Steam-Heat!

The repairman called today at 7:30 am to say he'd be there in half an hour to try and fix our hot water. Hooray!

Yesterday really emphasised our entire family's dependency on hot water. We had to boil pots and pots of water on the stove and the kettle to watch the dishes left untended in the dishwasher, and then I did it again to clean all the dishes made when I baked fudge pudding cake for dessert. To spare ourselves further hours of heating water on the stove, we went out to eat, then came back and had the pudding.

Yesterday night, Sister #2 and I ended up washing our hair over the sink while Mum poured jugs of warmed water over our heads, the way we used to do when we were babies. Sister #1 declined and took a cold shower the next day, but considering we live in Canada, and we just had a record freezing snowfall of 22 cm, it was extremely painful and she regretted it immensely.

I just had my second Japanese midterm today, and it went a lot better, even though I ran out of time so I couldn't finish the composition part (I was to write 7 sentences about a memory, but I only managed 5). I've been giving a lot of thought to my Japanese class, especially since the Registrar is strongly urging me to register for next year's courses in four days. At first I was only planning to take Japanese to get my 6 credits of second (although, technically it's my third language) language courses for my English major.

I originally planned to make Film Studies my minor, but I had a really awful experience with Film studies this year, when my prof went off about socialism and Lacan and Freud and I trailed along, paying very little attention but getting a lot of fantasy writing done. Besides, all things considered, what will Film Studies do for my career choices? I'd like to be a film critic, or a screenwriter, but sometimems Film Studies just seems to me to be one big giant elective bird-course.

Besides, I really took off on Japanese. I faltered a little this semester, because a lot more complicated things got shot my way and my oral comprehension skills are still very slow, but I'm still the star pupil of my class. I mean, if I really needed the 6 credits so badly, all I had to do was take French 101, challenge the exam with my 12 years of French immersion, and get the 6 credits for pretty much nothing.

A Japanese minor also offers me a lot of opportunities. First of all, with my skills, it'll be sure to boost my GPA, which will make it easier to get into Library Studies. Secondly, it also offers me jobs in tourism and translation. I could take a translation course, and get a job writing for NewType or something. Translate manga for a living.

Still, film is fun. I like movies. I LOVE movies. But in the end, what will Film Studies leave me with? I came out of my Hollywood Film class with absolutely nothing. My third year is coming up, and it's about time I started thinking about my future career. I'd like to be a novelist of course, but I need something else to pay the bills while I write on the side.