Greetings Friends
Welcome to another week in the Findlater's travels, this week I'll let you in on a little bit of what we get up to on the mountain and of what life consists of.
Also I will share what we got up to on New Years.
Every day Life
One thing that has taken some getting use to is when shopping in Canada the price that you see is the price of the item without taxes included. Also it depends on what you are buying as we whether there is an additional levy or not, like for recycling tin cans or plastic bottles.
If you are buying anything that requires service there is also usually a tip expected, so it can become quite confusing as to what the final price of your purchases will be.
Mercedes
My job is mostly in the laundry, and although I have a roster my shifts are very flexible. I usually start work between 4 and 6AM in the morning, where I am in charge of washing, drying and folding all the laundry for the hotel and mountain-home accommodation.
This is a good job as I don't need to deal with too many people and the ones I do have to deal with are lovely.
I finish work by 2PM every day except for Mondays and Tuesdays when I start at 4AM in order to sweep and mop out the "Grand Cafe" prior to the breakfast rush, this works out well for me as it means that I finish work at 12PM.
I work 5 days a week and get two days off, usually it is Wednesday and Thursday.
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| Working hard! |
I work 5 days a week and get two days off, usually it is Wednesday and Thursday.
We are also provided a meal while working so that usually ends up being a salad (no one seems to know what Vegan means).
I have also been poaching a second job at a coffee shop/bakery for the afternoons, but the lady is severely disorganized so I have only done two shifts so far.
I have also been poaching a second job at a coffee shop/bakery for the afternoons, but the lady is severely disorganized so I have only done two shifts so far.
Kyran
Well as you all know from one of Kyran's previous posts is he's a night auditor and he does 4 shifts on and 4 shifts off. He gets to stay up all night and shuffle paper, shovel snow, and drink copious amounts of this disgusting black liquid the natives call "coffee".
Kyran has also got himself a second job at the same place as me as a barista, and for the same reasons as me has only don three shifts there as well.
New Years Eve
Our new years eve festivities started with calling all our families back home to wish them a happy new year.
Earlier that day we did our shopping for the week to come and insisted that we buy some grapes, Kyran was confused as to why I needed grapes so badly and so I will share my reasoning with you.
The Grapes
The Twelve Grapes (Sp. Las doce uvas de la suerte, "The twelve grapes of luck") is a Spanish tradition that dates back from at least 1895 but became established in 1909. In December of that year, some alicantese vine growers popularized this custom to better sell huge amounts of grapes from an excellent harvest.
The tradition consists of eating a grape with each bell strike at midnight of December 31. According to the tradition, that leads to a year of prosperity. In some areas, it is believed that the tradition wards away witches and general evil.
The twelve grapes are linked to the Puerta del Sol tower clock, where this tradition started and from where the change of year is always broadcast.
After calling people back home we set off to the main part of the village where the hotel that we work at is located. First there was to be a flare run, where skiers and boarders get flares and then ski down the mountain in the dark meaning that for us at the bottom of the hill it looked like a chinese dragon coming down to get us. They let the children go first however I think that they had red LED lights instead of flares. Then once the children had made it to the bottom on the slope the adults started. Here is an image dump of the flare run and some of the Bulldog Hotel crew that we were partying with on the night:
After the ski run there was a fireworks display. My first fear was an avalanche (but there was not enough snow and the snow was not so great), my second fear was freezing to death. The display seemed to drag on a little to long and as the temperature was around -10 the display should have been more intense and shorter. Because the fireworks were not that exciting, we won't upload the video of it! It was nice enough to watch though, standing in the snow and seeing the lights flash on the snow and the alpine trees all around.
Moving on...
Since New Years, we have had between 30-40cm of snow dump overnight, where I had to walk to work in it and thought that I would not make it (it's like walking in sand up to your knees, it's very tiring). The very next day it was raining and melting all the snow into water and ice. So the weather is a bit emotional at the moment.
We also might have some exciting news for you all next blog, but we will wait and see if it happens before I tell you all about it. I the mean time you can keep guessing what it is sorry that this blog was not to exciting, hopefully the next one will be.
Well as you all know from one of Kyran's previous posts is he's a night auditor and he does 4 shifts on and 4 shifts off. He gets to stay up all night and shuffle paper, shovel snow, and drink copious amounts of this disgusting black liquid the natives call "coffee".
Kyran has also got himself a second job at the same place as me as a barista, and for the same reasons as me has only don three shifts there as well.
Picture Adventure one sunny morning
A quick blob of pictures we took on morning while running around in the cold. Some nice ones here! |
| Ice Skating on the pond! |
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| Snowbird Lodge |
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| Snowbird Lodge, on the turrets are hot tubs! |
New Years Eve
Our new years eve festivities started with calling all our families back home to wish them a happy new year.
Earlier that day we did our shopping for the week to come and insisted that we buy some grapes, Kyran was confused as to why I needed grapes so badly and so I will share my reasoning with you.
The Grapes
The Twelve Grapes (Sp. Las doce uvas de la suerte, "The twelve grapes of luck") is a Spanish tradition that dates back from at least 1895 but became established in 1909. In December of that year, some alicantese vine growers popularized this custom to better sell huge amounts of grapes from an excellent harvest.
The tradition consists of eating a grape with each bell strike at midnight of December 31. According to the tradition, that leads to a year of prosperity. In some areas, it is believed that the tradition wards away witches and general evil.
The twelve grapes are linked to the Puerta del Sol tower clock, where this tradition started and from where the change of year is always broadcast.
After calling people back home we set off to the main part of the village where the hotel that we work at is located. First there was to be a flare run, where skiers and boarders get flares and then ski down the mountain in the dark meaning that for us at the bottom of the hill it looked like a chinese dragon coming down to get us. They let the children go first however I think that they had red LED lights instead of flares. Then once the children had made it to the bottom on the slope the adults started. Here is an image dump of the flare run and some of the Bulldog Hotel crew that we were partying with on the night:
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| Sneaky wine in me pocket! |
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| Darcy being a silly man |
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| Some of the Bulldog Crew! |
After the ski run there was a fireworks display. My first fear was an avalanche (but there was not enough snow and the snow was not so great), my second fear was freezing to death. The display seemed to drag on a little to long and as the temperature was around -10 the display should have been more intense and shorter. Because the fireworks were not that exciting, we won't upload the video of it! It was nice enough to watch though, standing in the snow and seeing the lights flash on the snow and the alpine trees all around.
Moving on...
Since New Years, we have had between 30-40cm of snow dump overnight, where I had to walk to work in it and thought that I would not make it (it's like walking in sand up to your knees, it's very tiring). The very next day it was raining and melting all the snow into water and ice. So the weather is a bit emotional at the moment. We also might have some exciting news for you all next blog, but we will wait and see if it happens before I tell you all about it. I the mean time you can keep guessing what it is sorry that this blog was not to exciting, hopefully the next one will be.
Until next time - have a good one!
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