the night i sang karaoke WHAT! WHAT!

it was kyle's birthday, so we went out to "the pit" which ill describe later fully. this isnt his actual smile hahha, we both did faces.. my clearly is the best, but i was passing his birthday drink to him. when youre in dawson and its your birthday you get free drinks from all the bars.

this is keirston his sister singing. shes actually good, she went up a few times. i didnt get a picture of all of us up there which is a shame. but yea.

enjoying some yukon gold. at the midnight sun bar and hotel

me and shelly

ok, so this is "this pit" which basically describes the bar itself. there is christmas lights up year round, and its just a really grungy bar. but its fantastic because of those reasons.

the night i sang.. was an epic night. my first time singing so of course i had to sing the only song i would sing karaoke to: journey - dont stop believin'

a failed attempted up the dome....

this was the fox that we seen once we gave up and started heading down. it was so skinny i dont know how it was still alive!?

the champion celebatory drink. even though we only completed about 1/4's way up...

yeaaa son!

copying kyle. failed, but good attempt.

the view when the sun cleared up for about 5mins. it was so hot and humid.

so long story short, for the first day of summer dawson has this massive party on top of the dome, which is a mountain with a landslide. anyways it quite the hike up and ive never done it before so i thought the party was a great chance to start. it almost killed me. i was so out of breathe and hot that i thought i was going to go into cardiac arrest! the group that we started walking up with actually just left us because we were so slow, which made me mad because we didnt know the way up. so i decided to lead our group of michelle, kyle and myself. team of champions. man i was on a role, i was just motoring up the hill. taking one for the team and breaking spider webs with my face, walking right through puddles soaking my feet. at that point i just didnt care, i was soaked anyways from the pouring rain haha. all in all it was goodtimes, even though we took the wrong trails and didnt make it up the dome anyways haha.

update: i need a pedi

My feet have been hurting so bad, so I decided to shave my feet and give myself a self pedicure. There was like chalky feet dust everywhere. I probably took a good layer off my feet, Ill be able to feel a feather now. Hopefully my feet wont stink as much, its crazy because I change my socks AND wash my shoes everytime I do laundry. I have a problem.

So I had a moment of weakness today while making beds. I stopped half way through and actually thought about just leaving the hotel ahha. I am so sick of making beds and cleaning dirty bathrooms! I swear Im coming home with deformed feet, back problems and my wrists are probably gunna be curled in; I actually caught myself with my wrists curled in at lunch last week. My god. The work is terrible, plus working 2 jobs, I never have time off. Also, I called in sick today because I didnt want to go into my other job, so I went out for supper haha and pretty sure I saw my boss at the table behind me. Oh well what can you do right? But I wont get into that now.

The Simple Pleasures in House Keeping

1. walking into a room and finding the only ONE of the two beds have been used - meaning you only have to make ONE bed


2. walking into a room and finding that yes, both beds have been used.. BUT! the hospital edges of the bed are still in tact from the day before so you dont have to fully make both beds


3. as youre cleaning a room you walk into the bathroom and find that the tub is dry as a bone, YES!


4. as youre cleaning the bathroom there is no HAIR or SOAP SCUM in the tub - meaning it will only take you about a minute to clean the tub instead of 5


5. another bathroom one, you walk into the bathroom and find the toilet seat is down... this usually means "something" is being hidden.. but instead nothing is in there thank god and it was just down for the heck of it


6. there are no tooth paste spit clumps in or around the sink


7. you dont have to vaccume a room, there are really no fluffs on the floor and you can just pick up the little ones that are


8. the remaining toe nail clippings that mr.smith left on the floor, that are astonishingly long, are only in one spot on the floor.. instead of skattered here and there


9. you have 11 check out rooms to do and some amazing soul has made some of your beds for you <3


10. there are no tooth paste of soap spots on the mirror, infact you dont even have to wipe it!


