Kerosene

You know that feeling when you're in a nice, toasty bed, and you know you have to get up into a cold room? One that's maybe 40-50*? I miss that feeling. They don't insulate houses (or other buildings) here. And there's no central heating. Which means that the temperature in your house drops at night to close to whatever the temperature is outside. It makes it pretty damn hard to get up.

They've finally turned on the heat in school though- during each hour, it ranges from freezing cold to obnoxiously warm. Why doesn't it stay at a constant temperature? Because they're using kerosene heaters. Which let off carbon monoxide. Which is deadly. And makes me crabby. So you have to air it out by opening the windows and losing all the heat. Which makes me more crabby. And the wasted heat makes them want to save money by heating fewer rooms, so the hallways are unheated- I actually shocked a teacher by saying that we heat them in the U.S. I don't understand the logic here- people are always complaining about how cold it is (samui is my new favorite word), but they use a system that virtually guarantees that they will be cold most of the time. Even though it's significantly warmer here than in Minnesota (we haven't even had a hard frost yet).

The weird thing is that they have electric heaters, and they do know how to insulate. They just choose not to use them. I have no such compunction. Bought my second electric heater on Sunday. It's awesome. And I don't have to open the windows to air the room out either.

Thank god I spent the last year buying clothes that would allow me to deal with being outside in Minnesota winters without getting cold- I'm going to need them to use during class here.