Fairwell France

So my trip is coming to an end. The last couple of weeks have been spent working a LOT and not really doing a whole lot else. Work is good though. It was a good experience to bartend for a few days but I'm definately glad I'm back to just being the server because it was stressful and I don't know that I was very good at it :-P (although who would be with 5 days of training and NO experience??) Today I booked my flight, so I'm officially leaving on Saturday: Less than one week!!!! On Saturday I'm heading to Holland to spend the last couple of days of my 8 month trip with my friends at the Pig. Then Tuesday I'm back to C-A-N-A-D-A! How exciting is that???

I dont' really know what to update... despite working 12 hours a day I have gotten out skiing fairly often which is nice. It's not as enjoyable as before because it's now peak season (French spring breaks) and so there are more often lines and way too crowded trails, but on the other hand I now, more often than not, have people to go skiing with and am not always skiing either alone or with a 9 year old girl. I'm trying to get up early one day because I forgot my camera in Switzerland so I need a full day of skiing to make it there and back, but so far I have been unsuccessful :-P Today I woke up at noon thinking my alarm hadn't gone off, but I think maybe it did go off and I just didn't hear it at all. Hopefully tomorrow I'll actually hear my alarm and make it to get my camera :-)

What else? I can't really say I've made any really good friends in France, but the people I have met are super friendly. I'm going to try to take advantage of the fact that it's my last week and really enjoy myself :-)

I don't really have anything else to say... short post today. Oh wait! I almost forgot! I got an interview at U of T1!!! Exciting isn't it?? So now when I get home, I have 5 days to prpare for my Dal interview then at the end of March I'll get to go to Ontario for my U of T interview and I'll get to visit people and such too :-)

Getting very very very very excited to come home and see everyone! See you soon!!!
Kaila

P.S. I'm not sure if this post is very good... sorry for the lack of writing ability I seem to be having today.

Finally

So I know there are at least a couple people that have been waiting for me to update and I apologize for taking so long. But here I am finally with lots to say. I had the most amazing 3 days of skiing ever in Switzerland last week. I know that in Nova Scotia you guys finally got your first snowfall (or at least close to it) but for us the first week of February was perfect spring skiing. Despite only getting 2 days off work, I got in pretty much 3 full days of skiing and I don't know if I've ever had such good conditions. It wasn't the perfect light as air powder that I was skiing in when I first got here, but it was above zero every day where I was wearing no hat (just sunglasses), no sweater and was still too hot. It has to be a pretty amazing day when my biggest complaint was that my hands were too hot. I actually had to take my mittens off on every lift up or I would sweat too much. :-P My second day of skiing was the only one that I had a complete day without travelling too or from Les Gets and it was so cool. I started in Les Crosets where I was staying and worked my way all the way down to Torgon. I know none of you have ever heard of any of these places but doing that took me 3 hours and passed through at least 3 other towns (including a 45 minute delay of getting lost in Morgin trying to find the lift to get to the next place :-P). On the way back I got to take a different route through different towns making it a full 6 hour day of skiing and never having to backtrack where I had already been. Although on my way back since it had taken me so long to get to Torgon I was a little rushed and didn't get to enjoy Chatel as much as I would have liked. I'm hoping I might be able to get a full day skiing again before I leave so that I can explore Chatel more.

What else? As I was saying before I was staying in Les Crosets which is one of the tiniest towns I've ever seen. It was basically just a little ski station with a few hotels, ski shops and restaurants. I was staying in a dormitory, but I was the only one in my room, which works out for me! I did meet a few Italians who were super surprised that I was travelling by myself because they said that women in Italy won't even leave their houses alone :-P

What else? As you may have guessed from the first half of my post, I am still in Les Gets and am staying here until I go back to Canada (except maybe a short stopover in Holland to say goodbye to friends). One of the other girls that I used to work with left Friday (which was the reason I only got 2 days off instead of 3) so I moved into her room and am now working full time at the Black Bear. It's fun but can get stressful at times. The other girl I work with, Annie, is leaving for Canada for about a week tomorrow which means instead of just serving, I'll be bartending. So this week I've been in training and while I'm learning quickly there is a LOT to learn and I still have a ways to go! It's incredible watching the other 2 bartend now that I have a better appreciation for how hard it is :-P

So I'm now working about 12 hours a day which doesn't leave much time for anything else, but I did get out skiing for an hour or 2 yesterday and am hoping to be able to get out at least a few times a week. And I forgot my camera in les Crosets, so I'm going to have to find a full day to make it back there and get it, cause it would suck to lose my camera.

