Anyone who knows me well is aware of how I don't like to be hot. I often would turn the heat down very far in the winter, open windows, and other measures to ensure that I was not too hot. Some people would walk around bundled up in sweatshirts in my apartment but I would stick to shorts and t-shirt still.
I reached a new level here in Moscow though. The heat is controlled centrally by the government (surprise) and they turn it on and off at specific times during the year. As it's radiator heat I can't set the temperature in my apartment but I knew it was hot. I decided I would just turn off the radiators and get the heat from the other apartments in the building as that likely would have kept it above freezing which is warm enough for me to sleep.
This all seemed like a great idea, until I got a message from my landlord today to see if I did anything with the radiators in my apartment and if I wouldn't mind if she checked them out. Apparently by turning them off where I did I effectively shut off the heat to the apartments above and below me. I did this last week and she was out of town as well and there was some correspondence in the building asking people to check for this because there were complaints of no heat. Leave it to the only American in the building to shut off the heat...
I was told that to regulate the temperature I should just open the windows. This will seem like a great idea when it's in the 20's and I have my windows open, with the heat pumping away, wasting natural gas which is free for Russia and it's only leverage to bargain with the West.
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