In my mid-morning, early-afternoon leisure time, I have decided to begin regularly exercising in order to gain the strength and agility of my peasant forefathers (or mothers). Unfortunately, the day that I made this decision was the day that the city chose to shut off hot water for two weeks in my apartment building - a regular procedure in this part of the world. My sister-in-law called it some word that I translated to preservative, or laxative - I think I might have misunderstood her. Heating up two pots of hot water in order to bathe must be something I have done before, so in the end, this procedure is beneficial - maybe it will trigger some frigid bath time memories from the Soviet days (this has to be one of the reasons people don't smile very often).

On the bright side, the strawberries here are better than any I have tasted before (or again, I must have tasted these before, but thank god for psychological mental blocks, I get to experience this fruit as if I never have before). It's unclear where any of the fresh produce comes from. As far as I understand, they're continuing to farm in the Chernobyl affected areas. It's probably more economical to shop that way, makes you stronger, etc.

My brother told me to check out hot tours to Egypt or Turkey. To explain, these are vacation packages that are all inclusive (unlimited pizza, vodka - two things Eastern Europeans seem to love), beaches, foreigners. When you go on one of these, you do not leave the premises of the hotel (why would you look at pyramids when you can find pictures on the internet?), and every night attend the hotel club, which is frequented by a rotating group of ten people (five of which will be bored looking Czech girls every time).

To be honest, Turkey is looking pretty good. They probably have hot water there. And Czech girls.