11. its cold outside, so you can open the window to cool yourself off so you can stop sweating like a pig and look some what decent


12. theres a managable amount of hair on the bathroom floor


13. theres no poo crusties on the toilet bowl? god acid doesnt even take that off!


14. they havent touched the coffee pot of coffee supplies, so you dont need to restock them


15. one of the cups havent been used


16. their toiletries such as the shampoo soap and conditioner (amoung other things) havent been touched in the stupid get up we have to put them in. therefore you dont have to do them up all fancy again


17. while cleaning the tub there are no bar soap rings on the edges, ugh


18. theres a tip, even if its in american $


19. survivor man is on. (i watch it while cleaning my rooms lol)


20. there are still towels hanging up, meaning you dont have to restock them


21. better yet! they are RE-USING all their towels! wooo!


22. there isnt a lot of garbage, so you can just dump it into one bin


23. fruit has been left behind for you to eat or basically any food in general really is fair game


24. packets of sugar havent been dumped on the table for the heck of it


25. a pile of clothes is on one of the beds so you have an excuse not to make that one


26. there arent any stains on the sheets so you dont have to hunt for new ones for the same person during a stay


27. people dont want their rooms done and only ask for coffee or new towles


28. you dont have to clean a crappy toilet.. litterally


29. there is enough toilet paper that you dont have to refill another one


30. after lunch when you can say that you only have 3 more rooms to do while others may still have like 5 to do


31. you finish you section and you dont have to help anyone.. you can just leave early


32. you dont have to work. period.

there will for sure be way more to come

The 2 Hour Cake...

This is me preparing my cake. As you can see I have everything I should of used sitting infront of me.
The cake all mixed in together ready to go into the oven, with all the ingrediants I thought.

basically what it turned out to look like....

I didnt put the oil in the cake.. even though I had it sitting out infront of as you can see in the first picture. So the cake was like an oatmeal texture... but you know I still ate that and put icing on it. I just cut out the bad parts. I want to get more cake mix tonight so I can make a good one this time and REMEMBER to out in the oil. JEEESH!

introducing Foo Foo. a.k.a - Gator.

So this is the dog I have been going on and on about. His name is Foo Foo, I dont think Im spelling it right because its french for "crazy crazy" I was told by Claud the owner. Before I knew what his name meant, I started calling him Gator because I thought Foo Foo was too feminine haha. But now, his biological name totaly suits him, he is a crazy dog but he is the best dog ever. Hes awesome on a leash, never barks.. doesnt go after other dogs and listens! If I could take him home I totally would. I love this dog hes so cute!

At the river, people were on boats so we was watching them go by.

Chomping at the water, he LOVES the water.. unlike my dogs back home - Meeko and Sara! I would let him off the leash but I still dont know what he would do.. swim away? Run away? Who knows.. so I dont try yet.

Cutest picture ever! There was a stick floating by and went after it, but the water was moving too quickly so he couldnt get it. He is still shedding his winter coat so thats whay he looks all uneven and sickly haha.

Probably my favourite picture of him so far. He is such a curious dog!

Walking up to me, after I took this he shook so all his gross dog wetness and smell got on me.

Relay For Life

This was one of the kids I gave money to for him to shave his head. He got a buzz cut at first and then the lady asked if he wanted to go shorter, so he did, and after he couldnt stop feeling his head. He kept saying "I never felt so FREE!" haha. Where his hair used to be was just white too! Haha

The cow bell people would ring when one of your teammates would pass by the team tables.

Reppin' the relay for life shirt. WHATS UP!? Yeaaaahhh boiiiiii !!!

A lovely shot of the scenery we have to look at during our walk and a glimps of how the light was shinning through the clouds.
Me and Sheller.. we started off strong and walking together but then we got tired and took turns of walking. Oh well, what can you do.

Our team name and the time slots of all us walkers on our team. We got nuggets of GOLD!

I participated in a relay for life the other day, it was a pretty cool experience. Cant say that i loved walking in a circle for an hour... but there was activities and free food so it was fun. I donated money and then some people got their heads shaved.. brave souls.

