Smuggling apples and other adventures. Day 1.

Last week we went on a quick jaunt to the United States of America, which is quite a cool thing to be able to do really... Come to think of it, you can only do that from one other country :)

On Wednesday night, after me and Tabs had zoomed home from work, we picked up a car and started our adventure - namely, driving it home on the wrong side of the road! All was, in fact, well with the driving thing, though I continued to find driving an automatic disconcerting for the whole trip. There's something very wrong (or maybe right) with a car where you can just take all your feet off all the pedals and not stall or make horrible crunching noises.

At about 7.30pm we headed off, four of us packed in, along with 3 snowboards and all our gear. It was a tight squeeze. I drove first and decided that Britain's motorways are far more sensible than Vancouver's freeways, where slip lanes enter and exit from both sides for no apparent reason. However, we reached the border intact, in one excited piece.

At the border the first guard we met seemed to think we had largely good intentions and might behave ourselves, so let us through to the border security/immigration/customs placy thing. At this point you give up your car, keys, and hence, belongings, to the lovely people outside, who it turns out are 'agricultural officers' (or, so they say...), while you go inside to fill out a form and pay random amounts of money until they see fit to let you go...

So, inwards we went, and after hanging around for a little while a scary man in uniform approached us with a plastic bag with something in it. "What's this?" What is that? Very good question - I wasn't sure what that was either. On closer inspection, it looked like an apple core - but was it an apple core laced with some kind of illegal drugs we shouldn't be carrying? I was confused.

"Uh, I think that's my apple core," says Tabitha... "Yes," says man, "Do you have any more apples?" (What?) "Any other fruit?"... uh, 3 apples, a banana, (a twix and some strawberry laces... ). Should we not have apples? Seems too perfect to have your fruit confiscated as you enter America... funny Americans... (I would have more sympathy if they were an island, but seeing as how they share the longest land border of any country any where in the world with Canada, it seems unliekly that confiscating fruit at the border would achieve much biodiversity-wise...).

Anywayz, the man, who by now was simply making fun of us for all of our illicit fruit smuggling, now asked our permission to search the car for the other fruit and anything else we should't have. It seemed rather redundant to be asking our permission now, since he'd clearly already searched the car, but he was very nice (and also scary) so we let him go about his business.

Apparently our apples had the requisit labels and were allowed to continue their journey into America with us. So, apple-smuggling complete, we left the shiny, courteous shores of Canada, and entered the new found wilds of America-land.

(It's interesting to note the difference between American and Canadian border customs. Upon entering America we were questioned very closely about our suspect fruit consumption - all these damned Canadians and their healthy food. Upon returning to Canada they didn't feel the need to question out diet, but did ask us whether we were carrying legal or illegal firearms, drugs or any kind or any weapons. Priorities people. )

So, having made it into the States, we spent the next couple of hours on quiet highways in the rain, enjoying the knowledge that while it might look kinda similar, we were in a whole new country. Around 11pm we arrived into Seattle and settled into our hotel for a cold (we didn't figure out the heating until the next day...), but comfortable and well deserved night's sleep.

The next morning we woke up to stunning sunshine and blue skies. Out of our hotel room window, we could just about make out Seattle's Space Needle. The perfect day to go exploring. But like I said earlier - priorities. The hotel had breakfast included, so first order of the day was make-your-own waffles, with bagels (and bad american tea). You could even have maple syrup AND whipped cream on you waffle, if you could stomach such a concoction that early in the morning.

Our hotel was only a few blocks walk from Seattle's touristy stuff (in fact, most stuff was only a few blocks from anywhere - the centre of Seattle is even smaller than the centre of Vancouver, so most stuff is pretty easy to get to. Just down the road we encountered a scene that I think Seattle's 1962 World's Fair would have been proud of - spacy and American and 'modern' (in the old sense) in lashings all at once.


However, spacy and impressive as that was, to be honest, my attention was somewhat more distracted than is strictly reasonable, by the giant pink elephant turning around and around on the other corner of the road:

I mean, it was a very cool elephant. I even took a picture of it from the top of the space needle, but thought that maybe if I posted it up here, that would have come off as a little obsessive. Still. Pink. Elephant. :D

And so begins the tour.

