It's Grouse Mate!

So I had his dream one night: I was in this blissful slumber, all cuddled up in my brand new Ikea bedding and Ed Sheeran was singing Lego House to me.

It was a beautiful dream, mainly because it was real - minus the Ed Sheeran part.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere - BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!!! ..."AMANDA! WAKE UP!"

Shit.




Now I was having a nightmare.

Sweet dreams you...

My peaceful dreamy sleep had been taken hostage by my hyperactive, filter-free flat mate Sophie, who had waaayyy too much Red Bull infused energy for my liking.

Sophie was up every morning at sparrow-fart, even after a cider drinking bender the night before. 
She visited the gym twice a day and was happier than a toddler, high on pink cupcake frosting. This little pocket rocket was forever on fast-forward.

I greeted her at my bedroom door with a sour face, Lorde's hair, and was wearing the sexiest set of baby pink, bunny print pyjamas, you have ever seen. I'm sure Ed Sheeran thought they were cute.

Which bitch woke me up?

"I knew you would still be asleep! Come on, get dressed, we leave in 30 minutes!"

It was 8am Monday morning; Sophie was already dressed in her gym gear, was on her second can of Diet Coke and was keen as beans take Kim and I hiking on the Grouse Grind - or otherwise known as 'Mother Nature’s Stairmaster', up the face of Grouse Mountain.

"Sophie, I just can’t do the hike today. After doing all those squats and lunges yesterday, my legs have as much movement in them as Barbie's limbs.

I can't even sit on the toilet; I basically need to pee standing up. Not today, maybe another time OK?"

Compassionate and Sympathetic:

Two adjective words you will never find in Sophie’s

Eharmony dating profile.

A casual 2.9 km vertical climb, 43 breaks and three hours later, I finished that gruelling hike. 
In return I now have Candace Swanepoe butt.

The Grouse Grind is hugely popular with tourist, locals and competitive hikers. 

Real fitness fanatics take on the trail weekly, attempting to beat their last personal best or competed to see their name on 
the Grind's fastest times list, which was displayed on the TV flat screen in chalet.

I can safely say I wasn’t in the running for fastest time on the Grouse Grind records, but I was definitely in for the chance of winning 'The Slowest Hiking Time, Of All Time' award.

I like to dream big.

Some guy named Sebastian Sale, who did it in 25 minutes, held the fastest Grouse Grind time.  I'm pretty certain Sebastian was a goat.

Grouse Grind

You wish you could pull this look off!

It had been nearly two weeks since settling into our new home and we're getting to know about local area. 

This is what we have learnt so far about North Vancouver:

-The local grocery store sold Tim Tams (yes!) for $5 and a small Vegemite jar for $10 (no!).

-Bus drivers didn’t like me.

-Wal-Mart has everything - I can buy my cream cheese, pop tarts, a bike, a dinning table set, fill my prescription, buy a Mcflurry and have professional glamour shots taken all in the same place.

- Pickles, cheese and jalapenos can be deep-fried

- I don’t hate root beer

- Drivers will always stop for you when you cross the road- and I'm not just talking at the crossing, I mean like any time, any road, no matter how busy it is, cars will literally stop traffic for you. “That could totally work in Australia”- said no one ever.

On Friday that week, Kim, Sophie, twenty other newbies and myself, started our first day of training at Grouse Mountain.

Not only was in my first day as a Grouse Mountain employee, but it was also time I had ever seen or touched snow. It's basically like sand, but it's white, freezing and made for great entertainment - watching the uncoordinated slip and fall spectacularly on their arse.

I thought I would have flipped out in delirious happiness about it, but to my surprise I was relatively calm about the situation.

I couldn’t say the same for my flat mate Kim.

Kimberly couldn’t stop smiling like a Miss Universe contestant and was on the verge of ugly tears as if the final two came down to her and Miss Kazakhstan. All she needed was to see a deer running through the snow, and Kim would have been as emotional as Miley Cyrus on a wrecking ball and as inconsolable as the 3 billion people who watched the film clip on YouTube. 

Counselling and hot chocolate would be needed immediately for all parties.

