Birthdays and Boarding

So things are really heating up (or perhaps that should be cooling down...) in Canada, which is good for a variety of reasons, the most important being I finally have some news worth blogging about. After all, nobody likes a rambaling blogger, much like nobody likes a musician at an open mic night who is smitten with the sound of their own voice.

First and foremost, it was my birthday last week and I turned 23. Yet another milestone celebrated on the other side of the world. (For reference, other milestones have included eating gator sausage, watching Steph Holt get her first tattoo and being photographed unawares in a Steakouts advertisement. I am easily satisfied.) The benefit of being from Australia and celebrating your birthday in a different country is that you essentially get an additional 17 hours of celebration time. I saw in my Canadian birthday over pool and (a few too many) shots at The Gap and had Mexican that following evening with my roommates and neighbours, my now Canadian family, who were a fine replacement from the people who would have taken me out in Australia to get me drunk on my birthday. This fine replacement also sat me down to watch the movie, The Number 23, and now I am positive something bad is going to happen to me this year courtesy of the 23 enigma.

After a disappointingly warm introduction to winter, it has FINALLY started snowing! It started dumping last weekend and now everything looks like its coated in a thick layer of icing sugar. Unfortunately, snow doesn't taste anything like icing sugar but it looks pretty none the less. So, with snow to cap its peaks, Sunshine Mountain finally opened its doors to the public and I officially started waitressing at Trappers. My first day on the job was much like being thrown into the sea and told to either sink or swim, but I came out the other side with a better appreciation for northern service expectations and $120 in tips. God bless gratuities.

Like the weather hasn't been bipolar enough over the last month, the temperature plumeted to a very uncomfortable -38 degrees this week, forcing the mountain to close and everyone to seek refuge indoors. Despite it being cold enough to freeze your eyelashes together, Sunshine re-opened for part of the day so that only those crazy skiers and snowboarders who are addicted to the snow like Cher is addicted to the knife, could go up and get frostbite.

With all this snow falling out of the sky, I decided it was time to get my boarding butt on some slopes. I went and bought my snowboarding boots - a pair of peppermint-coloured Thirty Two's which are, in my opinion, the snowboarding equivalent of a pair of Jimmy Choo's but make my feet feel like they're being pushed through a meat mincer. Apparently fashion, and snowboarding, is pain. So with new boots in tow and my neighbour's old snowboard under one arm, I went up the mountain yesterday for my first ride of the season. Having been six years since I was last on the slopes, I greatly underestimated how much I remembered of how to snowboard. I spent most of my first run down the hill on my ass and at one point, jarred my thumb so that it bruised up to the size of a small sausage. By my third run, I had re-mastered the act of balancing but I've got a long way to go before I'll be boarding alongside Shawn White.

But the most exciting news is that, after getting the go-ahead from BUNAC, I should be making my way back across the border for Appel Farm 2011.

I've got my apple, you've got your apple...

Ciao for now. xo

You Are My Sunshine

Well, readers. It's official.

I am employed!

After a little over a week of nauseating impatience, Sunshine Mountain finally contacted me this morning to let me know the blessed news. I have been hired as a server by Mad Trappers, one of the top bar and restaurants on the mountain.

Hello, gratuities.

And if that's not enough good news, I have moved out of the Samesun Hostel and into my very own house. In a twist of absolute fate, myself and two New Zealand sisters I met at the Samesun managed to sweet-talk our way into a beautiful, two bedroom cabin/apartment a block away from Banff Ave, the main street of Banff. We are cramming five people into our little chalet - the two sisters and myself in one room and two male friends of the sisters in the other. Our landlord is providing us with five single beds, a couch and a coffee table and with the kitchen already decked out with a fridge, microwave, (self-cleaning) oven and dishwasher, not to mention a washer and dryer, all we are left to do is make a trip to the Calgary Walmart to collect kitchen equipment and bedding! I managed to pick up some sheets, blankets and a TV in Banff so we're half way there already.

We officially moved in this morning and had a joint welcome/21st Birthday celebration for Ciahn, which involved pancakes, berries, icecream and champagne. I spilt the champagne on the floor so the apartment is offically christened.

So after a few worrying weeks spent not knowing if everything was going to work out, if I was going to get a job, if I was going to find somewhere to live, if I was going to have to leave Banff, if I was going to have to go home to Australia with my tail between my legs, everything has worked out (like everyone I complained to promised me it would.)

But everyone who knew me before I started this journey also knew how much this all meant to me. How long I had waited to be here and how much frustration and disappointment after disappointment I had gone through before I finally boarded that plane bound for the USA. I spent a long time building this experience up in my head, hearing other people's stories and developing my own preconceptions for what living and working at the snow was going to be like. Sometimes this has been to my detriment, as when things haven't turned out the way I expected, I've discounted them. But I'm fast learning (and being reminded) that this is my time and it's not necessarily going to be like everybody else's experiences. That doesn't make it better or worse, just mine. I expected to be living in staff accommodation on the hill. Now, I'm living in a wicked house with two sisters whom I love and a kitchen which allows me to cook whatever and whenever I want.

