Kia ora,

It’s been an age since I’ve put out a newsletter. This goes to show that wherever you are in the world, away from home, it is so easy to get caught up in everyday living and forget to take time out to reflect on and share your experiences. Actually, it just probably reveals that I ‘m an extremely lazy letter writer!

Today it is white outside, breaking the snow drought that has been in effect since, well, pretty much the beginning of January. The bus ride to work has been a little depressing in the past couple of weeks as much of the road has brown grass and bare rock face and the mountain streams are starting to flow – all of this reminds me that the end of the season is rapidly approaching, and that I need to be making plans for the summer. Conversely, the end of the season also means a trip home to see you all! I’ll be back for a couple of weeks, from April 9, for my sister’s wedding (which I’m really looking forward to) so it will be lovely to catch up with all those exciting things that I’m sure will have happened in my absence.

These past five months have been an amazing time. I have really enjoyed my time in Invermere; the snowboarding, my first flatting experience, volunteering at the library; I certainly feel ‘at home’ here.

My flat consists of myself and two other girls: Phil and Michaela. Originally we had me, Phil, and a couple, Al and Kate; but Al and Kate moved to mountain accommodation a month ago because of work schedules and transportation issues. We all get on quite well together, but what makes things a bit more special is the fact that we live in a housing development with other similar-aged and like-minded Panorama staff as neighbours. There’s a real sense of community: the flats share resources like internet connections and computers, and we pop over to the each other’s houses for drinks or to watch sports, etc. It’s not a wild party place but we do have quite a few get-togethers (this is by way of an explanation for any Facebook photos you may have seen!).

My best mate here is Pablo. He lives next door and we spend quite a bit of time chilling, watching comedy DVDs or playing Wii at each other’s houses. Pablo is Chilean, and he has introduced me to ‘Chilean Hotdogs’, Piscola, a smattering of Spanish and desire to visit Chile. A Chilean hotdog is packed with tomato, mashed avocado, mayo, ketchup and mustard; and Piscola, considered the iconic Chilean cocktail, is a drink made of Pisco (a Chilean/Peruvian grape liquor) mixed with cola. I now know one or two phrases in Spanish, and, looking through some of Pablo’s photos and a book lent to me, I see that Chile is quite a picturesque country with loads of beautiful geographic features and would be well worth the visit. I’m sure I’d have a rocking time!

Pablo is a good snowboarder, too. He and Luis (also from Chile) cajoled me up the Toby Chair lift and the Mile One Quad the other day. This marked a huge milestone for me, the first day off the magic carpeted bunny slope and on to the real mountainside. It took all my courage to get up there, and in many respects it was the idea of chairlift that was more daunting than getting down the slopes. I do not exit the lift gracefully – I prepare to disembark, flop to one side and skid belly-down the tiny slope at the end of the lift. Once I’ve pulled myself up, waved regally to the lift attendant who is pissing himself with laughter, I get out of the way of any oncoming skiers. Riding down is a great feeling of achievement though, and makes the hundreds of dollars I spent on boots and bindings for the snowboard seem worth it.

Every Tuesday I volunteer at the Invermere Public Library. The staff seem to like me, and there was talk of a paid position over summer. Sadly, this didn’t eventuate, but over the next week or two I will be doing some paid relief work, which will be a nice bit of extra income. The library has a small permanent staff of three – Ginny, Leah and Liz – who manage day to day services and programmes. Volunteers come to shelve and sort the books; though I hijack the counter and do interloans, too. There is also Kitty, the library pug, who features prominently in most of the library’s publicity. She waddles around, purring and cow-eying everybody in the hope of some treats.

The community really supports the library. Just a few nights ago the library ran a Lego night, which was a huge success. It drew a crowd of parents and children who engaged in Lego based activities such as building model cars and racing them, seeing what they could create with the 62 pieces of Lego given them, and building Lego scenes from their favourite books. There have been a couple of other recent events, like a session with local children’s singer Oso Simple and, when I first arrived in Invermere, the Friends of the Library ran a silent auction that raised a good sum for the library. All this is great for putting things into perspective: Invermere Library may not have access to as many databases or the other ‘flashy’ resources that a large, city-based library system has but it has heart and does an awesome job serving the community.

Anyhow --- that about sums it up. Quite an epistle today! I gotta dash or else I’ll be late for my stint in the library.

Take care and keep in touch,

Sam.

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