Calgary

I haven't really been anywhere in the past two weeks, if you exclude the trip I took two days ago. Just been sitting around in the Banff Center, working, sleeping, eating. Thorsten, the German chef, returned to work on the 8th, which has Kylie and myself overjoyed. Decent food again! Although Fiona has been working in The Hub since her sister left to go back to Scotland, on the 2nd or 3rd, which also had me looking forward to dinners again. Earlier this week I spent 2 hours in The Hub, talking to Marc because we had nothing better to do and were waiting for Fiona to get off shift. That was fun but I can't believe we were in there for so long.

So things have been pretty laid back, although work is starting to pick up now. On Thursday Kylie and I got the very exciting job of going through all of PDC and making all the beds that weren't made during the deep cleaning. That was over 200 beds. I went with Mylin and we put bedskirts, mattress protectors, duvets and towels into the rooms, while Kylie and Jerameel had to follow and make all the rooms and beds up. So I'd say I got the cushy end of that day. The best thing though was is that both our teams got a walky-talky radio. So we could talk to each other as well as any supervisors in PDC if we needed anything. That was fun, ehehe! But it really was an exhausting day. We started at 9 and finished at 5:40. I had to do so much running around and towards the end of the afternoon there were more people in PDC to help out and we had to start making beds too. I'm glad this only happens once a year.

This week I start at 8:15 every day, which I am not too pleased about, as it means I'll have to do stayovers or check-outs. But I'll have to get used to it as things start to return to normal now. But doing those things means I might get tips. Over the past two weeks I've picked up bananas, apples and a few coins, doing stayovers and check-outs. I like getting food as tips, ehehe!

Oh, on Wednesday I had my WHMIS training; Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System. Which is basically like OH&S back home. The government is responsible for giving you the training. We were told about proper safety procedures, how to read the chemical data sheets and other stuff I can't remember. After each section we had to sit an exam. But Mike, who was running us through it all gave us all the answers. It was informative. Mike also played us videos on his laptop of various really nasty things. Like what it looks like to run into a deer on the road in a truck. People falling down things, etc. He then also quickly at the end told us about security issues around the Banff Center. About wild animals and just generally stuff I already knew. But the WHMIS training was a welcomed break from having worked 6 days straight and still having one more day ahead of me.

Friday saw us getting up early because we were planning to go to Calgary to do some much needed clothes shopping. I got up at 6:30, Kylie and I were at The Hub by 7:30, having breakfast, as we had totally run out of everything. Cereal, bread, milk. We were in town by 8:10, stopping by the bank to get money out. I got $300. Then we walked towards the Bus Depo and got a bit confused as to where the Greyhound Bus depo was, as the bus depo on the map was for Brewsters, which is another bus service. But a man helped us find our way to the train station where we had been when we first arrived in Banff nearly a month and a half ago. A return bus ticket was $49. That was with a student concession.... our UWS student concession. Can you believe that? I can't get a student concession in Brisbane or Melbourne with my Uni card, but I can get one in freaking Canada, of all places. I hate you Australian Government >__<

So the trip to Calgary took an hour and a half. Was less than it would normally take because the bus didn't stop in Canmore, which is the closest city to Banff, 15 minutes away. The bus smelled funky and the seats were very old and worn. The windows were filthy because of the snow wind sheer from the outside. I forgot my camera so had to use my phone camera to take pictures with.

This was at the bus depo, train station. The sun rising over Cascade.

The trip was very uneventful. But as I sat on the bus, looking out the dirty window I thought that even if Calgary was a huge disappointment the trip alone made the $50 all worth it. Not counting my journey to Sunshine Village this was the only time I had been out of Banff since I got here. The first time I could actually see some proper scenery. It was really magnificent and fantastic seeing the mountains all around, seeing the back of Cascade with its jagged edges. It definitely makes more sense to me now why it's called Cascade. It was also great finally getting out of the Rockies and into the flat, snow covered plains beyond, after about an hours travel.

It looked and felt like such an immense wasteland. It looks even more like one in the photos I took. I used to watch those 'How to Survive' TV shows where this guy would be on a boat or in the wilderness. I especially remember the one about him in the snow. It all seems to make more sense now and far more intimidating about being lost out in the snow with wide stretches of it spreading out in all directions. Made me glad to be on a bus.

Houses started to dot the snowy waste after a while. The bus went past the Calgary Olympic Village, or whatever that thing was. And I finally got my first glimps of a big city again after having been locked away in the quietness of Banff.

I know.. post-apocalyptic much.

We got to the bus depo which was a bit out of the city. Asked for some directions at the information center, picked up maps, and were on our way. Trudging through the snow. But at least it wasn't that cold. In fact the weather has been peculiar. It feels so wrong to have temperatures ranging from 5 to -10. Even today, it's 1. That's downright tropic. After having spent a month in really bitter sub zero temperatures this feels so warm. The strangest thing is that it gets so warm that all the snow melts and then it snows some more and then it melts and it snows again, all in one day. I'm half expecting spring to jump out at any minute, but we are in the middle of winter.

