Bye bye Banff, Hello Muskoka!

So now everything is official. I have given notice at work, told my flatmate.

I am moving to Muskoka, Ontario for a summer job in Clevelands House Resort . I applied for the job on a whim about a month ago when I was fretting about what to do with myself when Brendan left. I applied for a front desk position. I was told there were no vacancies and thought no more of it.

suddenly a month later in my email was a job offer as a bartender! I rang HR and informed them I had no bar experiance but they said no problems they prefer it and want to train me how they want me to be. So my wage is a piddly $9.50 an hour. Pretty low compared to Australian wages but Canada is a tip run country which should bring my wage up quite considerably. It is also a high-end resort so I'll be expecting the rich & famous to be tipping me in $50 notes. (one can dream right)

I leave Banff on June 1st and will be driving across the US of A. Taking in the sights and sounds for two weeks of adventure!

It all came out of the blue and I'm totally excited for what the future will bring me. Gosh it was a hard secret to keep :D

THERES A FREAKIN BEAR UP THERE!!!

Honestly only in Banff...well maybe a few other places can you see Deer ambling down the main street calmly eating your neighbours flowers.

Or even a couple of Elk strolling across the school oval leaving their business on the ground.

Oh last but not least on Friday around lunchtime a bear decided it would be fun to crawl up the tree outside safeway (our local shopping centre) swiping at passing pedestrians. They had to block off all the street in order to get out the stun guns and remove it without hassle. I was in the office so I missed the excitement :( But what gets me is every morning and every night I walk down that street and back again to get to work in fact only a half hour before I had passed by that very tree.

What kind of liability am I offered for Bear attack???

my week in banff

SO the whole thing with my grandfather has been occupying my mind for the week, I've been having shit sleeps, no crying just goddamn thinking all the time!

But how is sunny Banff? Well not so sunny really... I forgot to mention that last Saturday morning Brendan and I went lawnsaling in Canmore/Banff since the prices here are UNREAL. That means expensive. Anyway I got a couple of nice jackets for $3 which helps fill out my meagre winter wardrobe (I'm definately going to be feeling the pain in three months) I also got a bunch of books for $1. I got a reading lamp for $1 then the guy gave me two spare lightbulbs for free! Score!!! But the win of the day was my snowboard and bindings for $20!! Ok so the snowboard is scratched and old and a little chip on one side although Brendan said that he could fix that at work. But for someone who doesn't know how to snowboard and doesn't anything good or flash it will do the trick. Cheaper then renting anyway!

I also have to mention on Thursday the 10th I took Fay out to see Johnston Canyon and we did some walk in Canmore which was beautiful. you can view the photos here Funniest park was the huge roadblock - which we joined. To take photos of a damn elk!! Fay and I thought it was a moose...

Anyway fay left on friday the 11th :(

So LAST night the 17th of July a bunch of us went up to the top of Sulpher mountain and had a picnic drank some beers. I had a bottle of wine but forgot to bring the corkscrew so I just had nothing. So the crew that went was Alli (English, front desk at Hidden ridge) Valeska? (Front desk hidden ridge Australian) and valeskas boyfriend Max who works maintenance with Brendan he is English and this guy Joe who is Canadian and is excutive housekeeper at the ridge so I was the only employee that wasn't from the ridge. Anyway they were all pretty awesome and Joe and I had this connection only nerds can have. Thats right I found me a fellow nerd FINALLY!! So we talked video games and stuff but he is a bit more far gone then me in the nerd department lol.

Oh and my Karma was right on the last few days I dont know if my grandad was having some divine intervention but I was killing with the same day walkins making some great comission. Only problem is I look at my paycheck after 80 hours of work and $160 in commisionf or two weeks and its just under $800! Of course rent and utilities I dont have to pay for but still thats nearly half what I was earning back home. Fingers crossed I can save some good cash whilst I'm here. Hopefully we will save one full paycheck.

Anyway thats bout it I have three days off now so I'm gonna go do something.

settlement in a foreign country

About due for my week update on what is going on in Amanda's life. So I am right now in Banff and working for Banff Lodging Company I do reservations for the eight hotels they own here. I arrived in Banff on Monday, starting work on the tuesday. They didn't have staff accomodation for me until Friday so they put Brendan and I up at the Inns of Banff in this room for free until it was ready. As nice as living in a hotel room was I really needed to stop eating takeout, be able to unpack all my shit and just settle the fuck down. So you can guess how relieved I was when I finally got my staff accomodation.

Anyway on the Monday Brendan and I walked up to the Hidden Ridge hotel (also of banff lodging company) and Brendan was offered a job on the spot with maintenance. The guy didn't even look at his resume. Brendan started on Wednesday because of SIN card issues. For those of you who dont know what SIN is its Social Insurance Number. aka Tax file Number (Australia) and Social Security (USA) dont ask me what the UK equiv is I have no idea. Anyway you cant work without one I had gotten mine a few weeks before so I was fine.

That evening my work was going on a team building exercise so they took us out horseriding. The one thing I am terrified of is horses and this day was no exception. I have to admit by the end I was starting to bond with my horse Tiago. After horseriding we went out to the pub and work paid for me to get drunk. Only problem was I had to work the next day. Lucky for me I only had the flu not a hangover.

Work is interesting, Saturday was my first day alone on the phones and I actually did ok with everything. In fact I made just over $50.00 in comission which is pretty good. I lucked out though I was working the busiest night of the year in banff and all these fools tried to book last minute and all we had that was left was expensive hotel rooms. Basically comission works that if I book a same-day I get 5%. Hours are great to I work four days on 10 hours a day and yesterday was my first 10 hour shift and it really just flies by doing the extra hours. It doesnt get dark here till 11pm right now anyway so I can still go out and do stuff. Wait till winter however, I may never see the sun again!!

Another perk of my work is all the discounts and stuff we get. Like we can use the canoes/kayaks down at Bow river for free. And we get 40% discount off food in a bunch of resturants and 30% off drinks. Brendan and I ate at one of them on Thursday and saved ourselves over $20.00 and got an awesome feed. There are corporate ski passes we can sign out and I heard that we get one free lesson with the hotels private ski instructor .. YAY. Plus we get discounts on ski rentals and all that sort of thing. I'm sure there is more but thats all I've heard at the moment. My work is great and laidback everyone is nice. Seeing mum and Sandra then leaving them made me homesick though, ok perhaps by the end we were on each others nerves but being so far away from my friends and family I feel it occasionally.

Does anyone know any good online stores in Canada? I was looking for one that might sell like non-perishable foods and ship them. Variety here is slim and expensive. Its hard to cook meals I want to cook!! Also something that sells general household items like soap and stuff.

Oh another lucky thing of my staff accom? In range of someones unsecured network :D