Got a house!

After two tense days Trotty and I have finally secured a lease in Alpine Meadows, approximately 7 minute drive from Whistler Village. 

We moved in last night and are still getting settled. Bags have been unpacked, beds made, etc. The accommodation is a very large one bedroom suite underneath our landlord's house (whom are ridiculously friendly!). Trotty has signed a 9 month lease so he'll be staying here for the Summer whereas I only have another month and a half here.

I really need to get my act together and get snowboarding, the snow is starting to fall (about time) and soon the slopes will be prime powder and riding conditions. Tim has offered to sell me a ridiculously good, new board for $250 (it's next year's model and it's RRP is about $650). Because Ben from the Island gave me some snowboarding boots it looks like all I need now is some pants, goggles and gloves. Then I just have to worry about the ridiculous lift ticket prices.

I have my trial shift at Maxx Fish tonight, so hopefully they acknowledge my hard work and I get a job there. The benefits of working at a club on the slopes is amazing, work from 8:30 to about 1-3 in the morning, get a nice 8 hours sleep and you still get to shred the slopes for a good five hours the next day. 

Apparently Maxx Fish has a spirit program, meaning I may be able to acquire a season pass for next to nothing (lets hope!). I am still yet to get my camera charger from Julius' house, but that should happen today sometime I hope. Photos and stuff coming soon!

It's Cold.

It's negative 15 outside and luckily I'm in a warm coffee shop with internet writing this. I got a trial job at MAXX FISH, a local club for Christmas Eve, hopefully I secure a full time job so I can start looking for accommodation. Either way, I'm hyped over finally being able to make some money.

Snow is still fairly dismal which kinda sucks, but I can't afford a setup yet anyway so I'm not really that concerned. Apparently the parents are bailing me out with some money to keep me alive (Thank you!) but it also means another debt which kinda sucks. Oh well.

Been hanging out with the english dudes (Ludi, Dougie, Marco, Tom, Nick and Dan) at their place which has been good, a lot warmer than our Van which I slept in last night and almost froze to death because I was too lazy to put on thermals; bad call.

The big badass Van is still chugging along well, it's a 1986 Chevy, absolute beast. I haven't been doing much apart from scouring the internet for jobs and accommodation, so far I haven't been all that successful but lets hope the trial job goes through nicely. A sick dude upstairs from the english fellas has a volcano vaporizer; ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! If I ever decided to drop $600+ australian dollars on smoking paraphernalia it would most definitely be one of these babies. Afghani hash with some BC bud is a ridiculous combo, had me sitting on my ass laughing for hours... But enough about that!

Things are starting to look better, apart from the snow that is! Apparently one of the latest seasons in a long time (Thanks mum); but snow has been forecasted for this coming week so lets cross our fingers and hope that we get a big dump soon!

I'm still yet to upload the pictures and previous blogs I've written when offline, but they'll be coming soon I promise.

Blaghhh.

It's currently 5:55PM, negative 11.2 degrees celcius outside and I'm still living in a Van. Things are pretty much the same as the last post appart from the fact that I'm $15 down. I've eaten nothing today apart from a bite of Trotty's biscuit; a price I have to pay for being broke and trying to save the little money I have left.

Ludi and Douggie; two english guys who we met through Stefan on Vancouver Island have offered Trotty and I a floor to sleep on if they end up getting an appartment next month. They're currently sleeping on the floor of their friend's room in Staff accommodation... I wish I had friends in staff accommodation.

Not much else to write about apart from the fact I'm very hungry haha. Hopefully things will take a turn for the better soon, as it seems each day I have so much time to think about how shitty the situation I'm in is. And because of this my attitude towards this "holiday" is spiralling into a pit of negativity.

Chin up, hopefully get a job soon, I fucking need it.

Camera Charger = Gay.

My Camera charger has been broken in Transit, so I won't be able to upload any pictures for a while. When I get it all working I'll do a big dump of pictures.

Trotty and I have arrived in Whistler after buying a big Chevy Van in Vancouver. We're currently sleeping in it and it's damn cold! Negatives at night easily. My holiday isn't going so well so far, I have almost ran out of money, I'm desperately trying to find a job and house to stay in but still nothing.

Another shitty thing is watching Trotty and everyone else go off and ride the mountain while I walk around the Village aimlessly trying to waste time. No money to buy a snowboard, bindings, etc. Definitely not the high point of my trip, it's fairly shit; actually it's fucking shit.

Because I'm so low on cash at the moment I'm attempting to live on $15 canadian a day, or less if possible. No partying for me, just eat, sleep, walk around, attempt to find job/housing, etc. It's kind of like Jail; except colder.

Let's hope my next post will be one of positive vibes instead of negative.

Day One

In between getting hassled by crack addicts wanting to sell me digital cameras for $10 or a bum trying to sell me weed I've gathered the time to sit down and post this blog.

Before I get onto the photos, Van is amazing. Very similar vibe to Melbourne in some ways, only bummer is the ground never dries which can be a little problematic when you're wanting to skateboard. The people here are ridiculously nice, I had a guy take me almost the whole way to downtown Van from the airport yesterday. Also, the food is amazing, I'll explain that later.

The backpackers Trotty and I are staying at is fairly chill, $28 a night but we're hopefully heading to Van Island tomorrow to go stay with Ben and Stefan; two chill canadian dudes who Julius knows. Headed down to McCrank's skateboard shop and got me a fresh new deck, I'll definitely sesh up the Van plaza asap.

Skate spots in Van are also absolutely ridiculous! So much marble and uncapped rails, stairs, manual pads, etc.

Trotty reppin McCrank's mini.

Van at around 5:30 pm

Julius came past.

Red Robbin has all you can eat chips, Trotty and I were hyped.

View from window.

Our device to un-smell our shoes and socks, conveniently it also kept our room smelling relatively fresh.

Trotty and I found $720 CAD on the street, most surreal thing ever. Definitely good karma for something we've done seeming we're both living as cheap as possible. Also found two random pills which could've been drugs, either way they were sketchy as hell and were thrown away.

Julius was hungry.

One of those stereotypical NYC steaming street vent things.

Trotty and I were hyped.

Drinking outside in the fog near Van's stadium.

Fog!
Trotty, Ben, Stefan and I chilling near the stadium.

Our good friend Captain Morgan and his spiced rum, look out for poses like this over the course of my trip.

Dark, cold and Stefan is hyped.

Van plaza at night, unfortunately it was wet and we were not in a mental state to skate.
Big overpass above the plaza.
Fires in bins are not just for the homeless.

The warm glow of our bin fire.

Trotty clearly enjoying the warmth.
Ben and Julius.

What every skatepark should have... "No bikes or scooters"; if only they had included fruit booters aswell.

Just chilling.

Spiced rum with a Captain Morgan type pose made possible by Julius.

Julius and Stefan were determined to move this ball. They failed.
Dark alleys.
Some dude needing change, he did 50 one handed push ups for our $1.75.
Ben!