Water rationing

There are two options for hot water for buildings in Plovdiv. One is coming from the small boilers, usually located in the bathroom, that heat cold tap water on demand. These usually work on electricity and you turn them on around 20 minutes before taking a shower, for example. Mom is familiar with this kind, because it's very common in Greece. The second kind is what they call here "running hot water", and it seems to be running like regular water, thought city pipes, only it's hot. Hot water in our building is of the latter variety.

This time of the year the city performs maintenance in the hot water pipes. Simply put, no hot water for two weeks. Fortunately for mom our landlord has thought about everything, and has installed a backup boiler in the basement. There is a little problem though: this is a boiler for a family apartment, not for an 8-family building. As a result, our landlord made up a sign-up sheet (he calls it "showering Communist style), and all humans picked their shower slot.

I don't care that much - on the contrary, I take great pleasure in getting my fur as greasy and glossy as possible - but mom was troubled by this. Something to do with humans' fixation with showers, I can't understand it really. Fortunately she adapts easily, so now she's just amused by the situation. It also helps that she likes to take a shower before going to bed, unlike most Americans and Germans who are morning 'showerers'. Mom always knew that someday it would pay off not being an early bird :)

Other than the water situation, there was also some excitement in the "intercultural communication between landlord-tenant" field. Mom has a colleague at school whose mother is a real estate agent and she insisted on taking mom to see an apartment. Mom explained that we're fine here, and the only reason to move would be if we found something cheaper. The colleague insisted, and mom, out of fear of offending her, accepted.

Well, it turns out that it's very hard NOT to offend someone in a city like Plovdiv which in many ways is a big village. We went to see this apartment at 6pm, and were back by 6:30. By 7pm our landlord had been informed of mom's 'treason' and called an emergency meeting. Mom had to listen to a long lecture about loyalty, gratitude, and a very very hurt pride. Two meetings and four hours of talking later, peace has been restored. Until the next misunderstanding.

Other than that, things have been quiet, maybe too quiet. Mom has been going to school mostly to meet with students individually and advise them on various issues, mainly college applications. There has been no teaching yet, as teachers were busy with the famous entrance exams.

So mom is bored, and that's not good. She gets weird when she's bored. She's also a little lonely, though she doesn't like to admit it. Most people she met at FISI are in Sofia or abroad, and here in Plovdiv everybody seems to struggle with their own lives and don't have much time for new friends, especially foreigners. Of course I'd like her to walk me all day since she has the time, but truth is that I'm not very walkable these days either, since I have my own troubles with the mating season. So yesterday she started downloading movies from the Internet. I'm a little worried that she will fall back to her old habits...Let's hope that school work will pick up soon...