Heat is on

Brrrrr. It is cold in Grenoble. We turned the heat on for the first time this year, and I am so grateful that we have the heater working!

For quite some time, our gas water boiler and the hot water tank were both leaking quite bad. We had the maintenance guy come and they recommended that we should replace both of them. When we came back from FCI Agility championship in Liévin, we had one last hot shower and the water boiler died on us for good. The maintenance guy told me that "In France, customers are kings." So I telephoned the real-state agency like one saying "Having no hot water is intolerable!" They were mightier. The agent said it was totally doable, and she thought it may take days before she can give the go sign to the plumbers to do the work. Luckily (from the French standard) we only had to spend three days without hot water, but the filths we have accumulated over these three days seem to haunt us that Nathan and I are still sick.

Although I am sick, I am now operating at my full capacity. My French courses are demanding that I should quickly finish reading L'étranger and move on to L'écumes des jours. Besides teaching at the Japanese complimentary school, I now teach Japanese to the adults in French! I hope they will learn more Japanese than I learn French from them. Chana has a busy schedule too, and she is going to agility three times this week. She is so bored during the day because I am not at home. She seems to help herself jump up on the bed and take a snooze... We need to find out how to retrain her not to do so... Maybe having the heater on will keep her off as she prefers to stay cool :).