Wokeup this morning to a stead snowfall. The snow here is much lighter and fluffier than the crap we have in Aus, not wet either :P
Was a fairly constant -2 degrees today so was getting around in jeans and a jacket. Apparently these are the warm days, but i find this a really nice temperature. The -30 degree ones is where i might start struggling.
Got up early to get the "Greyhound" to the next city over to get my SIN (which i need to be able to work)
Was meant to leave at 8:45 but got delayed with the weather and didnt arrive till just after 10. Would have been nice to sleep in rather than leave my place at 7:40. anyway.
While i was waiting around there was some random Deer just grazing nearby so snapped a pic of them.
She is staying in Lake Louise so will get up there sometime and have a board with a fellow Aussie! :)
Was fairly hassle free getting my SIN, in and out in 30mins then had to distract myself for a few hours, Decided to sort out my mobile phone.
Mobile phone plans
Mobile in the US/Canada is a rort compared to australia! And so much more complex.
You pay to make a call, you pay to receive a call, you pay for this you pay for that.
The base plan with some data is about $25.75/month. This gives you free local and long distance (canada and US) between the hours of 3pm and 7pm every day, and unlimited local text.
On top of that if you receive a call or make a call outside of those hours it costs you money, so you need to have extra $$ on your prepaid.
Its fairly messed up really... But i have my head around it now.
Coffee
Franck and Nick, if you read this *BYO COFFEE TO US AND CANADA!!!***
The coffee over here is just crap to put it shortly. Sure i may have become a slight coffee snobb but this is just terrible.
They all seem to use really dark heavily roasted beans and are just bad.
The last cup of coffee i got pretty much tasted the same as instant coffee.
Horrible. So when i do some barista work im determined to get them to at least a half decent tasting coffee with what i have to work with :)
Post Office
The post office system here in Banff is fairly odd (well compared to what im used to)
There are no mailboxes here, so all mail just goes to the local post office. You can "rent" a personal mailbox there if you want, which you would do if you were a permanent resident, but other than that if you need something posted you can just tell them to send it to "General Delivery Banff" With the post code and it will rock up. Its just a matter with checking in at the post office to see if anything has arrived for you.
Quite strange, but i guess fairly useful depending.
Car Rego
I have been looking into getting a car and rego etc over here, and its so much better value that back home.
1 year car rego is $85, and they pro rata it to match with the year, Then other than that you just have insurance, 3rd party is roughly $800 odd for 24yr old depending who you go with.
I have been surprised at how easy it is to sign up for things over here, Bank account, SIN, etc you just rock up with some ID and dont even have a postal address and they just go "sure we can set it up" nice and easy :)
The Job search starts tomorrow, Shall be interesting to see what i can find!
I will leave you all with 1 last pic from when i got back to the bus depot in Banff from Canmore.
I have found some activities that i want to do over the next couple of months
1. Snow mobile adventure, Full day is around $350 with an upgraded snow mobile (moar powa!!!) and its a 5 hour trek :)
2. Heli Skiing, 3 runs fresh untouched powder for $780, or 5 for $880. Will probably do the 5 runs, just need to knuckle down and make some money here!
3. Possibly have a go at dog sledding.
The plan will be to strap the go-pro camera to me on the heli skiing and snow mobile to get some wicked videos! :D
SOOOO EXCITED!
