A Girl and Her Soba

So if any of you have had the pleasure to talk to my these past few weeks, especially during my evening hours, you will likely have heard me battle with lighting my soba. A soba is a clay brick enclosed fireplace that you shove wood into so it radiates heat throughout the room. Soba's are traditionally for country dwellers, everyone's grandparents have one in every room. Here in Herculane we do not have gas lines that run to our town so everyone has one as the only source of heating their homes.

I wasn't exactly the best Girl Scout in the world, our troop preferring to go shopping and have overnights in hotel rooms over learning how to build fires and take care of them. ( My mother actually once took us all on a walk at night and left our fire untended in the middle of Camp Lakapodia, but thats a story for another day) So maintaining a fire all day requires trips to the wood pile.

The selection of the right combination of log sizes has taken me weeks to perfect.

The other thing about soba heat is that there is virtually no way to regulate the temperature your apartment will inevitably reach. Its pretty much...cold or tropical heat wave. The following is a discussion I had with a fellow volunteer and dear friend

[8:09:25 PM] Joel Piche: whatup
[8:09:50 PM] Elizabeth White: contemplating a shower
[8:09:56 PM] Joel Piche: not a terrible idea
[8:10:03 PM] Joel Piche: but being cold? brrr
[8:10:35 PM] Elizabeth White: sobas= no control over how warm your apt gets
[8:10:39 PM] Elizabeth White: ergo
[8:11:01 PM] Elizabeth White: the necessity of clothes because you are on the ground floor and your window is like a display at the zoo
[8:11:13 PM] Joel Piche: lol. not good
[8:11:15 PM] Joel Piche: no walking around naked
[8:11:16 PM] Elizabeth White: clothes become the... instigator of stinkiness
[8:15:02 PM] Joel Piche: that's my least favorite part about cold weather
[8:15:06 PM] Joel Piche: bundling up at home
[8:17:13 PM] Elizabeth White: agreed bundling is only fun when snowmen are involved
[8:17:51 PM] Joel Piche: word
[8:18:07 PM] Joel Piche: but....
[8:18:11 PM] Joel Piche: i like not wearing clothes
[8:18:15 PM] Joel Piche: more than making snowmen