Sun, Feb 18th

Finally got to go skiing this week, but first, the boring stuff. I started work for Raymond James on Monday. They're one of the leading financial investment firms in North America. Why did they employ me, instead of someone who actually works in this area? I've no idea, but it's work so i'm happy. And for the first time since reaching Canada, I actually kinda like it..... so far. My job is organizing new clients' files and sending them out the appropriate details. It's not brain surgery, thankfully as I failed that class in school, but at least there's a number of different things I gotta do during the week so it's not the same repetitive thing day-in, day-out. And most importantly i've no dealing with the public, no phone calls, no emailing, nothing. Thank Jebus. The worst thing about it is I work from 3pm to 10.30pm. Doesn't bother me too much at the mo, but it's gonna be a pain when there's gigs on and when there are others around doing stuff on a Fri night and i'll be working. However because of the hours it means there's only 6 of us in the office as everyone else has gone home which is great. Everyone I work with is nice too and we're all pretty busy so we just put the head down and do what needs to be done, a bit like Ghostbusters.

So that's work sorted for now. I'm sure i'll be sick of it in a few weeks and will prob be back looking for something new, but i'm happy I managed to get work so quickly again. A lot of others here are finding it a lot harder then I did. What i've had slightly more problems with is finding accommodation. As I mentioned last week I went to see two places which I didn't really like. Well I've had a bit of a change of heart after seeing them and am now hoping to find a place downtown as I couldn't be bothered with all the commuting. I'm willing to pay more money as the commuting is prob gonna cost $100 a month anyway. Earlier in the week I went to see a condo in prime positioning downtown, about a five minute walk from work, if that. The rent is $475 which is very cheap for downtown, usually a room is over $750. I was expecting it to be a right dump but was pleasantly surprised when I saw the place. The reason it's so “cheap” is cause one of the lads actually lives in the living area. Doesn't really bother me as my room has everything I need and because of the hours I work he won't really be there when I am. It's a Korean guy and a Jap guy so if I get it, that should be fun. I told him i'd take it there and then but he said one of his friends was thinking of taking it so he'd get back to me around the 19th. Since seeing that place I haven't really checked anywhere else as i've kinda got my heart set on living there now. The Korean guy even works in the games industry too, so i've someone to nerd it up with. If I get it i'll be moving in on Sun the 25th.

Well that's about all I got up to for the week..... yeah fupping right. I had Friday off work due to a systems update so myself and Melissa decided to finally go skiing. They had just gotten fresh snow and it was a pretty nice day so it was perfect for us. We went to Grouse Mountain (http://www.grousemountain.com/) which is one of the local mountains. It's open from 9am to 10pm as it's one of the few places to offer night skiing and has their slopes lit up with flood lights. To get there we got a bus to the harbour front, then the Seabus took us across to North Vancouver where we got another bus right up to the mountain. In total it only took around 30 min and cost $3.50. When you arrive at the mountain base you must get a gondola up to the top. That was great as it offers a fantastic view of Vancouver and the surrounding mountains. It was crazy when we reached the top of the mountain as it's like a completely different world to Vancouver and it's still so close. I was major excited already at this stage. We went straight to rent our gear for the day. Thankfully there was an Irish guy working at the rentals desk so he helped us out as we had no idea what we were doing. We tried to get some lessons but they were all booked out for the day. So it was just up to us to figure it out for ourselves, which was a bit of a worry. I had no idea what to expect. Well we got all suited up and headed outside.

We went to a pretty flat area with just the slightest of slopes to get warmed up. Even getting into the skis was tricky as they were mad to take off with or without me. I got in to them and went down the slope without any major difficulty or falls. There was a practice area there that I stayed on for an hour or so to get to grips with using them. I took to it quite well so eventually moved on to the training slope which I managed to get down without falling either so was quite proud of myself. This is where everything started to go downhill for me, literally. I thought I had it sorted so decided to give one of the big slopes a go. The problem with teaching yourself is you've no idea what to expect so I just went to the top of the slope, which was over a mile long, and went for it. I started well but what I didn't realise is you're supposed to zig-zag your way down so you don't build up too much speed. I learnt this by watching everyone else as I flew passed them at some crazy speed. I didn't know how to turn or stop at this stage so my only option was to just go straight down. By some miracle I made it about 1/3 the way down without crashing and it started to level out a bit so I managed to stop. After clearing all the water outta my eyes I noticed the view of the city below me, absolutely stunning. I had a look around to see if there was any other way out besides skiing down the rest of the mountain. There wasn't. I figured I made it this far, maybe i'd make it the rest of the way down without crashing. How wrong I was. Turns out the mountain just gets steeper and steeper. So off I went again at even crazier speeds this time. I lasted quite a while flying straight down past everyone before I just couldn't control the speed anymore and I had a major wipeout. Ski's, poles sunglasses, everything, just went flying everywhere as I tumbled down the hill head first on my back. I stopped eventually and started making my way back up the hill to collect everything. Thankfully a guy working there helped me collect my stuff. So now I was 2/3 the way down with still no way out but to go down again and it was way too far to walk, so I put on the ski's again and went for it. It just got steeper and steeper so after getting to some crazy speeds again I had a major crash and went all over the place again. After collecting everything again I was close enough to the bottom now to walk so I just went to the chair lift and went back up to the top where the practice slopes were.