Anyway, I was glad it wasn't that cold. We followed some man into town to 7th Avenue. There we found the tram/train/light rail whatever they call it. The man at the Info desk told us it was free to ride along 7th Avenue so we just hopped on one because we weren't sure how far it was to walk to Stephens Avenue. Got off after two short stops and headed into a mall which ran alongside Stephens Avenue. It was pretty big. Four floors, many strange twists and turns and you could cross over Stephen Avenue to the other side where the mall continued.

The first station.

The... whatever you want to call it.

Looking down at Stephens Avenue from the connecting bridge.

We spent about 4 to 5 hours in there, shopping. What a weary activity. I found two nice shirts and an expensive pair of pants. It cost me like $70, but it's 100% cotton. My granny would be happy. It was interesting too, trying to figure out how the size conversion worked. I think I have figured it out for pants. US size is one smaller than what you'd usually be, UK size is one larger than you'd normally be. And of course that theory gets thrown out the window if the sized are strange and all in the 30's or 40's like I have seen on some pants. As for shirts, I found that most sizes are in S, M and L. Then you have REALLY strange sizes like S/P, M/M, L/G and then your standard X/S and X/L. After that fruitful bit of shopping we had a late lunch. I got really tired after that, as it was 2 and that's enough shopping to last me a whole months. But we then decided to look for some snow gear shops. I managed to purchase a big green snow jacket and some brown snowboard pants.And yes, I look like a tree when I have it all on :p Green and brown are my favourite colour combination, and has been for a year or two now, ehehe. By that point in my shopping all I had left was $120. Lucky for me the clothes were so much discounted, because there was a sale on and the jacket I bought was from last years stock, that in total it came to $117, which I was surprised about. And clearly I had estimated wisely how much money I needed for the trip, because it worked out just fine. I was worried I'd have to use my card to pay for it and I really didn't want to go over my $300 limit for the shopping.

Kylie only managed to find a jacket that she liked. All the pants were too big or small for her. So after that we started heading back to the bus depo at around 4. It was roughly a 40 minute walk from the shopping mall to the depo.

Saw this staue on the way. Was nifty.

At the bus depo we had a delay. The 5:15 bus was delayed by half an hour because it had to wait on another bus from Edmonton which was running late. They had a security check. Looking through bags, swiping that wand all across your body like they do at airports. Looking for those scary swiss army knives. We all joked about having left them in our other pockets. The security guys were nice :D

The bus departed at a bit before 6. It was really nice to look out at the landscape under the full moon, and to sleep and listen to music. We got back to Banff at 8. It's funny to me how much this place feels like a home already. When I went to Calgary there was this uncertainty, everything safe was hundreds of kilometres away. If I got stuck there what would I do? Stuff like that. But when I got back to Banff everything was alright. I could be home in half twenty minutes if I walked. It was good to be home. So Kylie and I headed to Safeway to grab some breakfast food as well as some hot chicken pieces for dinner, and we caught a taxi back home because there were too many bags to carry. I'm also getting accustomed to tipping people now, even if it's just a dollar. But I'll be glad to go back home to Australia and not have to tip anyone anything.

So that was my small and uneventful adventure. Calgary was alright. It was good for what needed to be done. There are some touristy things to do there, like go up on the tower and maybe visit the Zoo. But that's best left for another day, a day in Spring, perhaps. Everyone here says Calgary isn't that good, but I think it's OK. It's not exciting or thrilling, but it's good to get into a big city after the slight isolation of the Rockies. The city also isn't that impressive in looks. Parts of the building structures remind me of Blacktown, so that was a bit of nostalgia. Vancouver is definitely a much more beautiful city. Also the people in Calgary seemed a bit drab. Nice enough but not quite as chirpy or helpful as in Vancouver or even here in Banff. Theirs, I guess, is more of just a standard city, where people live all their lives, get bored with their work, live their dreary little lives in the middle of a snowy wasteland, ehehe. I'm glad to be where I am.

I had yesterday off from work, which I'm glad abut. Was sitting out in the lounge room when Karin came up from the elevator and told Kylie and myself how insanely busy Saturday was and how bad Sunday would be, because a lot of people are checking out. But lucky for me I put in a application to have Sunday off and it was granted. For today in about 40 minutes I'll be going to a puppet theatre show which is being held in one of the theatre spaces at the Banff Center. Entry is free so we just go there and it should be fine, because it was only advertised for residence and staff at the Center. Kylie and I walked up there an hour ago to check it out and saw some of the puppets lined up on a table outside the theatre. They were really great looking. All hand made out of cardboard and paper-mache. Also saw some of the performers rehearsing with their masks on and such. So yes, it should be a good afternoon.

Later Days!