New blog about the mountain coming soon... for now - a frightening teddy bear.

This big fella sits outside a chocolate shop in the village.  I'm not sure what his purpose is.  He'd be kinda cute if not for the weird wrinkly eyes.

Is it weird that I like scraping out the lint trap?

I love laundry night for a couple reasons:

1.  I enjoy scooping out the lint blanket that the dryer makes.  I don't know why.  I just do...  (to all my fellow psychology majors - analyze away).

2.  Because of the supposed "clothing bandits" (see above) I sit upstairs in the hall outside the laundry room for a good two hours and listen to music, the low humming of the washer and the soft tumbling of the clothes in the dryer.  It's truly therapeutic when your days are filled with noise and all you want is peace and time to yourself.  While all the crazy kids are partying, I find comfort in the quiet.  Tonight's playlist went a little something like this:

Death Cab For Cutie
The Arkells
Counting Crows
Dashboard Confessional
The Weakerthans
Tegan and Sara
The Trews
Onelinedrawing
Jack's Mannequin
Matchbox Twenty
Bloc Party
Damien Rice
Nine Inch Nails
Pilate
Coldplay
Jack Johnson

If you have any laundry night music recommendations for me, just leave them in the comments section below.  I think I need to refresh my ipod a bit and I'm always looking for new artists/bands to get into.

This is the Blenz hot chocolate that I am in love with.  Does it belong in this blog?  Probably not.  But doesn't it look delicious?  Can you tell I'm craving chocolate?  Can I still call this a caption if it's this long?  Have I asked too many questions?  I think the sleep deprivation of the last two days is catching up with me.

In other news, after two days of training at Rendezvous (the restaurant I work at on Blackcomb Mountain), I've been promoted to lead hand (more responsibility and hopefully a pay raise to go along with it).  I'm quite excited about it.  The members of the management team have been awesome and it seems like a really great work environment.  I'm going to be learning the role as I go.  So it appears that just like my last job, it'll be initiation by fire... and that's the way I've come to like it.  After three months of unemployment, I'm ready to embrace a new challenge; I'm really itching to get going.  We open up for business tomorrow.  So with a bunch of snow in the forecast for the next few days, it looks like it'll be a crazy weekend.  Wish me luck; I'll let you know if I make it out alive.

This photo is here because I didn't have a segue from the last paragraph to the next one... and because i like this photo.

Coming to Whistler this year was probably the best decision I could have made.  I've been here three weeks now but it feels like I've been here a lot longer than that.  Everybody who lives in or visits Whistler chose to be here, so it's such a friendly place.  I've met some awesome people, made some great friends and hope to make many more.  I can see why so many people who come here find it too difficult to leave and just end up staying.  For now though, I need to leave this blog and go get a cookie... or four.

Nat

Really Vancouver? I could have seen that in Toronto.

I'm part of an employee social club program called Club Shred.  They offer tons of different discounts around town and one of the best is the $50 tickets to Vancouver Canucks games.  That includes transportation down there and back so it's a great deal.  When I looked at the schedule of games they offer the deal for, the Canucks vs. Blackhawks game immediately caught my attention.  For the past two years Chicago has kicked Vancouver out of the playoffs so it's a pretty big rivalry.  The Blackhawks are the defending Stanley Cup champs and both teams are up there with the best in the league.  So I'm thinking this is going to be a hard-fought, evenly matched, well played game.  So me and Dave grabbed tickets.

I was excited to see the Canucks play.  After the Leafs, they're my favourite Canadian team.  I was expecting some Sedin twin magic, amazing saves from Luongo, and an overall impressive performance from a potential Stanley Cup contender.  Unfortunately I was wrong on all counts.  The first period was disappointing as both teams were sloppy and did not play well.  I might as well have been watching the Leafs play... well, the Leafs.  I had hope going into the second that both teams would hit their stride.  I was half right.  Chicago picked up their play and scored 4 unanswered goals.  Toews started it all off with a goal assisted by Kane and Hossa (what a scary line that is) and it all went downhill from there.  It was 4-0 by the end of the second.  Luongo had been pulled.  Half of the fans were leaving.  Very disappointing.  But, having previously been to hockey games where crazier things had happened - I was still hanging on to hope for a comeback in the third.  No such luck though.  This is what happened:

At this point, the guys beside us who we had been chatting with throughout the game said that they were going down to get better seats for the end of the game since everyone was leaving.  We decided to do the same.  Just as we were entering the lower bowl to grab seats - the Canucks scored their first and only goal of the game.  I literally walked in the second that the lamp was lit. Dave unfortunately was not so lucky.  On top of that, the jumbo tron malfunctioned so we didn't get to see the replay.  You would think they would have wanted to play it seven times over to make up for the goals scored against them.

me (in my "authentic" $25 Canucks jersey I purchased from a "trustworthy" gentleman in China) and Dave in our original seats.

our seats after the switch.

Even though the Canucks played terrible - I still got to see the green men mocking the Blackhawks when they took penalties.

And have a delicious double double burger from Triple O's.

This is pure happiness on a bun.

And see Ryan Kesler.

Ryan Kesler: almost as yummy as the burger.

Here's hoping the next game we attend goes down a bit (read: completely) different.

Nat

Success = snowboarding sans injuries

So today was opening day for Whistler and I didn't have to work so I decided to go snowboarding.  I was both excited and nervous.  Excited because well - it's freakin' Whistler.  Nervous because last time I went out, I busted up my knee and injuries are no way to start off a season - especially on the first day.  Luckily that didn't happen.  I had a couple falls but nothing major.  For the most part, I felt pretty good on my board. 