I think that's about it. I may have fogotten something but can't think of anything else at the moment. I go home 3 weeks from yesterday and I get more and more excited every day! Not that I'm not enjoying myself here, but 8 months is a long time to be away and I'm super excited to see everyone and get back to my very own bed.

Talk to you soon!
Kaila

Last post des Gets?

Hello again!

So here I am, still in Les Gets, still skiing, still working at the Black Bear. I've worked for 2 weeks now and it's going really well, as before.

Work is going well. Tuesday was a bit rough at times. At one point I had a tray of about 50 euros of drinks, including a couple cocktails and was making my way to a table to serve them. I stopped for a minute because they were no longer at the table and I was trying to find them. Unfortunately, some idiot behind me thought I had stopped because I couldn't get through and started yelling at me to lift the tray up higher. When I did nothing (because that wasn't my problem) he pushed my arm up to emphasize his point (because apparently he thought I couldn't hear him yelling at me from right behind me). Now I don't know how much experience you have with carrying trays of drinks, but that is probably one of the worst things you could do, especially with cocktails which have particularly unbalanced glasses! Not only did the drinks all spill, all over a bunch of clients, but the cocktail glasses smashed into a million pieces all over the floor. Luckily, my boss was only worried about whether I got cut and helped me clean it up. The people who I had gotten wet also weren't mad at me because they saw that it wasn't my fault :-) All in all though I can't complain too much about Tuesday night. I still love my job (plus the group of English people who gave me 40 euros in tips just a little :-).

I haven't gotten too too much skiing in lately. My bad knee is bothering me some so I've been trying to rest it so that I don't make it any worse. But it's been snowing most of the day and is supposed to continue until tomorrow, so I think I'll head out tomorrow and see how it goes :-)

In other news I've been making plans and changing them regularly. This afternoon I made reservations in a hostel in Switzerland for 3 nights next week. So starting wednesday morning (whenever I can wake up seeing as I work until about 3am on Tuesday) I'm heading out, by ski, to Switzerland! I can't wait!!! I'm planning on coming back on Saturday because if my boss manages to find me a place to live I'm going to be working Saturday afternoon. But 4 days of skiing is fine by me!! I can't wait!!!!! (Better make sure my knee is nice and rested by then... )

My boss doesn't want me to leave (which makes sense seeing as if I dont' work the other 3 don't get any days off), so as I mentioned above he's trying to find me a place to live. I do hope that that works out because I really do like the job and making some money will be good seeing as as of September I'll have negative money, but I'm really not stressing too much. If I don't have a place to live here, I'm headed out to do some travelling! I think my first stop will be Geneva, basically because there are regularly buses from here to there, but also because I didn't make it to Switzerland at all this summer so it would be nice to see a little of it :-) From there I really don't know what I'll do. I might see if I can go visit Steph (my friend who is living in Germany for the year) again, or even if she might be able to do a bit of travelling with me. Other than that, the plan is to play things by ear. I think I'd likely travel for about two weeks and then spend the last couple of weeks back in Holland visiting my friends and working at the hostel (to not spend too much money :-P).

I guess that's it for now! I hope everyone in Halifax is prepared for the return of Kaila because it is fast approaching!! Talk to you soon!
Kaila

Plans always change

Hello there again!

So relatively a lot has been happening to me lately. Although now that I think of it not really all that much but it just seems like a big deal to me. My new job is awesome. I love the people I'm working with and I have SO much fun doing it! Who knew it could be so fun to go from table to table taking orders, bringing people drinks etc, etc. But most of the people in our bar are super friendly... I suppose the fact that most of them are on vacation helps. The typical conversation I have with English tourists:

Them: Are you from Canada??
Me: Of course!
Them: Where in Canada?
Me: Halifax
Them: Halifax, Nova Scotia???
Me: Sure is
Them: That's much nicer than Halifax Yorkshire
or
I've been to Toronto/Vancouver/Montreal once (never Nova Scotia... although one person had been to Chezzecook)

In the 3 nights I've worked I think I've had that exact same conversation at least 10 times. I've only worked 3 nights so far but I'm definately getting the hang of it quickly. I wish I could bartend because the fancy cocktails that they serve look like lots of fun to make :-P My first night was super super busy so it was quite the initiation, but made the other nights seem busy (even if on the slow nights we sell 10 times as much as a busy night at the Pig a.k.a the only other bar I've ever worked at). So things are going well at the Black Bear and they've even mentioned hiring me full time which would be awesome (and lots of money for Kaila!).

