Canada
Entry posted by Sofee
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I've been slightly putting off writing this blog entry for some reason, but here it is! Me and my adventures in Canada, so far I'm nearly 4 months in with 2 weeks until the ski season finishes (ie unemployment). If I thought life in Australia was wild, boy was I in for a treat. There's so much that has happened and it would take days to write everything down, so I'll try keep this one somewhat short.
I was pretty keen on leaving Australia, not gonna lie. I felt like I didn't have much left back home and wasn't growing as a person, I was too comfortable. My first two nights in Canada got off to a crazy start, meeting some people in my hostel also working for Panorama (the resort) and getting to know them. We went out to the gay part of town and hit up some gay bars, and I ended up babysitting my new friends all the way back to the hostel, trying to stop them from cartwheeling onto the streets at 6am and accepting a suspicious white powdery substance from strangers. They are great people, I hung out with them at Panorama for the first couple weeks, as well as putting myself out there and trying to overcome my fear of talking to strangers. I did surprisingly well and wasn't as awkward as I thought I'd be once I got the ball rolling, and I was pretty pleased with myself. However, once I got to know my new friends a bit better, I knew that they weren't my kind of people. They were loud and rowdy, which I feel uncomfortable participating in. I'm more of a chilled partier. To be honest, I was super strung up and anxious about a lot of different things in the first two weeks at the resort. I kept fudgeing up at my job as a lift attendant, I was shizzle at skiing, I made a few very bad decisions which everyone at work knew about, in all I was earning myself an extremely bad reputation. I felt like I was seen as this incompetent, dumb, awkward girl who didn't bring anything positive to the table. It was really bad. I unloaded onto my flatmate about it, and she said the only things I could do were to try and make up for the things I caused, or wait it out. I did both, and it became a lot better. I went skiing at any opportunity I could to improve, I bribed my workmates with sweets, I put in a lot more effort at work to make management see me in a better light, stopped being so uptight, and in the end it worked.
Just as I was feeling better about everything, I met this Swedish guy at a cafe and he also listened to all my woes, and didn't judge at all. It was exactly what I needed, and I knew that he'd be a good friend to have chats with. At the same time I bumped into a girl from NZ that I met previously at a party, we both thought each other were kinda cool and we arranged to go to the next bar event since we didn't have anyone else to go with. Turns out that they are both flatmates at the staff accommodation, and were already friends, which was such a great coincidence. So we all went to the bar event, had a crazy night where I took care of the girl throwing up everywhere, the guy feeding me all his weed and then also joining in with the throwing up, and a mix of other things. Even though it was a trainwreck of a night, it seemed to be a bonding moment, and for the rest of the season it was the three of us causing all kinds of trouble. I had finally found a small group of friends I was comfortable with, was getting good at skiing, was making more friends at work and made up for my mistakes. I was happy.
Plot twist! This girl and I hit it off pretty quickly once we really started talking, and there was some obvious chemistry in the air. Problem was, I was absolutely not ready for commitment or relationships, and she was still in love (and talking) with her ex who she left behind in New Zealand. But there was still a special connection between us that we couldn't ignore. So we talked it out and agreed that it was best to just stay friends and not act on anything. However, when we got drunk at events, all self control flew out the window. After more talking and a 2-week bed ban, we agreed to go with the flow and have a fwb sort of deal. It was pretty hard having that arrangement whilst still sleeping with other people at the resort (on my part) since there was still jealousy floating around. Bit of a complicated situation, but communication was good which made it better. As the months went by, it went from screwing around after parties to something much more intimate. It was nice having that feeling back, almost a year after breaking up with my ex. But it also brought back bittersweet memories of how things used to be. At the end of the season, it was basically like a relationship without the lovey dovey stuff.
Alas, as with seasonal overseas jobs, they all have to end. Today she left for another job at the Columbia Icefields between Jasper and Banff. It was sad leaving her place for the last time this morning, a place where we'd spent so much time bonding and made so many memories. It was like a mini breakup. I actually also applied for a job at the same place and got it, so that's the current plan. My Swedish friend is also going to the Icefields, so us 3 would be back at it again. The very loose plan is, go to Calgary on the 11th of April, buy a van there, head west and solo roadtrip along the west coast of Canada and the US. Places to tick off the list are Vancouver Island, Oregon, San Fran, hit up all the national parks and look at pretty things until late May, which is when my contract starts. So I probably won't be back in Australia for a while, might as well use this 2-year visa to its fullest.
If you have any recommendations on stuff to do on NA's west coast, lay it out for me! That's it for now friends, till next time.
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