Friday:

We learnt about the history of Grouse Mountain, the great services and activities they have to offer to tourists, and how passionate Grouse staff members are about giving customers pickles.
I love pickles!

You may be thinking, "What do you mean pickles? Are they just walking around with giant pickle jars and handing them out to snowboarders? Is that hygienic? Are they using tongs at least?"

‘Give 'em the Pickle’ is a customer service training video we watched created by Bob Farell - a motivational speaker and entrepreneur in the customer service industry.

Grouse wants every one of their customers leaving happier then they first arrived, and experience the best service Grouse have to offer.

Give 'em the pickle = Give 'em 100% plus that extra bit to make the customer happy.

Saturday and Sunday:

We meet our rental supervisors: Alex, Laura and Guy. 

Approachable, encouraging, top humans.

This is where we learnt everything we needed to know about working in rentals. 

Basically our job is to fit customers with the correct size skis, snowboards, boots, helmets and clothing, according to their individual needs. (Shoe size, height, weight, age, and skiing/snowboarding level)

The whole thing was incredibly alien to me, I was in a whole new world, learning about products and sport I knew nothing about.
 I won’t lie, I was stressing out just a wee little bit. 
Ok, ok, I was quietly flipping out.

Time to get hands on! 
Sunday’s training was held at the rentals building, where we would be spending a good part, of the next 6 months in. We were clued up on all the ski and snowboarding gear and services we had to offer, practiced setting up a snowboard and a pair of skis, learnt how to book lessons and process transactions in cashiers department.

After that, it was all up to us. No pressure guys.

As daunting as it all may have seem, our supervisors advised us not to stress if we didn’t understand everything yet. During our shifts there would always be a supervisor or a senior staff member there to help whenever we needed it. 

I would be finding out for myself later that week when I had my first ever shift.

(I’ll let you know how I went in my next blog. My first days as a renty involve vomit, dancing and my Aussie slang getting lost in translation)

Until next time pickle lovers.

Amanda x

Discover your WORKING HOLIDAY CLUB adventure here!

Vancouver, you got me right in the feels!

Me: "Hi, can I please have Grande Pumpkin Spiced Soy Latte, with a toasted bagel with cream cheese"

Starbucks girl: "Sure! Would you like to upgrade your coffee to a Venti today for 35 cents?"

Me: "Yeah ok..." – Bloody hell they’re good at upselling!

After I placed my order, a couple of worrying thoughts immediately came to my attention:

1. The barista girl must think I'm an absolute dip-stick for ordering a cream cheese bagel with my lactose-free beverage. Cray-Cray, I know, but give me frothy cup of cows’ milk and I'll demonstrate my secret talent of beat-boxing, with my back-side.

2. I had very quickly, after only 3 days in Vancouver, converted over to my coffee arch nemesis Starbucks. Back home in Australia I was known for my connoisseur caffeine snobbery ( I blame my friend Antonis) and shamed anyone walking around with one of those stupid oversized Starbucks Ventis, filled with a White Chocolate-Salted Caramel, half strength skinny flat white, topped with cream and chocolate sprinkles. Mate, you’re probably better off spending that $7 on a tub of hokey-pokey ice-cream, smother it in whip cream, pour chocolate Ice-Magic on top and finish it with a teaspoon of instant coffee.



But I have now changed my coffee perspective and have become one of them. A mainstream Starbucks coffee causality, who proudly sits inside at the window, sipping away at her small popcorn sized latte, mooching off the free WI-FI and Instagraming the limited edition Christmas coffee cup with her carefully placed bagel. #ilovecoffee #ilovebagels #starbucks #pumpkinspice #is#this#considered#a#serve#of#vegies?




A change I will gladly sacrifice, because that's what you do when you fall in love, and I'm loving Vancouver so hard right now.




My first night in Vancouver City:

I checked into the Samesun Hostel where I was to be sleeping/eating/sleeping off my jetlag for the next few nights. 

The Samesun Hostel has everything any wandering traveller needs: decent hot showers; comfortable beds; lockers to keep your shit safe; cheap bar food and drinks;a full kitchen; a laundry; a social common room and a chill-out room with a plasma screen, which included an endless selection of Netflixs to choose from.