It was a big turn out I guess (for Dawson) and they had a bbq with some live bands and random people would go up and sing, that was pretty entertaining to watch lol. They could of had a better lay out for the walking path though, because you walked in this circle that was way to small for a track haha.. so things got pretty repetitive fast.

It started at noon and then ended at midnight, so it wasnt like the ones back home where it goes through the night, I guess this one was more family friendly. My walking time as it will show in the picture was at 5pm.. just in time too because when i finished walking at 6pm the bbq

started, and oh my god was that delicious!

I want to just chop off my feet...

So I did get that other job at the grocery store, its going really good so far but stressful because I cant remember the different codes for the food! Its going to be the death of me I swear. That, or I will get a blood clot from being on my feet all day that will travel to my heart and I will go into cardiac arrest. Im going to put money on the 2nd option, its the most likely one that will happen. My feet have NEVER, in my entire life, hurt this bad. The other night they were hurting so bad I was actually feeling sick, I was 11 hours of standing on my feet!! I worked 830am til 430am at the hotel and then 530 to 730 and the store. I came home to a a feast that my floor was putting on so I just HAD to stay up for that because that would of been my big meal of the day. But as soon as I hit the pillow i just passed right out. Being on my feet all day, is turrible.. Ill be coming home with deformed feet or something for sure. My heels are red right now, and a massage would be terrific, but the only place I can find is never open and their pedi's are probably like $50.00. I try to give a foot massage to myself but its just not the same, they just hurt so baaaaaaddd. Ill probably get used to it though, by the end of the summer Ill be able to stand for 12 hours straight.
Having 2 jobs isnt that exhausting YET... it probably will be by the end of the summer, right now its just painful. Ive asked for every tuesday and thursday off, and that wont start happening until mid june I was told, dont know what the delay is for?

house keeping is NOT for the faint of heart...

Ahhhh, where to begin? Well, I think Ill start with the hair.

Hair:
This is E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E!! Like even in places that it shouldnt be, it amazes me. I know that it it normal for people to shed hair, and me being a girl I shed hair a lot, especially after a shower and Im drying my hair. But this is a whole other story, and its always the little black curly ones too!! Ugh. So, to clean a bathroom we have to clean it top to bottom each time we do a room, and it takes me forever when its only supposed to take about a half hour to do a whole room (it takes me 15mins to do just ONE bed! But Ill get to that later) which is crazy. Anyways, the bathroom is always completely soaked, its like the people dont even shower in the designated area.. so I have to dry all that and THATS where the hair is. And since everything is wet.. the hair sticks to you. As I was leaving today I found a clump madded in with a lint ball stuck in my sock.. wonder how long that was there for today? Also, the towels always seem to be covered with these little black curly hairs.

Toilets:
I will be very short with this one. I am totally repulsed sometimes, its like people dont even TRY to get it in the bowl (this includes #1 and #2....) I cleaned one tolet the other day and I should of just BURNED the rags.. but no, we normally just take them to laundry and then those people deal with it. But these rags were actually thrown out, Im just gunna say it clumps of poo were on them. CLUMPS. And of course I was the one who had to do that one, I definitely was gagging with that one, my eyes were watering and tears were running down my face.. but hell would freeze over before I would wipe my eyes evem if I was wearing some heavy duty gloves. No way, it probably was a site and a half.

Well those are my major 2 complaints.. I now have a whole new respect for house keepers at hotels, next time I am in a hotel I will be tipping and leaving fruit because here thats a luxury and Id rather have fruit than money! Haha. Although today I did get a whole piece of chocolate cake from this one lady as a tip haha. It was gross, wayyyy to chocolatey for me, but nice.

