...We got jobs (continued)

Following on from Wes' post, I'll just give a quick update on my job status...

So I was also offered the Lizard Creek Lodge job at the front desk along with Wes and I was absolutely thrilled. I accepted that job in the morning. However, that afternoon I got a call from the Fernie Alpine Resort (which I had been pestering since October and is the company that runs the ski mountain) and they offered me the role of Guest Services Representative. Again, I was thrilled. So after a large amount og deliberation with Wes, I turned down Lizard Creek, and accepted the Guest Services Role at the Mountain.

The best thing about this job is I get a free season lift pass!!!! And also a fantastic chance to meet more people on the mountain. The pay is only $8.50 (!!), but the lift pass is a huge bonus, so I'm happy.

I started on Wednesday, and it turns out they were really desperate for me to start ASAP because the mountain is opening this weekend, a week before schedule. I did a 8.5 hour shift on my first day, which involved selling season passes, providing the staff with their passes, and generally answering people's queries (which is rather challenging considering I've been in Fernie only a week - learning on the job again!).

I did a mammoth shift today as everyone came in to get their ski passes before the opening on Saturday. I'm working all weekend, and then hopefully once the mountain opens up properly on 5 December I will drop back to part-time so that I can ski ski ski. Tomorrow's challenge is to buy those heated boots so that the skiing will be completely enjoyable.

The snow has unfortunately turned to rain down here in town, and also up on the mountain, so its not quite as chilly as last week. Despite being a bit warmer, we have hit up Canadian Tyre a few times to try on the industrial clothes that they make here for serious cold weather. I can see myself investing in more sturdy clothing generally, so its fun to try everything on (as you can tell from the photos).

Later,
Claire

We got jobs!

After 3 weeks of blissful unemployment, we are back in the workforce.

It was good while it lasted!

(Photo: main street, Fernie)

Day 7 (Tuesday)

Today we landed a flatmate for our empty room, I landed a job, Claire landed 2 jobs and we both had an exciting surprise.

After a rigorous selection process, during which we considered 3 potential flat mates for our spare room in the basement, we selected Kelly, who is an Aussie who has been on a working holiday for the last 7 years. We haven't met her yet, but had some good chats over the phone and she sounds lovely. Kelly will be arriving on the midnight bus a week from now.

Unfortunately we had to reject Damian (Tassie) and Nick (Canada) who were both very nice, but we thought that 2 guys and 2 girls in the house would give a good dynamic.

(Photo: our new home)

Our landlord is actually leaving for Panama with his family a few days early which is great news, allowing us to move in this Saturday instead of next Tuesday. This is one move I am looking forward to (don't think we'll need the removalists this time) given we each only have 2 bags.

(Photos: Our bedroom at the Royal, Common Kitchen at the Royal)

The Royal Hotel, has now become our home, and we are quite fond of it. It is actually quite clean, (albeit a bit "tired") and the fellow residents are all really nice. Contrary to my expectations of pub residents, there are no seedy middle aged men living here, in fact we are probably the oldest. Most people are living here for the season, preferring the all inclusive rent to the effort and gamble of finding a house and flatmates that they might not get along with.

The Royal has a free weekly poker game which Claire and I played in. There we 27 players all up, and Claire and I both did surprisingly well. I made the final table and finished seventh, missing out on the major prize of some new Oakley goggles. However I did win a free board tune. It was lots of fun and I think we'll be both back next week. I may have even done better if I took up the option of buying back in. All you need to do is buy a shot from the bar (2 shot limit).

The poker night is much better than Drum and Bass Night, which is VERY loud, even the sound-check prevented us from being able to watch TV in the common room.

My job is the one I mentioned previously that we were both interviewed for, Front Desk at Lizard Creek Lodge which was my first preference. I have my first shift very soon, so I will wrap up the blog for now and start getting dressed. I will leave Claire to tell all about her job (which she is currently at) in the next blog.

