A week down

Wow, who would've thought that only a week ago I was arriving in Canada... It feels much longer as I've done so much travelling, setting up and organising. Things are finally starting to get into a rhythm though, with meat in the freezer and some (minor) stocks in the pantry. As promised, here's the final parts of my first few days.

Days 3 - 5

Saturday morning was a well needed sleep in, as I had very little sleep at the hostel the night before. Being on the 'Courtenay Place' of Vancouver, you can imagine it was rather noisy well into the early hours of the morning. I was rather glad not to have stayed there, and instead had my own bed and room with some peace and quiet.

My Room

Not long into the morning I got to meet my room mates. It is slightly ironic that I have travelled half way around the world to stay with a couple from Tauranga, and a South-Australian, but the are all great people! Most of the morning was helping them get a little settled in, and then a walk for a few kilometres to a nearby town called 'Nesters' to enquire about internet setup. Unfortunately as I didn't have my passport on me, I would have to come back the next day, but there is a supermarket there as well which is cheaper than in town, so the trip wasn't an entire waste.Walking back from Nester's was not exactly the best experience, the constant rain decided to get a bit heavier and by the time I got back I was thoroughly soaked. While I did have my jacket on, my jeans came off second best. Also, carrying 4 bags of heavy groceries for 20 minutes is a good workout!

Late in the afternoon I also got to experience what it was like to get up to the other staff housing. A 15 - 20 minute walk up the mountain convinced me that I had made the right call in staying in the Brio housing!  After meeting my new boss, part of the team and some HR points, it was a more leisurely walk back down the hill.

Brio Staff Housing

Finally I got to have my first home cooked meal since I arrived. Cooking a large pork steak in a wok was something new, but I was very thankful to be having vegetables!! The evening got underway with an impromptu meet & greet with some of the others staying in Brio, and quickly turned into a night out on the town. Moe Joe's certainly seemed like my kind of club, and even though I was staying sober (far too many nights drinking in a row had been had), I managed to stay out until after midnight before coming home to Skype with Leela.

Sunday was a busy day, with more paperwork to do I headed up the hill in the morning to get 'Checked In' for work, which ended up taking almost an hour. Meeting up with Kevin we headed back to the Village for lunch (El Furniture Warehouse, of course) and then proceeded out to Nesters. This time it was more successful trip, with the internet booked for installation shortly. However, the rain once again decided it was time to drown us, but at least this time we were smart enough to use the grocery store closer to home.

Training Begins

Monday was an early rise for a change, as I had to be at my new 'office' by 8:30 for the start of training. It was mostly a typical company induction, covering policies and procedures, with a brief introduction into ski technology for those new to the industry. Was really good to meet the rest of the team, and we have quite a large international mix. We managed to finish up at around 2pm (even with a 1 hour lunch) and that has set the scene for the next few days worth of training. Things have been pretty laid back, although my prior knowledge of skis really does help, as a majority of people either board or have never seen snow before in their life!

The view in front my of 'Office' in the morning

And that really brings us to today, 7 days since I touched down on Canadian soil and it feels like I've been here a month already. We got given today off since the group moved through the training so fast, so it's been a fairly cruisy day with heading through town to look for a few more t-shirts, and another supermarket job. At least the temperatures are starting to come down a bit, and although the big mountains were kept under cloud most of the day, I managed to get a shot of one of the hills outside our kitchen window.

The snow is coming...

With the temperatures heading downwards for the rest of the week (it's meant to get below freezing by Friday in the village), it looks like we might get our first snow on the balcony on Sunday night. I'll be sure to let you know if it does!

(Cheers for all the comments everyone, keep them coming!)