And not only did I move in and get offered a job today, but it has started snowing.

And they say, it isn't going to stop.

Ciao for now. xo

(Not Quite) Walking on Sunshine

My apologies for the lack of blogging. It's been a tough ol' week and with all the stress of trying to find work, blogging about it has been the last thing I've felt like doing.

After travelling four hours to Banff and spending five days there, I did not return to Cranbrook a very happy camper. I attended the Sunshine Mountain job fair and interviewed for two positions - one as a liftie and one in hospitality. I felt pretty confident about how the interviews went and was told that I would hear back about the liftie position on Friday and the hospitality position on the 25th. After almost dying of anticipation, Friday came and went and I didn't recieve any exciting email in my inbox. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - still nothing. Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed and kicking myself that I had put all my eggs in the one Sunshine Mountain basket. I now have one shot left to work on the mountain or start looking for a job in Banff itself and believe me, there are plenty of other people in that particular search party.

The real highlight of Banff - other than the breathe-taking views and the cool people I met - was for the first time in my life, I saw snow. Snow, actually coming out of the sky like confetti. Some girlfriends and myself had planned on doing a hike but on our way through town, the street suddenly clouded over and from out of nowhere, white fluffy flakes started falling from the sky. They danced their way down and dissolved as soon as they hit the pavement. It was pretty cool and I'm assured there is plenty more where they came from.

On a more upbeat note, it has been nice to return to Cranbrook for a few days. The hostel room I was staying in at the Samesun Hostel in Banff was a mixed-dorm in which I was the only girl and the snoring that issued from the other five beds could have moved mountains. Back at Steph's, I have the comfort of my own smooshy double bed, my own bathroom and the first two seasons of Laguna Beach.

Steph and her family and friends have been very attentive in ensuring I am having the ultimate Canadian experience. Steph's dad took me to an ice hockey game last night between the Kootenay Ice and the Edmonton Oil Kings, the junior league which is one level below professional. Thankfully, I had watched The Mighty Ducks (1, 2 and 3) enough times to understand most of what was going on and any of my questions were answered in detail by Steph's dad. The whole experience was very exciting, especially the parts where the 20 year-old boys smashed each other into the glass panels surrounding the rink and then got sin-binned for brawling. It's like rugby league but on ice with sticks and pucks and padding.

Okay, so nothing like rugby league but a good night out none the less.

I'm hanging out in Cranbrook for two more nights and then heading back to Banff on Friday with my can-do attitude a-blazing. There's a job out there in the snow with my name on it.

Ciao for now. xo

If You Love Canada, Put Your Hands Up!

USA. Shmoo-SA.

Canada is where it's at.

I hate to play favourites, especially given all the amazing and diverse places I've been in the last four months, but I'm sorry US of A, if you and Canada where in a beauty pagent, Canada would win the crown.

I am not even going to attempt to describe how beautiful this country is. I feel like no cliches or original lines of immaculate verse could do justice to the picturesque views that reveal themselves around every bend in the road. Since I arrived in Cranbrook, British Columbia on Saturday, I've been literally dragging my jaw behind me like a stubborn puppy. Every window I look out of, every hill I reach the top of, every valley which appears before me leaves me speechless. There is nothing in Australia and nothing I have seen in the last four months which compares to the towering mountains and kilometre after kilometre of green and gold pine trees which cover the country side. It's so beautiful, it feels like I've fallen into a postcard.

The mind-numbing, 14-hour trip to get across the American border to Canada was all worth it when I touched down in Cranbrook and was met by the happy face of Stephanie Murray, long-time friend who I met in high school while she was on exchange. As always, it felt nice to be back in the company of someone I'd known for more than a few days and even nicer when she took me back to her house and welcomed me into my own room, with a private bathroom. Is this resort living, or what?

In a wicked twist of fate, I managed to time my arrival in Canada on the weekend of Thanksgiving so Saturday and Sunday nights were spent in the company of Steph's family who introduced me to the festive holiday that celebrates the harvest. In a few words, Thanksgiving is like Christmas, but without the presents. All you do is eat. Turkey, lamb, ham, potatoes, yams, cranberries, vegetable casserole, gravy and of course, pumpkin pie. All this goes down with a few glasses of red wine and a much needed nap after the feasting is done.

While I'm calling Cranbrook home-base for now, I left today to pursue the reason I came to Canada in the first place. Work. After a four hour bus drive to Alberta which wound through even more mind-bogglingly beautiful countryside - I'm talking streams so icy blue they could be made of glass and mountains covered in the skeletons of wind-burnt pine trees - I arrived in Banff. Tomorrow, I head to my interview at the Banff Job Fair, where fingers, toes and fallopian tubes crossed, I secure myself a job and accommodation at Sunshine Mountain, where the next snowy part of my journey begins.

Everytime I arrive in a new place, I think my travels can not get any better, that my current experience can not be trumped. After arriving in Banff, anything more and I think I might die of aesthetic happiness.

PS. Except that it is FREAKING COLD!

Ciao for now. xo