Now that I knew what I was supposed to be doing I practiced turning and stopping for a couple of hours on the practice slopes. I picked it up pretty quickly but wanted to keep practicing as I knew on the real slopes it would be much harder. I also bumped into Melissa again who was having major problems picking it up. She may have been better off going sleighing as she spent more time on her ass then standing up. I def think the lessons would have helped her out a lot. At around 7 Melissa had enough for one day so went off for some tea, which was my cue to go back and try the big slope again. It was dark at this stage but I don't think really made it any harder as the lighting was very good. I had no idea if I would actually be able to control the skis on the big slope as when you start going really fast it's hard to do anything but hold on and hope for the best. Straight away I had much better control then my previous attempt and was going nowhere near as fast. Around half way down when it got very steep I started going faster then I should have been going again but I just couldn't seem to go any slower, so again I had some major wipeouts. Thankfully it was snowing all day so it wasn't very painful when I fell, except for the fact that I burnt the shit out of my ass, not literally, thankfully. There was snow everywhere on me too, in my bag, clothes, all of my pockets, EVERYWHERE. I was completely hooked so I went back up for three more goes, getting slightly better each time. I stayed until around 9 before meeting up with Melissa and we headed back home again. Needless to say i'm dying to get back up there asap. The only problem is the money. In total it cost me almost $100 for one day's skiing. Absolutely worth it but not something I can do too often. I'll see if I can pick up and cheap ski's and boots so i'd only have to pay for the lift pass then.

Sorry for making this post so long but I could talk all day about my skiing experience. I had to cut half of it out so I wouldn't put ye to sleep. I didn't get up to much for the rest of the weekend, partly because I could barely walk after the skiing. An Aussie girl I knew from Toronto, Megan, was in our hostel for a few days before she flew back to Oz so we went for drinks on the Saturday night to send her off. She was super nice and will be missed. Ok, I better stop typing now. Hopefully this time next week i'll have a new place to live and will be all set for my stay for the next few months. I promise my update will be much shorter next time.

The harbour where we got the Seabus to North Vancouver. That's Grouse Mountain in the distance there.

On the Seabus

The bottom of Grouse Mountain where we got the gondola to the top.

One of many amazing views from the gondola.

Step off the gondola into a winter wonderland

One of the many slopes on Grouse

Ok, what do I do now?

Myself and Melissa before we actually get started.

And i'm off.

Probably not a good idea to take a pic of yourself while actually skiing.

My first trip down the big slope

Time for some night-time skiing.

This view really needs to be seen in person to fully appreciate.

Me, sitting halfway down the slope not looking too happy, after yet another major wipeout. Don't be fooled though, I was having the time of my life.

Bye Bye sweet Megan. Quite possibly the nicest person in the world..... ever.

Sun, Feb 11th

I've been in Vancouver almost two weeks now and still loving the City. Haven't really gotten to do too much as I've been busy with the job hunting and looking for accommodation. Turns out I didn't have to look too hard for work. I had applied for a lot of recruitment agencies online and about 20 games companies. I also got the name of a recruitment agency that welcomed walk-ins so I popped in there on Wed morn. They were all very nice and helpful and I was in there for about 90 min doing some computer tests which all went pretty well. Once finished the girl helping me said there was one job that might suit me but would have to check with them first.

I got a call the following day to say that company wanted to have an interview with me so in I popped and met with two lads who gave me lots of computer questions. A lot of stuff I wouldn't really be familiar with but I was just completely honest and it all went fine. The interviews over here are a bit of a pain as you always get awkward questions like, “when, in a previous job, did you go over the call of duty to help someone out”, or “what area would you most like to improve on?”. These questions are hard to answer correctly so you don't make yourself sound bad. Anywho, all went fine so I was pretty hopeful.

When I went back to the hostel to check my mails I had gotten a mail from a guy from a games company who wanted to meet for a “chat” the following morn. We met in a cafe and had a good ol' chat. He was a real nice guy and it was a nice informal chat. Everything went really well but i'm pretty sure i'm under qualified as it's a pretty serious position that they'll be hiring for. Right in the middle of the chat I got a call from the recruitment agency to say I got the other job and would start on Monday. That was good to hear. I won't hear about the games job till the end of the month but pretty sure I won't be getting that.

Over the weekend I went to view two houses. One was really nice but was quite a bit out of town and i'd say the room mates were super nerds. The other place was a bit of a dump and the guy showing it to me was straight outta The Deer Hunter so needless to say I was itching to get outta there before he caged me up, or something.