After dumping my bags in my shared room, I met up my flat mates - Alex, Kim and Sophie - in the common room as we took on the challenge of finding a rental house in North Vancouver to call home.

Stressed? No not all...pass that bottle of Canadian Club over this way will you Alex...ta.

At least the first night at the Samesun Hostel was charged on the The Working Holiday Clubs credit card and free WI-FI was on tap 24/7 flowing all through the hostel, making the search for homes on Craigslist a lot easier and let everyone chat to family and friends back home for as long as they wanted.

I needed to update my location status on Facebook so everyone back home knew I safely made it through Canadian customs with a 10KG boogie board bag filled with Tim Tams.




Day two in Vancouver City:

It appears the real estate Gods heard our prayers and came up with a bloody good answer. We took a trip on the Translink Seabus to the suburbs of North Vancouver to find a newly renovated 4-bedroom, unfurnished granny flat, underneath a lovely families home. 

The flat came with a full kitchen; a washing machine and dryer; two bathrooms; heating in each room and internet as was included in our monthly utilities bill. 

The biggest bonus about our new pad-it takes less than 15 minutes, to get to work, by bus, at Grouse Mountain.

Awesome find - CHECK! CHECK! CHECK!




Day three in Vancouver City:

Adventure time was on the day's to-do list, so no more stressing about living in a cardboard box behind a Tim Hortens coffee shop.

After exploring Downtown Vancouver for the past couple of days I’ve come to the conclusion that if Melbourne and New York got drunk and had a one night stand, Vancouver City would be their love child.

It has inherited Melbourne's cold, crisp wet weather, its architectural beauty, city trams and its easy-going, coffee dependent, friendly people.

Then, you recognize New Yorks bright flashing neon lights, noisy exciting busy city streets, its packed bars and restaurants and the convenience of a pizza and poutine shop being less than 10 meters away from you at all times.

The Starbucks Pumpkin Spiced latte has quickly become my new favourite coffee must have, but it's apparently the 'hype' flavour right at the moment, which means now I have to change my coffee order because I don’t like following trends (…excuse me, I just need to cough- huhk -hypocrtite-huhk…you own and Apple Mac and IPhone huhk -huhk). I prefer to be the rebel and do things out of the norm -so it look likes I'll be ordering a plain coffee for now on...no one orders those anymore right?

Later in the night we discovered Vancouver’s secret little gem, Gastown. Gastown is the city’s oldest neighbourhood, its streets are full of unique clothing boutiques, premium beer and wine bars, and cozy cafes and restaurants to satisfy any comfort food craving during the Autumn/Winter season.  Gastown charmed me with its romantic streetlights, fairy light filled trees, its old town cobblestone roads and a homeless women offering to sell me her bike, which she promised she didn’t steal, for $10. 


It's no secret that Vancouver has one of the highest rates of homeless men, women and youth in Canada, who will either keep to themselves, strike up a conversation with you in the hope for some coin or will do some creative marketing, like making a tinny boat out of cardboard boxes, sit in it with a fishing rod with the line dropping into a plastic cup, and written in black marker on the side of the 'boat' reads FISHING FOR CHANGE...someone give that man a job! 

The staff at Samsun recommended we don’t give any money as there are plenty of homeless shelter programs that can assist people with food and living arrangements. Other locals we have met recommend the same thing, but say that if you do want to give money, you can if you feel comfortable doing so.

It's kind of a case of- if you do, you're a gullible idiot for caring to passers by and if you don't, the old guy asking for bus money will mumble under his breath something about ' hoping bad things happen to you' and shoot you dirty look as he walks away. It's just a learning curve we will have to figure out as we go along.




Day four in Vancouver:

Feeling like daja-vu, I was once again rolling up my spacebags before they went back into my suitcase, which I had to do a belly flop stack-on so I could zip it back up, a good look in front the English backpackers across from my room.

It was moving day!

