4th language blues...

Xin nian kuai le!

I don't think I'd eaten enough before going to my Chinese lesson, because at one point the teacher asked me a question and I couldn't figure out what the hell he wanted me to do. I mean, I knew he wanted me to make a sentence with a certain word, but then he started pointing at a cassette and asking who it belonged to. And all I could do was sit and stare at him with my brain buzzing uncomfortably between my ears, understanding the individual words he was saying but not what he was getting at. I finally mumbled something that seemed to indicate that I had mostly understood, though I really hadn't. I'll have to study some before next week's class to make sure I get it right.

It's experiences like that that keep you humble, and learning another language is about the most humbling thing you can do. It always surprises me how readily I revel in my ignorance in such situations.

For of you clamouring for accounts of my daily ablutions, here's a little nothing. I took a shower this morning, scrubbing all over with my peach-scented smells-good-enough-to-eat bath & shower gel, when all of a sudden --

-- nothing happened! I finished washing, turned off the water, got out the shower, dried myself off and got dressed.

The End.

Damn those figure skating judges, damn them to hell!

Watching the Olympics can be a nerve-wracking experience, and last night was especially stomach-churning for those of us rooting for Salé and Pelletier. Every jump brought new tension, even though it was obvious they were on fire and there's no way they could have skated any better. The crowd agreed, certainly, and leaped to its feet as soon as they finished their number.

And then the marks came... The crowd did not like it one bit. I think this was even worse than when Shae-Lynn and Victor got 4th place at Nagano. So Salé and Pelletier got the silver, which is still an amazing accomplishment, but everyone is saying how they should have won gold (and rightly so!); there's going to be some sort of inquiry into the judging, because when something like this happens, a good programme with a couple of obvious mistakes beating an excellent flawless programme, it's hard for people to turn a blind eye.

They were interviewed on TV just a little while ago, by the CBC sports guy whose name I can never remember (the one who used to wear the fluorescent salmon-pink blazer), and they spoke about Jamie's collision with the Russians during the warm-up, and how they felt, etc. etc. They're both very well-spoken and interesting, and David Pelletier said about kissing the ice, "I may be French-Canadian, but there was no tongue in that kiss!", because apparently on the Tonight Show they're doing a sketch in which his tongue stays stuck to the ice.

They were very calm about everything, and the fact that everyone thinks they deserve gold is worth more to them than actually having it. I don't know if I would be so accepting in that situation, after having worked so hard and with such brilliant results.

Tonight is the men's short programme, which I'll be following with interest. The big thing will be, of course, the ice dancing (next week, I don't know exactly when) and I hope the audience will be even more vocal about who they like. Just to make the rigged judging seem even more despicable.

On an unrelated note, I finished watching the El-Hazard OVAs, the other day. I found it pretty entertaining, and the voice-actors (this was the dub) were mostly very good, especially Shayla-Shayla, Mr. Fujisawa and Jinnai. Makoto and Ifurita and that damn cat/armour thing were annoying, though. The story is interesting, and I found it well-done except for one very important detail. There is NO RESOLUTION! So Ifurita goes back in time (or forward?) and does the loop thing that ensures that everything actually happens, and just when she's supposed to expire, Makoto appears in El-Hazard clothes and apparently saves her. And that's it.

I sat through the credits wondering what the hell was going on. Does this mean Makoto & Co. spend the rest of their lives in El-Hazard? Does this mean that Makoto shacks up with Ifurita and Mr. Fujisawa (forever deprived of cigarettes) shacks up with the priestess whose name I forget? But what about Nanami's crush on Makoto? What the hell happens to Jinnai? Hello?

Bah. I hope they don't expect me to go out and find the sequel OVA or TV series or whatever to find out what happens.