Breaking out the long john's

This morning when I woke up it was 14.6 degrees (C) in my room. 14.6 C. That's pretty nippy. That translates to about, oh, 58.3 American degrees. Bed never felt so comfortable.

The thing here is not that it's so much colder than the U.S., but that it's so much colder inside here than it is inside in the U.S. It's so much cheaper to just not turn on the heat that the school decides it's worth it to just freeze to death. This morning we got a nice surprise when we walked in the office, though: they finally turned on the heat in our office! (yesterday we shorted the fuse twice using our little space heater)

The city controls the heating in our apartment building. They still haven't turned it on. Imagine this: a concrete building with single-pane windows, some windows that don't quite close all the way and some with holes in them, and 0 degrees C at night. I see now why most Asians don't take showers in the morning. You have to thaw yourself out once you're through. I have a little space heater, but I'm reluctant to start using it yet. I would certainly be happy to have it on physically, but psychologically I just can't make myself break it out yet. I just keep thinking it's going to get much colder. I think if I can convince myself that right now it's not as bad as it can be, that it will get much worse, then when it does get much worse I can turn the heater on and it will feel so much better. That's my reasoning at least. Sound reasoning, I think, but we'll see how sound it is come January.

All that is to say, I finally broke down and put on the long john's this morning. I've been trying to save them until I just couldn't take it any longer. I probably could've lasted a few more days, but I know that my friends have already given in. So I felt like less of a wimp for already wearing them in November. ;) (not that my friends are wimpy....the fact that they've already started wearing clothes under their clothes probably makes them smarter, actually)