This is Hannah, and her friend Linsey, who was out visiting for a couple of weeks, being excellently touristy, and getting all excited about space needles and satellite dishes, very much setting the tone of the day.

Seattle's 'Space Needle' was basically built to be Seattle's very own Eiffel tower (or if you believe men in black, might be somekind of a govenment conspiracy to cover up the visitations of aliens with their UFOs, which, looking at it does seem imensely plausible...) During the World's Fair apparently 2.3 million visitors paid a slightly extortionate amout of money for 2 fourty-three second elevator rides, as large numbers of people, us schmucks included, do today. To be honest, while the view at the top is very pleasant, there isn't actually all that much to look at - i kind of think that the space needle is the most interesting thing to look at in the Seattle sky line, and in that sense you're better off not being in it, but it was worth it nonetheless. I especially like the interative screens they have to tell you about different areas of the city, and the plaques telling you about the design and the World's Fair itself.

The structure is built to withstand a 9.1 richter earthquake - which is starting to look just as well given what's just happened in Japan. There are 25 lightening rods on the top to mitigate any lighting damage, and it will withstand hurricane force winds. The whole thing is quite impressive really. Like I said though, the view's nice, but Seattle doesn't have the best skyline in the world for looking at.


One thing that the Space Needle have done about as well as anyone possibly could have is setting up merchandise and selling great quanities of it in the gift shop. You can get Space Needle *anything*. For example - i had to take a picture, i just couldn't quite believe it - they have their own 'Needlicious' fudge concession...


I mean, fudge? That's about as random (and yummy) as it gets...

Anywayz, maybe my favourite building in Seattle wasn't the tower, but the building next to it. A big shiny thing that I took to be modelled on cloth, or something - i wasn't quite sure, but wikipedia (reliably?) informs me that it's broadly modelled on a smashed up six-string guitar (Hendrix stylee), which I guess I can kind of see... ? In any case, it's very colourful, smooth, shiny and rather cool.


The Experience Music Project (and Science Fiction Hall of Fame) was a well spent $15 (though my favourite part of the whole thing really was just the building itself).


Inside there are exhibitions about artists and music that have come out of the Pacific North West, a semi-permanent Jimi Hendrix exhibit, and some interesting audio-visual stuff. We completely skipped the Science fictiony bit since the current theme is Battlestar Galactica, which none of us had ever seen...






Down the centre of the museum there's an awesome sculpture made with more guitars that I think i've seen in my whole life. quite what the point was, i'm not entirely sure, but it was quite cool, nonetheless.


Undoubtedly the best bit of the museum is upstairs where they have interactive programs to learn the basics of rock intruments (and a theremin!) and mini recording studios. It was pretty awesome, although, it made me miss the piano...


Another cool feature of the building itself is that the monorail goes straight through the middle of it. The monorail is a bit pointless really since it only takes you a few blocks, but I guess I can at least now say I've been on one, not just build them in Theme Park.


By about half past two, we realised that we should perhaps actually see some of Seattle rather than spending all day inside on drum machines. We also needed to eat something. At this point we headed (on the monorail!) to another of Seattles landmark locations - Pike Place Market, which, to be honest, I found pretty underwhelming (Although, I don't doubt that if you like fish, it might have been pretty impressive). Basically it was like Vancouver's Granville Island, but not as good - basically, I've been spoilt! We did, however, come across the 'original' Starbucks around there, whereupon much excitement of course ensued.



Next we headed to Pioneer Square (above). This is basically the oldest surviving part of Seattle. Curiously, it's actually built on an even older part, which was ruined after a big earthquake at the turn of the century. You can go on tours to visit the under ground city - much like in edinburgh - and it's widely agreed that this is well worth it, but as it turned out the timings didn't quite work for us and we were a bit worn out, so instead we grabbed cake and hot chocolate in a cafe instead...

I couldn't decide if I liked Pioneer Square. Much like Vancouver's Gastown - which looks very similar, but has been more gentrified - Pioneer Square is a hub of homeless people and drug addicts, which doesn't exactly set the atmosphere, but they don't seem to cause undue problems either. However, it's also the most atmospheric bit of Seattle that we visited and could be really nice if some more attention were put on investment in the area. To me, this was a theme true of many areas of Seattle. A lot of areas have either been nice at some point, but left to degenerate, or there's been half-hearted attempts at re-generation which haven't quite come to fruition in the way they could. This was true around our hostel, which was obviously a shiny, happening area in the sixties, but doesn't seem to have updated since.

