Banff 2

Hi.

I haven't posted for a while and I still haven't told you much about Banff. I better try and catch up now.

Banff is a small town, surrounded by mountains (Exhibit A)


Most people here are tourists, which is completely understandable. Banff is in a National Park so there are strict rules about expansion and who can actually live here. There are elk and chipmunks everywhere, but I haven't seen any bears yet. The weather is pretty mixed. We had a few really hot days last week, which melted a lot of snow upriver, so the Bow River, which flows right through town, has burst its banks by quite a lot.

This is a photo I took of the rapids at the Bow Falls, just out of town a wee bit.

The locals say that they've never seen the river so high.

Also going at the moment in Banff, is a bit of sewer-replacement down the main street, but since this is a tourist town they advertise it as "Banff Refreshing" and plaster the town with pictures of squirrels with paintbrushes.


That was the main street. You can see Mt. Rundle (I think) in the background.

Anyway, that's Banff described. I haven't mentioned anything that I've been doing yet, which is probably the most interesting part, but I thought I'd do some kind of background.

I last blogged a week ago, and I said something about the wedding I did where we took the couple down to Vermillion Lakes. I also mentioned that I was looking for a bike. I had no success at garage sales, because all the bikes got snapped up before I arrived. When I wanted to go down to the Vermillion lakes (to have a picnic and read) I had to go on foot. I was walking down the track when I saw a cyclist trying to take a photo of her partner, so I went up and offered to take their photo together. Then they said "Oh, it's Helen!" and I was confused for a moment, before I recognised that they were the couple whose wedding I'd just been to. They asked me if I had found a bike yet, so I guess I must have mentioned that I was looking for one, and when they came past for the second time (it was a one way track so they had to pass me again) they offered to give me a spare bike they have lying in their garage in Calgary.

So Andrew's going to pick it up for me when he can.

I did various other stuff this week, like hiking up Sulphur Mountain and getting the gondola down as part of a walking programme that's just started where you can choose what you want to do from a schedule, and meet like minded people at a certain time to do it. You also get a free frisbee. There was only one other guy who turned up for this one, and he was an Aussie travelling for a few weeks after finishing a winter job in a ski resort in Colorado.

I also went to FREE pasta night and met a few folk, and last night I went to a women's rugby club, which was kind of fun, but I can only go to practices because it's really expensive to join officially. I've been out with Becky, from nextish door and her friends (who seem to be quite lively) a couple of times, and I've met some of John and Tonya's friends, so already I'm bumping into folk whenever I go into town.Also, I've volunteered to do some videography at an event next Thursday called "One Hot Summer" (there's a battle of the bands and free food). Yoga wasn't so great though. I just got tired of taking it seriously. Still, that's $3/week saved.

I am trying to be economical at the moment because I'm only working part time. Still, I only really have to buy my own food, but there are so many different occasional expenses... Well, if I start running out of money, it is really easy to get a job around here.

John's just got wifi, so I can be online more now. I've got used to sleeping in and staying up late now. It's maybe because there are good blinds in my room. Today there were no weddings, so I worked in the office all day. Gabriela gave me an album to put together, which she's going to go over later in the week. Hopefully, I'll be going out on a shoot tomorrow though. Andrew was impressed with the second shooting I did last time, and he's going to give me 5 minutes directing the couples as well sometimes.

So, that's quite a lot of information, but there's a lot more I've left out. It's all good though. Banff is a great place and I don't feel homesick at all yet. And when or if I do, it will be easy to get over it because I feel so at home here.