In other news, I might not be here as long as originally planned. The family I have been living with has been so incredibly generous welcoming me into their family and letting me live with them without really asking much at all from me and without them I probably wouldn't have been able to experience my dream come true of living in the Alps and being able to ski pretty much whenever I wanted. But my welcome is running out and it's time for me to leave. They are super super busy in February with lots of guests coming and going so having me there is just a hassle that they don't need. All the people I live with are housed in the same place, so I'm going to see if I wouldn't be able to rent a room there (because renting via normal routes in Les Gets is entirely too expensive... tourist prices!). If that doesn't work out I'll likely leave Les Gets at the beginning of February (having had a month and a half of skiing almost every day... and in the Alps no less! :-). I have enough money left over to do a bit of travelling and then would likely head back to Holland and spend my last couple of weeks in Europe back at the Pig. In my opinion not a bad alternative at all!

What else? I made it to Avoriaz for the second time the other day and, as usual, it was awesome. Although making it that close to Switzerland makes me wish I had a pass to go into Switzerland. Maybe next time I'm going for the whole day I'll splurge and get a pass where I can explore the Swiss alps a little (although I wouldn't be able to see the whole Portes Du Soleil in one day... I'll have to spend at least one night overnight to do that).

Any other news? Not that I can think of. Home is drawing ever closer extremely quickly. Starting to think about what I'll be doing for the summer, but haven't come up with any answers yet. There's always Wolfville where I can do research for the summer but I don't know that I want to live in good ol' Wolfvegas for yet another summer. It's been a long time since I've lived in Halifax. We'll see.

Talk to you soon!
Kaila

Hello there again!

What's new with you? I suppose you can't really answer me, but if you feel like letting me know that would be awesome :-P What's new with me? This week I have been working A LOT. I had a family that asked me to babysit every night, and it was the most stressful job ever. It was three families of 2 kids, 3 of which were supposed to sleep all night when I was there, but inevitably because of the older kids woke up and then wouldn't go back to sleep because their parents weren't around. And to top things off it turns out they were gypsies (I use the term loosely... families that live in caravans I guess...) and they managed to rip me off! On Wednesday night when they came back, it was only the mothers who claimed that they had forgotten to bring any money with them and would pay me on Friday when I came. Since I had already been babysitting for them for 4 nights and they'd paid me every time I didn't think it was that big a deal. Lo and behold when I arrived on Friday they had left town and weren't there! So I didn't get paid the money they owed me and to top things off, I had forgotten my earphones there and now have to buy new ones! I was almost more relieved than anything though because I REALLY didn't feel like babysitting until all hours of the night last night so I was more happy to not have to work than anything :-P

In other news I got a job! There is a Canadian bar here called the Black Bear. The owner found out that I'm Canadian and living in Les Gets for the winter, so he called me up and offered me a job! The 3 people that work there now (2 of them Canadian) have been working since the beginning of December 7 nights a week, so from now on I'll be working 3 nights a week to give each of them a day off. I started training on Tuesday where I was completely lost. I'm waitressing (I definately could not do the bartending! My bartending skills from the Pig amount to knowing how to pour beer.. haha) I had a few people tell me they could tell it was my first day, but on Thursday when I did another night of training, the same people were telling me that I was doing much better. I was much more comfortable with my surroundings and what I was expected to be doing. My first real shift is tonight and I'm really looking forward to it! Not only is it a fun job, but I will also get a chance to meet some more people my age and hopefully make some friends :-)

I think that's about it. I'm still looking into going to Switzerland for a few days at the end of January (which is approaching alarmingly fast) but having trouble finding a hostel or somethign not too expensive to stay in. We'll see what I can find, but I want to go for sure :-) Hope everyone is having a good winter. I hear the skiing conditions aren't so good in Nova Scotia, but for those of you that don't like snow, you might be happy about it. Talk to you soon!

Kaila

Here you go!

Hey there!

So I don't really have a WHOLE lot to update since last time, but I promised that if I got some comments I would, so here goes :-)

I've been in Les Gets for almost a month now, which I can't believe. My how time flies! Now that Christmas vacation is over, we have a bit of a restful month of January when there aren't as many tourists, and we don't have any visitors at the house. So I'm taking advantage of January to get in lots and lots of skiing (of course!). I've made it to Avoriaz (the farthest town that my pass works for) once and it was awesome! But it takes me about an hour to get there and an hour back so it really is a full day trip. I'm still working 2 mornings a week plus any babysitting I manage to find (last night I was babysitting until 4:30 in the morning, so I'm taking a bit of a breather today). Last week I made it out to the Canadian bar here and met a bunch of people; Unfortunately they were all tourists and all left yesterday, but it was nice to hang out with some different people and I even got to do some skiing with them. I really start to appreciate how great it is to be able to speak english AND french when I'm with a group of 6 or so people, half of which can't really speak french and the other half of which can't really speak english. It's happened a few times where I'm the only one in a group that can communicate fairly easily with everyone there, and I love it! Hopefully I'll make it out again soon (although I'm babysitting a lot this week at night) and meet some people that are here for longer than a week.

