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.
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.
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