The lads also got back from Whistler for the weekend and it was their last days in Vancouver before they headed off on their tour of the U.S. For 2 months. Fortunately they both love Vancouver as well so have decided to come back here to work instead of going home. Ideally i'd like to try save some cash while they're gone but that' prob not gonna happen. We went out and partied hard for their last weekend and had some great craic as per usual. We also went to a great park in the city called Stanley Park. It's massive so we only got to see about 1/5 of it before the legs stopped working and we had to get Clint to pick us up. It's gonna be a great spot during the summer and might make me purchase a cheap bike for myself. Everyone keeps going on about how great it is here in the summer. Can't wait.

The extremely impressive library downtown......
....equally impressive inside, almost enough to make me pick up a book.....almost.
Great fun and games while watching the SuperBowl in our local Irish pub.
Heading into Stanley Park on a lovely Saturday afternoon
The view of Downtown from the park
Some old Chinese dude insisted on taking a pic of me in front of the Totem poles. Crazy bastard.
The Lions Gate bridge which brings you to North Vancouver.
North Vancouver
Clint and his buddy join us for our last night out with the lads
Bye bye Jamie and Glen.....................for now
Glen just has enough time to wake everyone in the hostel by crashing to the ground seconds after I took this picture. I had to carry him outta there quickly as he couldn't even walk. Funny as fook.

Vancouver

And so part 2 of my adventure begins. On Wed Jan 31st myself, Glen and Jamie flew from Toronto to Vancouver. Getting to the airport was a bit of a struggle as i've bought quite a few things since getting to Canada so carrying it all by myself was.... fun. No major problems though so we flew to Vancouver in approx 4.5 hours. There's a three hour time difference between Toronto and Van, which means i'm now 8 hours behind all ye folk back in the emerald isle.

So, my first impressions of Vancouver: I absolutely love it. In fact, i've decided to stay here instead of heading to Whistler. I've been talking with a lot of people who've been to Whistler and they say accommodation is near impossible to get. I didn't expect to love it so much here so it has made may decision far easier. It's a completely different city to Toronto. Toronto feels like an American city whereas Van is far more European. It's still a really big city but not half as big as Toronto. It has far fewer sky scrapers and the city is more spread out. But more importantly it's far cleaner and the people are super nice and cool here. It's nowhere near as multi-cultural here, but there are a load of Irish, Asians and Australians.

The thing that really made me fall in love with Van is the amount of things you can do here. There's just so much to do, both in Winter and Summer. There are three ski/snow-boarding slopes right outside the city to keep me occupied for the next few months. Then in the summer there's loads of hiking, mountain biking, canoing, sky diving, pretty much anything you could want. The only problem is being able to afford it all. May need to rob a few banks.

I've been here for almost 1 week now and unfortunately have been partying far more then I should be. I'm gonna blame that one on Glen. He's a major bad influence on me. Funnily he says the exact same about me. We're staying in another hostel with a bar in it, which i'm starting to think is a bad idea. We're right downtown surrounded by a lot of pubs/clubs. We've had quite a few great nights out already. On Fri night we met up with a Canadian friend of Jamie's (Clint). He picked us up in his massive pickup. There were 7 of us piled into it with plenty of room for more. It was a hilarious night as they were a bunch of dumbass American jocks. The whole night was like something out of an American Pie movie. Classic night.

Another brilliant day/night was super bowl Sunday. It's a pretty big deal in Canada too and all of the bar's had special promotions on. Myself and Glen headed to our local Irish bar (Doolins) at around 2pm to have a couple of warm up drinks before the 3 o'clock kick off. There was great craic throughout the day with lots of drinks promotions and games going on all day. The Indianapolis Colts ended up beating the Chicago Bears and myself and Glen celebrated their victory by going on a pub crawl. We did a nice mix of Irish and Canadian bars. Pretty much everyone we met on our travels were smashed.

In between all the partying i've been busy looking for work. I've applied to quite a few games companies and been contacting recruitment agencies too for any old crappy office work. There's an unbelievable amount of construction in the city at the moment too, in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler, so if all else fails, I may even look into getting a job in construction. For now, i'm just looking for work and will look for accommodation after I get a job sorted. I've been down in the SWAP office a lot and they've been really helpful down there. Funnily enough, Kat, the girl working in the Toronto office just happened to come over here the same time as us so it was good to see her here too. She was telling us how it has hit -30 degrees in Toronto since we left. To say we've been lucky with the weather since getting here would be a major understatement. It's actually pretty warm in Van at the moment too.

So the plan for the next few days is to find a job asap. The two lads are off to Whistler for two nights on Wed and will be back for the weekend but then on Mon they'll be heading off on a two month trip around the U.S. so looks like i'll have to find some new drinking buddies. Well as soon as I have some news i'll update all of ye good folks.

Bye bye Toronto, carrying my three bags to the airport was quite the struggle.

The last and best friend I made before leaving Toronto

And we're off

We got some amazing views of the Rockies mid-flight

Back to good ol hostel living

It's pretty nice though