The waterfront is another area that seems to have been half heartedly improved an then ignored. The wharfs are alright, but then there are park areas that have been locked up and neglected, and large swathes of land that don't appear to be used for anything - they could be made so pleasant. However, the most frustrating thing about the waterfront is that the Pike Place market, the downtown sky scrapers and the historic and picturesque Pioneer Square area are all right next to it, but the areas are completely cut off from the waterfront and vice versa because there is a bloody great double decker highway built through the middle of it for as far as the eye could see!

A la:



There are beautiful buildings just behind this concrete monstrosity and whoever put it there should have been shot!

Rant over. There was in fact ample quirky little artistic things around to somewhat make up for other idiots. Continuing a theme from previous posts, I found more nice wall art/murals:

Isn't that just sooo much nice than just having the side of a building? :D

We also came across a penguin on our way home from dinner.


Very cool.

So, that was more or less that for day one of our road trip. All very sleepy, we checked directions to Mount Baker the next day and formed our plans (which, admittedly, revolved entirely around the fact that we wanted to have waffles for breakfast again, but how else is one supposed to make plans?).

Day two: coming soon.

After four months I actually venture outside the city limits!

So this week has almost been like a mini holiday week for me.

On the Thursday we had our staff ski trip (which i realise might sound rather perverse, given that we work on a ski resort, but still!), and since i usually work that day, I was always going to have a 4 day week this week, but as it turns out it was a 3 day week.

On Wednesday we had gales forcast so the mountains all shut, since they were unable to operate the chair lifts. On reflection, it's very strange having a job where you can get an impromtu day off, simply because it's windy outside, but I guess that's just the way life goes! At first I was a bit annoyed because a 4 day week is one thing, but this week i had more days off than i worked, and at that point you feel the fact you won't be earning much! Anywayz, as it turned out, it's totally been good for me - it's like having half term, which given that i haven't had more than a weekend off since november, was pretty timely, gave me a chance to have a rest and do fun/useful stuff.

So on wednesday i spent a very pleasant afternoon wandering around Vancouver, watching some interesting-looking filming going on, and then re-writing my resume in Starbucks, as well as starting a couple of covering letters. Came back and watched a good but slightly weird film - turns out, looking it up on wikipedia subsequently, that it was classed as an 'erotic thriller', which might explain why it wasn't quite what we were expecting!

Thursday, as I mentioned was our staff trip, and it was pretty epic really. We went to Hemlock which is a couple of hours east of Vancouver. There's some very weird countryside between here and there, but it was interesting seeing something different! Anywayz, Hemlcok was shut on sunday becuase they had too much snow(!?), which i guess is a bit like having the wrong kind of leaves on the track... Anywayz, once the ski resort had figured out the whole snow thing, they were shut again until thrusday, since they only run long weekends. As such by the time we got there, there was over 2 metres of accumulated fresh powder - soooo much awesome. Spent the morning on some more gentle slopes getting used to it, then spent all afternoon with one of the instructors on the black runs, ssurfing on the snow. It was great - you could go down a much steeper slope much quicker than you usually would simply because if you got it wrong, you'd just end up either firmly wedged and digging yourself out, or you would make a massive crater and have to somehow extracate yourself, but in anycase, it was pretty difficult to hurt yourself! Soooo much snow. The rest of the season is just not going to be able to live up to that. In fact, i'm not convinced I'll find that again anywhere anytime soon, backcountry aside - fairly extraordinary...

Most of the ski school and some hang-ons (see if you can spot me!) at Hemlock:


Friday was spent being pampered and being wholesome.

Got up and tidied the living room, since some prospective future tenants were coming round, then headed out for a haircut. Bit of an experiment since it was at the Aveda Academy, where they train students - you even have to sign a liability waiver before you have anything done! On the up side, i was totally impressed with the cut and that they had to check each section with their educator, mostly though, i liked it because it was only $18, which is one of the cheapest haircuts i've ever had, and for a pretty stylish cut as well. On the down side, it did take nearly two hours, but left me free perfectly in time for lunch, which I had at the nearby Trees cafe ('the best Cheesecake in Vancouver'), and indeed, the cheesecake was excellent.

