It’s probably about time I started focussing on some of the more positive aspects of our stay in Canada, especially now that we all appear to have been employed in a 50’s style diner (more on that next weblog). So allow me to talk about some of our friends.

Louisa is an English girl who arrived with the SWAP programme at the same time as Matt. They both ended up going to Banff, and staying at the YWCA (or the Y, as it is colloquially known). Since then she has christened us her ‘family’, and we all get on splendidly. Andrew has dubbed her the April O’Neil to our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She has a boyfriend back in England – her ‘baby’ who shall remain otherwise nameless – who has yet to properly sever his ties with his presumably outgoing girlfriend. Rarely a day goes by without Louisa checking her email or calling home. Well, in fact, none do. She works at Lake Louise Ski Resort five days a week. We often go out for coffees and/or movies. Her boyfriend isn’t completely thrilled that she spends so much time hanging out with four Australian blokes, presumably because he hasn’t seen us.

Dan is a Canadian who has a peculiar passion for card games and a mile wide competitive streak. In fact, from many perspectives he reminds us all of Neil. As another example, both of them need to stop smoking. He’s been playing 500, Oh Hell, and Euchre a lot with us, and often wins. His insistence that I need to build up self-respect has made me concerned that I’m playing my self-deprecating, foolish act with just a bit too much strength these days. After all, it’s no use being underestimated if you can’t be bothered proving people wrong down the track. Dan has long, long brown hair, looks a little like Teen Jesus, and has just gotten a permanent job at the Y. He’s also the world’s formost authority on Subway fast food.

Val is Dan’s Quebecian girlfriend, who wants to go out a lot more than Dan does. We feel a bit concerned that us four have become her competition. Yet she has not yet displayed any strong animosity towards us, despite not being able to understand most of the words we say (though I’m by far the most comprehensible, naturally). She’s a line cook at an oriental restaurant, isn’t getting enough sleep, and should really slap Dan about a bit until he pays her more attention.

Well, that’s the three. In other news, our irritating new roomy got himself fired the other day, in circumstances unknown, and spent the whole of last night and today lying about either in the TV room or his bed swearing quietly and disturbingly to himself. He’s got a gun license so we’re a bit concerned about the possibility of a murderous rampage, especially if he’s ever overheard us talking about him. In other news, the New Yorker writer guy in white shirt and pants is called Rich, and has proven a great mastery of irony, especially for an American. He leaves the dorm in a few days, so the neighbourhood is clearly going to the dogs.

Hopefully we’ll have our own digs very soon. Christmas will suck terribly without them. At least, with jobs, life has ceased to have that peculiar ‘on hold’ feeling.

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This entry was posted by the illustrious Tom Charman on Thursday, December 18th, 2003. It concerns such pressing issues as . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.