Winnipeg Encore

I'm still in Winnipeg, and I'll likely stay for a few more days before heading for Regina.  It's been nice to have the chance to catch my breath, but for a city this size (pop ~ 600000) there's really not much to do at all.  Aside from two short streets, there isn't any sort of a classy downtown.  Just urban sprawl.  The residential areas are pretty, apparently there's alot of old money here, but that hasn't rubbed off on the commercial areas whatsoever.  And Xin, you wern't kidding when you said that this place is full of redneck assholes.  Last night I was walking around the main street, and every fifth car was a pickup full of drunk yolkles.  The drunk part includes the driver, and the full includes the back of the truck, which had at least five of these morons stuffed in it.  Why the cops don't do anything is beyond me.  Of course, I don't think I fit in so well here, as one of the drivers slurred out something about me being a fucking hippie, and that I should go fuck myself.
 
Still, the hostel here is nice (for those of you who don't know, hostels are like boarding houses, most of the bedrooms are shared with about five to eight beds, with the other rooms being like an ordinary house, with living room etc).  It's been a while since I've been in a hostel that was doing decent business, and the international mix is always fun.  Although most of the people here are Canadians, there are some Swiss, Germans, and Danish people, among others.
 
The trip from Thunder Bay to here was surprisingly easy, the night before I was set to leave, I bumped into an older lady in the place where I was staying.  She mentioned that she was heading to Banff, and offered to drop me off in Winnipeg.  I offered to pitch in for gas, but she wouldn't have it.  She also turned out to be quite liberal.  More than I am, which surprised me, since she'd already said she was doing contractual work for the government in some sort of marketing.  She also told me stories of when she was younger, before she had her son, when she used to travel all over Europe and India.  Now that her son is grown up, she's planning on travelling around alot more, and this time was on her way to the rockies to stay with a friend for a few months.  She was hoping to get inspiration for her writting while she was at it.
 
Hopefully someone here at the hostel will feel up for a movie tonight.  I still havn't seen Spiderman 2 or Fahrenheit 9/11, and it would be a nice way to kill the evening.  Last night I didn't do much of anything.  Saturday was nice, as the girl who works at the front desk here invited me to a party at her house.  She's from Trois Riviers, Quebec, but living here for the summer in order to learn english.  The night before that I went out to a bar with three of the hostelers, one guy from Britain, another from Australia, and a girl from Denmark.  Still, the pub scene here isn't exactly stellar.
 
ian.