hot water

in russia, every year, the hot water gets shut off. for one month.
(hey, at least they do it in "summertime"!)

this stems from the good old soviet times. they need to clean and "remont"/renovate the water system.

in moscow, the exact month depends on your district. in any case, you can always tell when that time of the year has started again (that is, the first district is without hot water) by the smell in the metro. actually, it's not the metro that smells, but the people.

so what does one do in these weeks?
- you go on holiday (for expats)
- you buy a water boiler (for expats)
- you go to the banya (for expats and russians)
- you go to your friends/relatives/colleagues to shower (for russians)
- you heat up water on your stove and wash yourself with that (for russians with no friends/relatives/colleagues, or russians with friends/relatives/colleagues who live in the same district)
- you simply don't shower (mainly for russian men)

how do i do it? i have a water boiler but don't know how it works so i go away during that time...