We got up at 9 today — overslept. But the ground didn’t wake us. In gratitude, we decided to get everything done that was planned for us. Without washing, without shaving, in our underwear, we began preparations for test runs of the scientific instruments. We’re checking the RT-4 X-ray telescope, the BAZK star camera, and the KATE-140 photographic camera. Tolya took on the no less important “little things” here. He’s attaching extra elastic bands for securing objects, tying down pencils and tools, setting up an additional communication link in the transfer compartment. Meal prep has become a matter of whoever is free does it. In general, life, as in any new place, proceeds through getting used to things, settling into the house, all sorts of adjustments and rearrangements. We stowed the spacesuits behind a station panel — it’s roomier now.

The day flies by in work; there isn’t even a chance to look at the Earth, though we need to start getting familiar with it — we have many Earth-observation tasks. Something may have given me a chill; my nose is stuffed up. True, the guys said that here your nose stays stuffed for a while because of the blood rushing to the head. I worked out on the bicycle ergometer; it was a pleasure. I pedaled with my hands, with my legs, invented different exercises, got my pulse up to 160, though I didn’t sweat much. Over Africa, I observed thunderstorms. A fantastic picture — continuous flashes of lightning, blooming like little carnations, quivering in the light, spreading, and then taken up again by neighboring flashes, merging into a solid shimmering, dancing sea of light against the clouds. We flew over oil fields in Africa — a vast area covered in orange flames of flare stacks, like streetlamps. Over the sea, I observed a dark line against the blue water. Can’t figure out what it was. Need to consult. Tomorrow is a hard day; time to sleep.