Finally, I actually got around to redeeming my Groupon voucher for a months unlimited Bikram Yoga. Interesting experience. I'm sure yoga is very good for you, but i remain unconvinced that moving your arms upwards 'strtches the optic muscle', or that folding at the hips 'detoxifies your kidneys and your pancreas', or that doing it in 37*c heat is good for you, but it was certainly a good workout, if not a little bit fad-ish/ever-so-slightly-cultish... I'll definitelytry and fit in as much in the month as i can - give it a fair go. That said, despite my best intentions, i missed it today because apparently i'm incapable of reading a timetable - oops, but that did mean more skiing for me! :D Nice little mini holiday :)

Anywayz, like i said on the last post, job applications call!

(I'll try to post a bit more from now one - in any case in a few weeks i'll be doing new stuff, what ever that might be because our lease will have run out and i won't be in the same job, that should give me something to write about!)

Exciting times and skidoos!

So, life continues to pootle on; work,ski, work, sleep, work, snowboard, work, snowsnowsnowsnow...

As dad has pointed out to me, I haven't updated this in 3 weeks. This is partly because time is flying far quicker than it ought to - slightly running away with me, and partly because I don't have all that much new to say. Mostly been working and saving (or attempting to anyway), going out with friends and doing more snow-related stuff... That said, for a predictable life, it's still excellent fun!

A couple of weeks ago I started my 'Ladies Club' ski lessons. The first week was a complete washout lesson-wise, we had about 10 minutes of teaching and then lightning struck somewhere, which is a cue for the lift ops to stop the chairs running immediately (Fair play - i don't know what happens if you're on a chairlift whe it gets hit by lightning, but i have no desire to find out!). Rubbish, you might think, 10 minutes into your first lesson... that is, until amazing/scary mantainance woman flies down the hill on her skidoo and tells you that the lifts will be out for at least an hour until it passes, and you can either walk up the hill, OR they'll skidoo you up :D ! Eek! I've been wanting to do that all season (and preferably not have to break anything in order to do so!). Soon enough every skidoo on the mountain descended on the bottom of the lift and took us all up the hill. It was Awwwwesome, with a capital 'A'... sooo cool. I'd totally take that over a ski lesson any day, I got to get a job on one of those :D

Anywayz, we've had a couple of lessons since then, and my skiing is definitely improving - it's really nice that as you get better, not only do you stand to hurt yourslef less, but you also look more stylish. Nice.

The other nice thing about skiing and snowboardig at the moment is that we've recently had a huge dump of snow - over 200cms in the last couple of weeks, which is a massive relief after a month of rain and ice. It's so nice to be on proper powder. And what's more, when it's not snowing spring is occasionally rearing it's lovely head and we get several days at a time of beautiful blue skies and sunshine. Infact, though it was cloudy today, it was ufficiently warm that for the first time this year i didn't have a fleece or hoodie on under my jacket, just a couple of long tshirts.

As for how i've been spending the rest of my time, well i've been idly looking for jobs this summer and being rather indecisive about it. As the end of the season gets closer, i'm actually getting around to applying to things occasionally. Originally I was fairly set on tree planting, but for some am unable to be around with phone signal when they want me for phone interviews, and for others am not enough of a student. I do have a couple of promising leads though, so we'll see. In the mean time i'm looking at work elsewhere - mainly more seasonal jobs, either up in the Rockies (Banff/Jasper way) or, if i can possibly help it, in Tofino, on the western side of Vancouver Island. I hear jobs there are hard to come by, but if i could it would be awesome - then i could spend a summer on/by the sea and maybe even learn to surf - that would make my year :D Failing either of those coming to fruition, I'll probably stick around Vancouver, which I can only imagine would be glorious in Summer.

Actually applying for jobs like this is massivley onerous, but I quite enjoy all the possibilities involved! A few of our friends have recently left Vancouver for colder pastures further east - Montreal and Toronto, so it'll be intersting to hear how they get on!

Anywayz, time to do some applications!

If you have any inspired thoughts on what to do with my summer, I'd be very happy to hear them!