Before I go though, the exciting surprise is that due to great early season snowfall, the ski hill is opening this weekend for a preview weekend (a week ahead of schedule). Everyone in town is pumped, including myself!

Cheerio

Wes

The Job Hunt on the Mountain

Day 5

Because we're not moving into our new place until 1 December, we've had to find some cheap accomodation to tie us over until then. During the house hunt we came across a guy called Dave who happens to manage the 3 local hotels in Fernie. Dave, a fellow Aussie (are there any Canadians in Fernie?) has hooked us up with a room above the local pub, the "Royal Hotel" for a very reasonable weekly rate. The room is on the grotty side of things, and I'm not brave enough to wear bare feet in the common kitchen and lounge area for fear of what might attach to my feet. But its home for the next 10 days and has free wifi, so who can complain!

Having secured the accomodation, our next task was to find a job. We printed our resumes at the local job centre and put on the charm for the day ahead. We've decided we'd love to work on the mountain, which is about 5 minutes drive from the town itself. So, we walked to the "Hitching Spot" and waited for 5 minutes with our thumbs out until a car came and picked us up. All the locals are incredibly friendly and although I had a mental flash of "Ivan Milat", its all very safe and secure. However, unfortunately British Columbia has now made hitch hiking illegal so we're not quite sure how it will pan out for the rest of the season, but we'll work it out.

The mountain doesn't open for skiing until 5 December. Although there's a fair amount of snow by our standards, we've been told this is nothing compared to what it should be. Fernie is known for its deep powder snow and judging by the last few days where it has been "Pukeing" snow pretty much non-stop (a Canadian term) we're in for a cracker of a season!

So we got out of the car on the mountain which is still quite empty given the 5 December start date, trying to find someone to give our resume to. It was a bit of a ghost town up there. Top marks for Wes who has the complete dedication for job hunting and oozes charm and charisma at every opportunity while keeping his smile. On the other hand, I have now worked out that my shoes are not water proof and so I trekked around the hill with wet socks in sub zero temperatures. Needless to say my temperament didn't quite match wes'.

During the hunt we ran into a girl in a work uniform leaving the Lizard Creek Lodge (a 4.5 star hotel on the mountain) so we asked her if there were any positions available up there. And indeed there were. In fact, her boss DOuglas was interviewing as we spoke so she recommended we continue up the hill and do our best. So we hightailed it to the entrance to the Lizard Creek, introduced ourselves to Douglas and both did an impromptue interview for the Front Desk positions while he was sitting at the front desk. During my interview a family actually arrived to check in at he hotel and the dad confused me for an employee. While Douglas was sorting out the payment, the customer asked me what was happening in Fernie over the weekend. I mentioned the one and only thing that I knew about Fernie, that the Fernie Ice Hockey Team, the "Ghostriders" were playing that night, and he was impressed, as was Douglas. The same thing happened to Wes during his interview. Nothing like doing the job during the interview! The interview questions were pretty standard, but quite hilarious at the same time. I was asked "how did you hear about us". I tried not to say "we didn't hear about you, we just ran into a chick down the street" and instead said that my parents had stayed there before and I've heard its a fantastic place to work. Ha! Wes was asked what professional skills he'd like to improve as the front desk person. As far as I can tell, Wes knows how the answer the phone, so I don't think there's a hell of a lot of professional skills to learn there. I think Douglas realised we're the most overqualified people for the front desk but would still love a job. So we'll see what happens.

As a bit of a change of pace, last night we went to see the Ghostriders ice hockey. How fantastic! The arena is pretty tiny but there'a great atmosphere with people banging on the plastic as the players bash into the sides. The best part were the fights. Incredible!! In the final five minutes the arena went silent - 2 players had pulled off their helmets and gloves and were circling each other in the middle of the rink, sizing each other up and ready to go in for the kill. Both teams were just standing still and watching. So were the referees! Suddenly they pounced and the 2 players were belting the crap out of each other with blows to the head and everything. THe crowd was going wild! The referees went in to break it up and I'm pretty sure they were getting in on the action as well. It was the funniest thing I've seen and Wes and I loved it! Fernie won 6-1, what a smashing. Go the Ghostriders!!!

