living in Istanbul is like camping in NYC

this phrase floats into my subconscious as i lie half-awake shivering in bed early one morning. it is winter now, and the days are shorter and today it is lightly raining, making the sky outside our bedroom window dark and making it feel like midnight instead of 7:45am. my husband's alarm is going off, a smooth brazilian riff that is far less jarring than the Nelly song that used to jolt me out of sleep.
but we've made progress i argue in my mind. we now have an oven, a washing machine and a dishwasher! but why is it so cold? because the yonetici (building manager) doesn't turn on the heat until 10:30am and as it is our heating bill is 175 YTL a month, i remind myself. seems pretty inefficient.
after my husband leaves for work, being recently unemployed, i sleep until 9:30 and then shuffle into the bathroom and splash my face with ice cold water from the tap. my hands were cold before, but now they are chilled to the bone as i try to wash & brush my teeth with the freezing water. my mind wanders to scenes from shows like Survivor and Frontier House as I wonder how the person lived here before us, and claimed he was an architect.
the built in bookshelves in our bedroom are packed with my clothes, and i pull out a sweater that it damp and cold. investigating further, i pull a stack of clothes from the shelf and see that the wall is slick with cold condensation. my eye travels to the wall of our bedroom where mildew has grown along the baseboard and the chill from the floor is traveling up through my slippers to my feet and legs. what is going on here? there must not be any insulation in the wall. very typical.
i could go to the freezing cold balcony and flip the switch open on the top of the propane tank, and then light the water heater flame, but then i have to shut it off after i am finished using the hot water, because i am afraid to leave it on too long, or else the gas fumes will fill the balcony, which i neither want to inhale or have lingering around ready to ignite.
more later...have to go cook dinner now...