ugh, weather

One word defines the past week: HOT.

It’s been like 90 here, and humid, with constant sunshine, and no air conditioning. So gross.

Interestingly, every summer, the city shuts off hot water for a few weeks. Since we’re special peeps, we’re provided with our own hot water heater. But a cold shower would feel soooo good right now anyway. I’m having to shower like 4 times a day as it is.

Yesterday I went in for my first look around the office. It, too, was un-air conditioned. Nothing exciting so far, just meeting people. I was still so incredibly tired that I had problems paying attention. After a few hour of non-stop info my brain was ready to pop. And it being like 100 degrees inside didn’t help. I decided it was nap time.

I managed to walk home All By Myself. Okay, so I got a wee bit lost. But I found home again and only had to check out the map a couple times. Yay!

Home is probably a 20 minute walk. A few casinos and sex shops on the way. Also, a lot of shoe repair shops. Everyone walks everywhere here, so shoes get beat up. Or feet, as happened in my case. All the sweat made my feet stick to the leather, and consequently, skin got pretty much completely removed. Ow. Okay, I know wearing tennis shoes everywhere will immediately identify me as an American, but until it cools down, I’m not going to have much choice.

I hear the weather will improve this weekend. I believe today is the longest day of the year, so it could only get better from here, right? We’re planning to go out and see some sites- I have yet to see the city proper- so I really really really hope so.

Jet lag is still giving me problems. Right now it isn’t so much that I’m tired at the wrong times, it’s that I’m hungry at the wrong times. So I’ll be tired in the middle of the night, but I can’t sleep ‘cause my stomach’s growling. I woke up last night at like 2:00 AM. I rolled around for a while, but eventually gave up and got up to get a sandwich. 2:00 AM is the darkest part of the night, and it was still bright enough that while I had my sandwich, I was able to read a book without a light.

Yesterday a shipment of our stuff arrived, so today I’m unpacking it. It’s like Christmas, it’s been so long I forgot what we’d put in there. Also exciting- I figured out how to use our AFN satellite receiver. It gets about 10 English channels, which is pretty exciting. Until now, I was having to watch “Sabrina the Teenaged Witch” dubbed in Russian. But at the moment, “Star Trek: Wrath of Khan” is on. I’m not sure which is weirder: Sabrina in Russian, or Kirstie Allie with pointy ears.

Tonight we have to go to a barbecue being thrown by Americans in our building. The kind of Americans who’ve lived here for a year and haven’t even tried to experience local culture. Yay. Guess I’d better go take another shower to get ready…