An incredible deal!

The main problem with Whistler over winter is that accomodation is an absolute joke. There is such a demand to live here that you just can't find accomodation anywhere and it's all ridiculously expensive. The first thing that employers ask you if your applying for work is whether or not you've got a place to live, it's a serious problem.
Our place that i mentioned at the end of the last blog, is a 4-star hotel. We got an awesome deal of a website that doesn't even disclose the name of the place your looking at because they wouldn't usually do such good deals. So i thought I was going to have to plead with the receptionists to get us a few more nights for the same price. They told us however that they are now offering some incredible deals on extended stays. It is insane, We can get a studio for $39 a night, which is what we're in now, it's pretty cosy but can easily live 2 people. It's got a little fire place, bathroom, fully furnished kitchen, fox tv, stereo, dvd and it gets cleaned everyday!! Tommorow however we're going to move into the Loft apartments which basically has the studio on the bottome level, and another Queen bed upstairs with TV, bathroom and SAUNA!!! It's absolutely incredible, it's going to be $49 a night but we can very comfortably and are allowed to fit 4 people in the room. Divide that by 4 and it's cheaper than the staff accomodation, in an incredible location and it has all the perks of the hotel along with it! It's a bit expensive while it's just Aly and i but considering we have no other option and we get everything that goes with it, it's a rather worthy splurge. Such good luck, cannot believe it. It's got a nice little fire place just beside our bed as well, gas fireplace which manages to cut through the tacky appeal actually, best looking false fireplace i've seen actually, probably because ther's real fire. The hotel also has heated pool and spa outside which will be awesome after a hard day skiing, this is so topped off by the sauna in our room!! The guys who work at reception are all pretty young and very cool, we had a good chat to Grant last night and he's been saying how awesome Whistler is. The thing that i found most interesting is the fact that he said it's even better in the summer. Says the amount of things you can do quadrooples. Just pack a tent and go hike for a couple of days through the incredible landscape and camp beside the picturesque lakes. Probably the coolest thing he said is just how many different activities you can pack into a day. Skiing on the glacier in the morning, then mountain bike riding which is apparently just as unbelievably addictive as snow sports, then golf and rafting and things, he said he's done all that in one day before, crazy. Apparently its a bit of a boy heaven, unlimited adventure activities, and that's what makes the whistler ratio of boys to girls about 10-1. So Alyson will have no trouble finding a job by the sounds of it. In fact one of the few times we split up she was offered a job at like one of the best bar/resteraunts in whistler! Apparently she could make hundreds of dollars in just one night just through tips if she can get that! We've applied at heaps of places but the general consencus is that it gets much busy in a few weeks and thats when most places are looking for workers. Unfortunately we have to hide from them that we are leaving shortly after that, something i'm not so good at but will just have to do. Wanna work at a hotel or something big where they are used to massive turnover and it won't really effect them. We applied for a perfect job at our place the Mountainside Lodge. It's a houseman job so apparently you just have to stock up the extra things when people need it, like taking pillows to a room or something, or sweeping stairs. Sounds perfect considering we'd be working at our home. And the wage is good and everything. Apparently there have been heaps of people applying for it though, Grant went and checked for us if our resumes were still in the pile and they weren't so i'm gonna fill out another one! good to have someone on the inside. Sounds like we just gotta keep going back everywhere and checking over and over.
Also it's rather dissapointing to see no snow in sight. Bit of a shame, particularly because Whistler isn't scheduled to open for another month. Hopefully they will get a dump a week or two early though, severly hopefully because other wise my snow time will be extremely limited. Either way though we'll have sweet accomodation and as long as we can find a job it will be cool to see the snow either gradually come or just all of a sudden be here.
I have really wanted to walk to the top of the mountain, haven't been able to convince Aly to come with me though. On the first day i went for a bit of a walk on my own and it was really cool. Mainly i was just freaked out about bears, I asked the guys at the front desk if it was likely or a danger but they were very casual about it and said that they used to see one everyday when one of them used to walk up the hill, and the other guy mentioned how a bear had been trying to get into his place the last few nights or something. Apparently if I were to come across one it would usually be from very far away which would be awesome, I'd love to see one just not so much on my own, but you just stay calm and look at it and back away, don't turn and run. The worst case is if you stumble across some cubs on their own, you shouldn't look around or panic in case the mother is just behind you. Apparently you just just start clapping and yelling to scare them off or something. That would not be a good situation.
On my walk/wonder there were quite a few other people around. It was cool to walk up the runs that will very shortly be covered in snow and thousands of people. There is a nice creek that runs between the two mountains which will look reall nice if that freezes ontop a bit and is still running underneath for a while, i'm assuming that will happen. Also their was a very nice sunset that day, our first two days here were really beautiful so it's a shame we didn't walk that far up the mountains, because today and the scheduled forecast for the next few days is raining, correct right now.
Came across the Whistler Skate Park which is probably the best skate park i've ever seen. It's got this incredibly aweosme flowing bowl/halfpipe continuation that has really smooth edges, just about no coping anywhere. Its really sweet to see the good guys carve through it. just looks like they're floating/surfing and they were going faster than i've ever seen any skaters go before, i tried to take some photos Phill but i don't think they will do any justice. You might be able to see it on the net or something. I'm tempted to come back next year because it will be easy cause i'll still have the valid working visa and SIN no. and even bank account. So Phill that's something i'll try and convince you to do with me because i think that when i leave here it will feel as if my work is very unfinished. Just come for the Uni break, we can still get a few months and it's the time of the best snow over here! Otherwise its very tempting to defer 2010 and spend a year here and do heaps of hikes and such. We'll see we'll see. Probably not that wise I guess, but on the other hand extremely.
Also it's Halloween on Friday which is MASSIVE over here. It seems like christmas for children, but its halloween for 3-40 yr olds. I'll have to purchase a mask or something, Look forward to it.
Hopefully have a candy fight.
Cannot wait to be skiing and hopefully shortly i'll have a job.