Lydia & Julz Go Large Week 1

 

Week Update 1

After a week here, I have settled in nicely, things have started to fall into place-with job, making new friends, accommodation etc.

As for the job hunting, I spent yet another day wondering the village of Whistler, handing my resume out from shop to shop, hearing the same thing from each store manager;
"We've just hired" or "We aren't hiring at the moment"
And just when I thought that all hope was lost, I went into a little Hat Gallery, which I nearly overlooked. I spoke to the Manager there who was Australian, and she offered me a job- talk about right place, right time.We got chatting, and she had seen on my resume that I had "retail management experience" (perhaps I embellished a little). She said that she would start me on $12 an hr, which in Canadian terms is awesome money. Julia is a senior hairdresser and she is only on $10 per hour. Wages are ridiculously low here, yet the cost of living s still relatively high. So there you have it...I have a JOB!!!

Julia has had her first week of work, as a spa attendant/ hair dresser, although she has been training all week which has been tiresome for her – she did make quite the impression by rocking up to work on her first day hung over, to the extent of covering the toilet floor with the pizza from the night before, all class. You will probably sense a trend here- the sudden love of pizza and Doritos.

I haven’t started my job in the Hat Gallery yet, first day is tomorrow.

I went to a job fair a couple of days ago, which was an experience and a half. I had to line up for 3hrs amongst 300 other people desperate for a job, to go for a position in a night club. It wasn’t as bad as the job fair that Julia went to, she was lined up for 6hrs. Anyhow, it went quite well as the guy that interviewed me, Quatchi (typical nightclub name) invited me back to the club that night to meet the manager. He was impressed with my ability to deal with the crazies, thanks to my Centrelink reference. Julia and I went to the club ‘Moe Joes’ where we met the manager, scored a few free drinks/shots, it turned out to be a really good night. We made friends with another girl who was in the same boat as me, and her and I were dancing the entire night, trying to make an impression on the manager, admittedly it did get a bit competitive out there, there is nothing like a healthy dance off amongst new friends. I have never sweated for a job so much in my life- literally, I was shaking it on the podium with all I had, even restrained myself from breaking out into the sprinkler- desperate times call for desperate measures. Well, to sum up that story, it ended with me waking up in the morning with pizza in my purse, clearly the result of a good night out.

We’ve been out on the town 4 out of 7 days, our livers have definitely seen better days. Neither of us have partied as hard as we have this week.

Funniest thing ever- and this was really one of those moments that you had to be there but I will tell you anyway. Julia and I were walking down the hill outside our apartment, in our ballet flats, and as there is no grip on them (unpractical footwear), she was slipping and sliding, trying to hold her balance then suddenly she just flew a good 100 metres in front of me down the hill, it looked like she was skiing. She was yelling out “I CANT STOP!!” As a good friend, I walked down casually in fits of laughter at her expense, only to find her at the bottom on hill- the poor dear had fallen in a heap. If only I had a penny for every time someone fell over in Canada!

We have made friends with some great people, we’re all going out for dinner and drinks for my birthday and then headed to a glow party. So stayed tuned, I’m sure plenty more messy stories/photos to come out of that night.

Love

Lydia and Julia x