Par-ty boombaya

So far life in Banff has been an endless round of going out, getting to bed at stupid o'clock, rolling out of bed late and doing it all again. Funnily enough, this is exactly what I didn't come to Banff for, although I must admit to the fact that I'm sort of, quite, almost enjoying it.

The main reason I've taken an about turn is that this is a small community and it's pretty important to go with the flow and socialise because you don't want to isolate yourself from the group. Who else would you hang out with? This is just not a 'dinner party' type of town for those of us who are just passing through. However, I should point out that I have not succumbed to peer pressure and started drinking, and I have bailed out earlier than the others on a couple of occasions (usually to go back and make contact with home on MSN +/- webcam).

The crowd here have surprised me in some respects. Although yes, they do like to go out and have a few beers and yes, sometimes they do it to some degree of excess, they are such a nice, intelligent, adventurous bunch of people and I'm really rather fond of them all. Last night, we went to a 'Pizza for $9' evening at the Elk & Oarsman (pizza was great), and we ended up having a long conversation about spelling and punctuation. Everyone agreed that a) txt spk is stupid b) using the wrong spelling of a word such as they're/their/there is unforgivable c) exclamation marks are best used in moderation and that d) the correct use of a semi-colon was tantamount to foreplay. Not really the kind of discussion I expected to be having with a bunch of long-haired snowboarders. And most of them don't even have long hair!

We do already have a whole bunch of in-jokes that have added to the camaraderie, which I shall no doubt repeat oft when I am back home and look wistful when I received puzzled looks in reply ("You don't even know!" "I saw that!" "I can do physics!" "Dude! Dude? Dude... Dude! Hmm. You make a good point"), mainly brought to the group by Gravy & Zander, two engineers/climbers from Australia, who are worthy contributors and have a huge truck called Stacey, whose services they'll happily pimp.

The only spanner in the works just now is that the accommodation I had lined up has fallen through and so I'm now, along with every other bugger in Banff, looking for somewhere to rent on my (very meagre) salary-to-be. It is virtually impossible to find somewhere, and each room has around 100 applicants at present. I have friends who were considering sharing a double bed with someone they'd just met for $600 a month - that's how crap it is. Add to that a 6-month lease which is hard to get out of at most places and pretty much everywhere has a 'no visitors' clause (that's not a 'no one to stay with you clause' but a 'no one allowed round to see you at any time, even for a quick cup of tea' clause). So I'll be in the hostel (where I still find it almost impossible to sleep) for the foreseeable future, which is not a happy prospect just now. Goddamnit!