Now its the weekend and the snow is still falling. We're having a lazy day in our room in the pub after a non-stop week.

I'm not sure if anyone reads this. But hello to everyone that does!

Cheers

Claire

The mexican/snowboard shop/diner/skate park

Day 2 (shorter than day 1 which lasted almost 48 hours)

(Undie update - The travel undies worked a treat on the trip over, but i decided to give them a break for day 2)

Armed with a trusty map hand drawn by our generous host (thanks Phil), we were chauffered into town and hit up the first of 8 snow / sport /outdoor stores.

C$800 later I was fully equipped with new:

• Ski jacket
• Ski Pants (Ride)
• Googles (Anon)
• Gloves (Black diamond)
• Mountain/hiking boots
• Backpack rain cover
• Face mask
• Snowboard socks

Claire also did a bit of shopping, picking up the warmest gloves in Canada, and a hoodie.

It was a very busy day but we had time to spring a visit on Tyler's (a canadian friend living in Sydney) parents.

We capped of the day with dinner and drinks on the "Red mile" watching the Calgary Flames (Hockey) play in a top of the table clash. The bar was packed with people wearing Flames jersey's and they sounded a hooter for every Calgary goal!

Day 3&4

Our chauffer was again busy with a 6am dropoff at the greyhound bus station. 5 1/2 hours later we were in snowy Fernie, our home for the next 6 months.

Our Hostel is accross the road from the coolest shop... It is a Mexican Restaurant / Diner, which has a snowboard shop and an indoor skate park inside! Imagine the qualifications required for a job in there.

We have spent the last 2 days solidly searching for a place to live. Claire played the role of Silent Bob very well, with me doing all the calling and organising and Claire updating the run sheet. This combo had great results.

The first place we looked at was a room in Lyle's house (living with Lyle). Lyle was a nice guy (think Grumpy Old Men, meets My Name is Earl) but his house was a junkyard and my eyes stung from the smoke haze. Fortunately things picked up, so much so that we turned down the mansion with the hot tub, in favour of an awesome 3 br house in the middle of town.

Tomorrow we will sign the lease with our new friend ben (met at hostel) taking one room. We will advertise to get someone in the 3rd room, and are stoked to have an awesome, moden, fully furnished, 2 story, 2 bathroom house in the middle of town. Claire and I will pay about $80 each a week rent.

We are very glad to have found a place, however a bit sick of hearing how mature, sensible, and older we seem (even if its a good thing).

Hopefully next time i'll be writing to say I have a job, which is our next campaign.

Please send this link onto anyone you think will be interested.

Cheers

Wes

Day 1: The Trip Begins

DAY 1

And we're off!!

In order to ensure Wes didn't miss this crucial flight, my cunning plan was to get to the airport 3 hours before take-off. However, unfortunately it was only a domestic flight to Brisbane so 3 hours was overkill - sorry Wes!

Neverthless, we said our sad farwells to our families and boarded our Virgin Blue flight to Brisbane, our V Australia flight to LA, Air Canada to Vancouver, and Air Canada to Calgary. 36 hours after saying goodbye (and only $900 later - good work Wes), we arrived in Calgary complete with all our luggage. It was a bit touch and go in Vancouver as we were held up at immigration trying to secure our Working Holiday Visa, and we had to run to the plane once we were approved. But we made it.

Phil, the father of Wes' work mate Sarah, picked us up from Calgary airport. Thankfully Sarah had sent us a photo of her parents so we picked him out of the crowd. Sarah's parents were wondefully generous and took us in for 2 days, let us use their place, their internet, their phone and they fed us some traditional Canadian slice, similar to Mars Bar Slice, so we were set. What a fantastic start. We feared jet lag would get us, but we managed to get 13 hours of sleep meaning we were pumped for a day of shopping!!!