My sweet setup. I'm not a huge fan of the pink but the board is excellent.

I got to take my first trip up on the gondola.  It takes about 20-25 minutes to get up to the Roundhouse Lodge (the highest we could go up today).  Here's the view just a few minutes after loading:

It was a pretty cool ride up the mountain.  You get a sweet view of the village and the ski runs.  The lower portion of the mountain isn't covered yet so you can kind of see some of the bike trails and jumps from the summer.  Give it a couple more weeks and we should be fully up and running (fingers crossed).

This season I invested in a crucial piece of equipment that I was lacking last year - a neck warmer.  It's awesome for two reasons:

1. It keeps my neck, mouth, cheeks and nose warm (because I wear it bandana style).
2. I look like a ninja.

This would look way more badass if I wasn't smiling.  For ninjas - it's all about the eyes.

As a Whistler Blackcomb staff member, not only do I get a free season pass to the mountains - I also get a 50% discount off food when I'm not working.  Today I had a chipotle burger with bacon, sweet potato fries and an iced tea for $8.65.  Not bad.  Delicious actually.

My yummy half-priced lunch.  Jealous yet?

As good as the food was though, the highlight of the day was definitely the snowboarding.  Boarding on hills in Ontario doesn't even come close to boarding on a mountain.  The air is fresh, the snow is great and the view is amazing.  I've been home for about 2 hours and I already want to be back out there. 

It's gonna be an awesome winter.

Nat

Three awesome things

Hey peeps,

Here's a quick update on some awesomeness so far.  More to come later.

Awesome thing # 1:  One of the first things you realize living in Whistler is that food is expensive.  British Columbia as a whole is more expensive than Ontario and Whistler is a tourist town so add a bit more on top of that.  Needless to say, I've been bargain hunting, coupon clipping and keeping a watchful eye out for sales.  My biggest triumph so far has been this masterpiece:

The tragic part was the 4 per customer limit.  But due to my love of cookies and savings I went back two more times, resulting in my cupboard looking like this:

Awesome Thing # 2:  Whistler has so many shops in the village which means a lot of options to buy gear.  While I brought my board, bindings, boots, etc. with me from Ontario, I did pick up a sweet new helmet.  However my favourite piece of new gear is my pair of penguin socks.

Look how cute my feet look...  It's such a shame nobody will see them while I carve (read: fall) down the mountain.

Awesome thing # 3:  Lastly, I was rudely awoken at some god-awful early hour this morning by Dave's evil alarm clock.  It releases an unnecessarily loud, terrifying shrill of hell every morning.  As much as I hate the stupid clock, it may be great for days I need to wake up for work.  However, as I still haven't started regular shifts - I'm waking up mid sleep for no reason.  And believe me, once you've been awoken by it's dreadful ringing, you can't get back to sleep easily at all.  Here is a picture of the beast itself:

The one upside to being awoken so early this morning was that I looked out the window and snow was finally falling!  This is the view from our balcony:

I'm looking forward to Friday when the mountain opens up for business.  Let the snowboarding (and snowball fights) begin.

Nat

Can someone remind me why I didn't pursue graphic design?

I found the best sign ever outside my building.  This humanoid appears to have ninja turtle feet for hands, very pointy shoes, a disproportionate and oddly shaped head, no visible neck and a chin that would make Jay Leno's look small.  I want to shake the hand of the graphic designer that did the artwork.  If one can make a career out of doodling - I'm so in.

Hello from Whistler!

Hey all!

I've decided to start a blog so I can share my experiences with everyone back home.  I'll try and update regularly with pictures, stories, videos, etc.  So here goes...

I've been in BC for almost 2 weeks now and I'm still in awe of the mountains and the landscape.  It's quite a change from Ontario.  I'm enjoying being surrounded by so much nature.

My best picture of the landscape so far, but pictures can't really do it justice.

I'm living in Brio (one of the staff residences) in a shared apartment.  Right now it's just me and Dave (we're supposed to have two more roommates move in but nobody has showed up yet).  It's very spacious, and all of the outlets, appliances and lights work so I'm happy.  When we first moved in, the light in the bathroom did this weird flickering thing for about 5-10 seconds before it actually came on.  Every time I turned it on, I felt like I was a victim in a horror movie about to be murdered.  Needless to say, we got that fixed. 

My apartment complex, Brio.

From our place, it's about a ten minute walk to the village.  Right now it's fairly quiet both in the village and in our residence because it's off-season, but it should pick up fairly soon as Whistler mountain is opening on Nov 19.  The village is awesome, and while it has tons of shops and restaurants - it's really quite small.  Walking along the village stroll takes approximately 10 minutes from start to finish.  So naturally there are three Starbucks locations.

My favourite coffee place is called Blenz.  The hot chocolate is seriously delicious and they have super comfy chairs... Blenz 2, Starbucks 0.

Here are some more pictures of the village:

I can't wait for the snow to start coming down in the village.  There's lots up on the mountain but at the base it's been mostly rain or wet snow that doesn't stick around.  I start my orientation and training next week and the restaurant (Rendezvous) opens up on Nov 25th.  So after a three month vacation, it's back to work I go.


So that's it for my first post.  Keep checking back and follow me on twitter for more.


Nat