Australia Day

Hello again!

Nothing has really happened in the land of Canada. It was quite cold again last week, between -15 and -30, but I am glad to say it's getting warmer again. Nothing below -10 for the next week and hopefully it will stay like that. I've been spending my evenings after work playing either board games or watching movies on TV with people. Last night I had a blast playing Cranium. Laura, Kylie, Adam and I played it in teams and it was just hilarious fun. You had to move around the board and whatever colour you landed on you had to pick the appropriate card and in teams do various things. Sometimes you had to spell words forwards and backwards in your head, answer various questions, act out scenes or impersonate people or, my favourite, draw or sculpt something using playdo. We played it for about two hours. It went for that long.

The only real event I've been to since I last posted was celebrating Australia Day. Everyone went out at night to pubs and bars. For some reason I went to Auroras', which is a night club. I don't even like nightclubs. I like them even less now, ehehe! I had been working all day then went downtown to the club with Dan, Laura, Adam and Kylie. We were down there at 9pm, when the doors were supposed to open. They didn't actually let us in till about 9:40. Had to stand outside, in a line, in -20 temperatures. It was cold and windy. Laura had open toed shoes on so she was even more cold then us. I had my boots on and my toes were in agony because of the cold. Everyone was dressed up, people had blow up beach balls with the Australian flag on it, throwing them about, till they both popped. The line only seemed to move because everyone was huddling up, trying to get out of the wind. It was amusing in a way.

When we finally did get in I couldn't bear to be on the dance floor, it was too loud. So I spent two hours sitting around, occasionally talking to my friends when they decided to come back from dancing and hang out for a bit. I decided to leave around midnight because I had work the next day and it was just downright dull. I even nearly fell asleep. I think I'm probably one of the only people who could fall asleep with music that loud. I think it was the heavy bass, which shook everything which was probably putting me to sleep.

This was at the beginning of the night. Kylie already looks drunk and that was only her first drink.

I walked home in the dark. Banff is a pretty safe little town. I was confident that I could take any person who looked at me funny. I didn't run into anyone though, which was good. Although when I was walking up Wolverine Street, past the cemetery, at the most darkest part because the street lights were non existent in that section I saw two coyotes peeing on things. I had totally forgotten about the wildlife. That was a bit freaky. I just kept walking, excited to see some, but also hoping they didn't maul me, as I am dreadful at climbing trees. Coyotes are pretty relaxed and vary though. One ran away and the other kept a few meters in front of me, sniffing the ground, peeing, and eventually crossing the road and I just walked passed it and hoped it wouldn't follow me.

At around 1am Aiden and Matt came around knocking on my door, pretending to be security. I only let them in because Kylie was outside the door too and I thought she wouldn't be able to get in because she was trying to tell the guys to go away, ehehe. In the end they all went to the pub downstairs and I could sleep in peace.

It was a good evening, I suppose. Lesson about night clubs has definitely been learned.

Today I went downtown with Adam to go ice skating. Kylie and I were meaning to go ice skating on Saturday but it just never happened. So instead I went with Adam since he had the day off as well and I really don't want to sit at home every time I have a day off work.

We got downtown at about 12:30. Renting skates for the half day only costs $7. I'd like it to be cheaper but considering it costs something like $15 back home to go ice skating this was definitely better. There is something really amazing about being able to grab some skates and just head down to the river and go for it. You don't have to pay to be there, you can come and go as you please, the scenery is much better and it's not packed with people going in the same direction.

Putting on our skates in the snow was funny. We couldn't really sit down because we weren't wearing waterproof pants. So we had to kind of use each other as leaning posts. Adam had never been skating before so I knew it would be a very amusing afternoon. But it was also difficult for myself. I'm not great at ice skating. I know how to go forwards, turn, slow down and keep my balance when I'm about to fall over. And I learnt everything I have from skating on nice, fresh, man made ice. Mother nature isn't perfect. Skating on real ice with cracks in it, covered with snow and full of bumps and dips.... far more difficult. I tried to teach Adam.. something. I don't even know how to skate. I just do it. I can't teach someone else. It's about as natural as riding a bike is. Difficult and unwieldy at first but when you know how to do it you can just always do it.

Needless to say there was a lot of falling over and laughing. Adam got spooked and fell over every time the man with his dog skated past. We did about three or four laps of the long track. Took us about an hour and a half, I'd say. After that we headed back.

Look at those cracks!

Adam, trying to not fall over.

Man walking his adorable little husky.

A stick in the ice.

It was really nice being in the fresh air, skating on a real river. I'm sort of thinking of maybe buying skates. I could definitely see myself doing this once a week for an hour or so. I don't want to pay $7 every time though. But also, I reckon at most there's probably only two months left before the river becomes unsafe and I'm iffy about shipping the skates back home. I'm also iffy about leaving them here. So I don't know. I guess I should see how much a pair would cost, first of all. But the bad thing is no place in Banff sells any. I'd have to go to Canmore or Calgary.

Ah well.

I have something planned on the 2nd of March. Adam, two of his friends, Kylie and myself will be going to a wolf sanctuary and for a lot of money you can go for an hour and a half hike with the wolves through the surrounding wilderness. The wolves are kept in an enclosure and the caretakers take them for walks so they can get exercise. I think that's what it is anyway. So they are semi domesticated. Since there will be five of us going it will cost each of us $101. Pretty good. Adams friends can drive us all there, because it's pretty far out in the middle of nowhere. Then they'll drive us back to the closest city and we'll catch a bus back to Banff. That should be very good, and hopefully I'll get awesome photographs of the wolves.

Kylie and I will also be doing some dog sleigh driving thing soon. They teach you how to mush and then you go and do it. Ehehehe!

Winter activities are fun!