the weather can't be perfect all the time

the clouds rolled in while we were getting out of the cars at the college. ominous clouds, big and black and angry looking. it hasn't rained since we got here and the clouds seemed disturbed by that. it could also be that even the weather hates cranbrook. blaine, the guy who runs the hostel, said that the lonely planet is always ragging on cranbrook, that it's the ugliest city in the world and such, that buddhist monks find it tedious and boring. i've been here all of a couple hours, the vast majority of that spent inside ruminating on the ominisity (?) of the clouds, but it does seem to lack a certain sense of charm.

cranbrook is pretty small, about 20 thou according to the brochures, and it doesn't really have much of a historical downtown or majestic gardens or waterfront to point to. instead it extolls itself as a gateway to the kooteneys (not, as i had originally feared) a disease, but rather a region of b.c. in which kimberley lies. kind of the okanagan's ugly sister, only it's not ugly at all. ok, bad analogy. anyway, i have yet to hear a nice world said about cranbrook, perhaps beyond the fact that it's nestled in the mountains and the views heading out of town seem extra special.

mila, our spanish teacher, lives here and runs a restaurant by the name of 'cancun'. of course this makes perfect sense because she's from el salvador. we're heading there for dinner in a bit and are now just killing time on the net.