It makes a village

It's still freezing. The record low Jen's Room Temperature I mentioned a couple posts ago was broken the next day by a delightful morning of 32.8 degrees Farenheit, or 0.5 degrees Celsius. I was overjoyed.

The frozen water pipes have turned the tables on all my cushy bourgeois advantages that come from living in a town. Yesterday, I took a bucket bath for the first time in over a year. Just now, I've been told that we're to use the oft-forgotten squat toilet out back, rather than the two renovated Western bathrooms, one of which is right outside my bedroom, that have sheltered me from the squat for 17 months.

The irony is that I visited my friend in a Gurian village yesterday, and her shower and toilet are fully functional. Woe to my hubris. Now the only advantages left are 1) the giant TV, and 2) internet. As I've come to despise the giant TV for playing mostly Latin American soap operas and fake Russian concerts (don't you people ever sing live?!), that leaves internet. Perhaps by writing this, I've cast a jinx on Samtredia that will cause our internet to go down-- it happens-- but if that occurs, I guess you won't find out about it until it's over.

However, enough of that; let's remember things to be thankful about. Thank God I usually have internet. Thank God the sun is staying out later each day. Thank God Misha's inauguration went off peacefully. Thank God I'll be really busy this week with grant proposals.

Thank God I'll be on a beach in Croatia in six months. I'll leave you with the pictures that occupy my mind these days



This one's nice.



This is good too.



And then there's here...