University.) Stalinki are well-insulated, and being on the first floor and surrounded by trees means that it's very shady and cool. Day five of the heat wave and I'm still going to bed with a blanket on.

BUT. I came home from an outdoor rock festival last night (I saw Сплин! They were great!), dirty, hot, tired, and hungry, and found that they had turned off the water in our building. Not just the hot water - ALL the water.

This. This is Russian hardball.

So far I'm doing fine - I had things for dinner that didn't require water (translation: cookies), watched the U.S. fail at soccer (confession: Amara had to threaten to revoke my citizenship to get me to change from a made-for-TV drama on the Kultura channel called "Hyphenated Surname"), had a cup of green tea, and used the last of my 5-liter jug of bottled drinking water to brush my teeth and wash my dirty feet before bed. Only the necessities!

But I woke up this morning and Russia is still playing hardball. Must decide whether to go to the store and buy two 5-liter jugs of drinking water – one for drinking/cooking and one to rinse myself off – or to check out the local banya. I'm thinking banya. The banya makes you feel clean for days, and who knows how long this water thing will last.