What else is new? Yesterday I went searching to see if there was somewhere I could do a few gates, or if there was anything comparable to Masters races at home, but unfortunately I was unsuccessful in finding anything. It seems anything gates/racing related is reserved for kids and the only thing for adults is lessons, which I'm entirely not interested in.

I have a bit of a better plan of what I'm doing now. I found out my Dal interview is on March 4th, so I'm sticking with my original return flight of February 28th (worked out pretty perfectly for booking 8 months in advance!!) I may stay here right until the end, or I may leave a couple weeks early to perhaps get a bit of travelling in and visit the Pig one last time (plus with February being so busy and my family having tons and tons of visitors, it may work out easier for them too if they have an extra room). But as usual, nothing is definate and everything is bound to change in the next month and a half or so.

I can't believe how little time I have left in Europe. It feels like I've been here forever, yet arriving in June seems like just yesterday. It's going to be bittersweet to leave because while I'll definately be looking forward to getting home, seeing everyone and regaining any luxuries that I've given up here, it's been the trip of a lifetime and I don't want it to end!!

I guess that's all for now. I might not update again for a while since we only have dialup here plus nothing all that exciting really happens to me here (except the amazing skiing, but I feel I've rubbed that in all your face enough already :-P).

Until next time!
Kaila

Merry (Belated) Christmas!!

Hello, hello!

I hope everyone has been having a great Christmas holiday! Being my first Christmas away from home, it's been kind of strange, but all in all I'm enjoying myself.

The family I live with doesn't really make that big a deal over Christmas. They're not super close to their extended family and they don't believe in giving excessive amounts of presents so it's been pretty laid back. Marielle (the mother) worked all day the 24th and 25th, so we celebrated on Christmas Eve. We didn't have turkey, but it was definately a feast! It involved shrimp, smoked salmon, lots of cheese, soup, salad, lots of dessert... it was basically a neverending meal which they tell me was small compared to most families' Christmas dinner. After dinner, my parents called me so I got to talk to them, Tim and my Grandparents for a while which was really nice :-) Then we proceeded to the present opening where it seemed like I had more presents than anyone else! From home I got a very nice Canadian Olympic team sweater (no longer Roots?), some shower stuff, a Tim Horton's mug and hot chocolate, a couple of cd's and a stocking full of goodies :-) Then on top of that, Marie made me a very nice bead bracelet and a collage of pictures from in and around Les Gets to put on my wall and take home with me when I leave and the family got me a pair of gloves to wear around town (not ski gloves). It was fully enjoyable and I received WAY more than I ever thought I would being half way around the world.

Christmas day didn't feel like it at all. I got up in the morning and went skiing for an hour or so, but it was the worst conditions since I'd arrived so I didn't stay out for long. The rest of the day was spent lazing around. Then I had to try to stay awake until my parents called again. It was tough, but definately worth it when I got to talk to my whole family including aunts, uncles and of course many cousins :-) After that was when I really wished I was home not missing Christmas dinner, but it was nice to talk to everyone!

What else have I been up to? Lots of skiing... not really a whole lot... I pretty much have all my own ski gear now (although I haven't actually paid for my skis yet :-p) and it's great to be able to go skiing whenever I want even if it's just for an hour (I can basically ski in and out of my house without walking more than like 3 minutes). I'm still getting used to the trails closest to me and haven't gone too far away by myself yet (being too scared to get lost :-p) but sometime in the near future I'm going to take a picnic and see if I can get all the way to Avoriaz (2 towns over) and explore some. It's snowing a little now, so hopefully we'll get enough to cover up the bare spots that have started to appear (since it hasn't snowed in a week and a half... poor me, we ONLY have a meter of snow :-p).

Other than that not much has happened... starting to feel more and more at home in the house here and getting to know the rhythm of how everything works. I've finally splurged and bought a cd/mp3 discman so that I can listen to all the music I got off the Pig computers and the cd's that Tim gave me for Christmas :-)

I think that's it! Again, I hope everyone's having a great break from whatever they've been up to! Have fun on New Year's Eve, I think I'll just be babysitting.

Talk to you soon!
Kaila