Before we started moving, I popped out for quick breakfast at Tim Hortons for another cream cheese bagel, but this time I asked for an Earl Grey tea to save myself embarrassment of having to explain why I'll have a soy milk latte with a cream cheese bagel. I mean, I don’t have to explain it - I can just feel the cashier girl judging me, which stresses me out, then feel compelled to explain myself, and just look like a total weirdo because she’ll be thinking: 

"Lady I don’t give two shits about your lactose intolerance levels, I’m just trying to get through this 10 hour shift, so I can go out and get white girl wasted with my girlfriends because customers like you drive me crazy, and you are holding up the line, so fucking hurry up and tell me if you want a sesame seed bagel or whole meal!?"

Well that conversation escalated quickly in my head.

After I filled out the Tim Hortons customer feedback form about staff being more understanding about customer’s strange dietary requests, I had one more stop before heading back to the hostel.

I was about to make a grown-up purchase and buy a queen-sized bed, probably the second most expensive purchase on this trip after my plane ticket.

An expensive purchase for, at minimum, a 6 month stay, but I promised myself I wouldn’t jeopardise my quality of sleep and I would buy a decent mattress when I moved into a house. I was able to buy an ex-display bed from Sleep Country on Granville St, at a discounted price for less than $800, which included the Contour Collection Sydney Queen mattress, bed base and wheels, plus free delivery. 

Alex also bought himself an ex-display from the Sleep Country people, while Kim and Sophie opted for Queen sized air mattress for their stay. Other fellow Grouse WHC friends have bought beds from Ikea for under $200 or second hand mattresses on Craigslist.

 It's an individual choice really, depending on your budget and sleeping style: can you sleep like a log in any awkward position anywhere, or do you have princess and the pea syndrome?  

One hour later, Kim, Alex, Sophie and myself were stampeding our way through the streets of Van with about 100kg worth of luggage between us. I think I found a new cardio trend - 'luggage lunging'. We made our way to the Sea Bus, got off at Lonsdale Quay and took the Highland bus line to our new home. Now you can imagine that four tourists with 10 pieces of luggage between them, on a packed bus full of senior passengers and mothers with prams, weren’t going to piss anyone off that morning, were they now?




Getting off the bus, we noticed all the houses in our neigbourhood, including our own, made us fell like we were living in a fairytale.

Some look like gingerbread houses and others looked like Edwards home out of Twilight.
 YES,YES, I used a Twilght reference, keep your pants on. Im just trying to paint a picture here, OK? 

Do you know what, just watch Twilight and that's what our town looks like - no shit! Get out your Twilight movie collection box set, put on that Team Edward shirt you have at the bottom of your 'ugly shirt drawer', and re-live those secret Edward fantasies and hate on Kristen Stewart all over again.

Then aftewards, you'll remember why that t-shirt you're wearing was at the bottom of the 'ugly shirt drawer' in the first place.

Our landlord, aka Helen, who lives in the home above us, was sweet enough to give us an old TV with cable and fill our fridge with what looked like a 20 litre bottle of milk, 2 cartons of fruit juice, half a carton of Canada Dry (dry ginger ale) and good old fashioned apple pie. I know what we're having for dinner tonight!

We picked our rooms, dumped our suitcases and headed straight to Canada's most iconic landmark: Walmart.

I bought the essentials of course - oats, almond milk, a giant coffee mug, $1 frozen meals, thumb tacks and a Snickers bar. I felt these were far more important than other 'essentials' like pillows, bed sheets or bath towels; those materialistic things can wait.


After popping our Walmart shopping cherry we headed back home, but not without pissing off the people of North Vancouver, yet again, on their public transport, by taking over half the bus with more bags than our arms could physically carry. We should really get a taxi next time.

We arrived home, unpacked our crap, and ate apple pie out of the tin because we had no plates. We then helped Sophie and Kim pump up their Walmart air-beds in the lounge room, where we were all sleeping that night as Alex and I had to wait for our beds to be delivered the next day.


I'll tell ya, after one night on a blow-up bed, I know I definitely do not regret splurging my money on that Queen bed set. Maybe I should have bribed the Sleep Country guy with a pumpkin spiced latte and a cream cheese bagel for it to be delivered that day? No, you’re right -a caramel latte, two bagels and large serve of poutine chips, yep that would have done it. Ah well I'll know for next time. 

Until next time Twihards.

Amanda x 
Instagram :@amanda_maguire

Discover your Working Holiday Club adventure here!