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