Diamond Tooth Gerties

michelle has turned into a beer drinker now because its so cheap. "fancy" drinks like a screw driver (orange juice and vodka) are crazy expensive for such a little glass, you basically finish it in one drink.

ugh this is a GLORIOUS shot. taken by michelle. it makes me look 5000lbs with sausage fingers! captures my gut nicely. its just a horrendous angle all round.

michelle and kristen

one of the routines. did not intend to take a butt shot, but it happend

me and sheller looking all spiffy at the first show we went to.

this is one of the routines they do. i didnt want to use a flash during the show so the picture isnt the greatest.

There is this awesome place called Diamond Tooth Gerties. They have these shows where these girls come out and dance all old school I guess its supposed to be like a burlesque show kinda? Anyways it so much fun. The women comes out and sings in the audiance and theres gambling in there which I have yet to try out. Its just all round good times.
Last night we went there again at an impulse because we wanted pizza and that was the only place that was open. We ended up staying for a show and having some beers. I also had an amazing caeser (sp??) salad.. Ive been dying for suppers, so Im going to have to crack and go to the store and buy some supper food.

Also mom, send me chocolate or a donation for a junky bike would be FANTASTIC. And Aunt Julie, dont worry about the curtains.. Since im so handy Ive hung the blankets that Im not using in the window since we dont use them because its been SOO hot. Does the trick, Its not as dark as I would like but doesnt really matter because it seems that I can fall asleep in any amount of light now.

Also coming back last night, it was probably around midnight.. it was the darkest ive ever seen it! And it wasnt even that dark, it was probably like back home around the time the sun starts going down at supper.

a random walk to the river

Awesome, gunna get this as a present for someone.

Dont know what this was exactly, it was just written on the side of a building in massive letters and I thought that it was neat enough for a picture.

Move over Kate Middleton, Kate Klondike is here.

These are some ladies Ive been hanging out with. From left, Kristen who is also from the Brantford ghetto. What are the odds eh!? Have to go across Canada to this remote little cut off community to meet someone else from my hometown. Then there is Jackie who works in the kitchen, then the tool in the middle is me. Michelle on the end.

Hottest. Picture. Ever. I was actually amazed at Michelles photography skills, because normall she takes the worst ones of me, but this one is kind of epic.

the "downtown". its so small and half of the buildings are fake haha.

Probably the best picture michelle has ever taken of me. This is down by the river, the water is very low and apparently I was standing on the river floor? It was freezing too! Wont be swimming in that.

Another picture of me and the surroundings by the river. Should be very pretty once the leaves and stuff start coming back to life.

This is apparently why a lot of people come to Dawson. The land slide like thing in the hill at the top at the left is called "the dome" and there is a trail you can hike up to and get this amazing view of the yukon. A couple people I work with have gone up there, I myself will have to work up to that Im a little out of shape to be hiking up massive mountains that some people bring oxygen tanks to.

The one and only ambulance station.

UPDATE:

I have had 2 FULL days of work so far, among other training like days, but these were full where I actually have to clean all day each and every room fully. Tomorrow we have our first batch of guests coming in and they're from Australia, so we were told to learn where the bars are and the hours of them (after taking my soci class I find this a little stereotypical). So god knows what tomorrow will be like!

The weather has been fantastic! I actually think I'm burnt a bit on my face... well that doesn’t really say much considering I burn so easily, but it has been great. It is FREEZING in the morning and then gets hot in the afternoon/evening and then gets chilly at night, so its either layer up or suffer with just a t-shirt on because you're going to be boiling by the afternoon. Thank god the hotel has air conditioning on already or else with cleaning rooms and with running around id be a sweaty pig.

The fan has still be going strong all day and night, Michelle and I have learned to keep it on during the day even while we are at work because when we come home it like a sauna in our little room. The fan is small, nothing like my wind machine back home – shout out to my wind machine! I have been trying to make my room feel more like home, but haven’t had much luck because I've been so exhausted once I get back from work and I want to relax. Doesn’t help to that EVERYTHING closes at like 5pm... I'm not a runner.

I now work this week from 830am to 430pm with no days off, I think my manager knows that I was looking for a second job, so she must of thought that I couldn’t get another one if I working 24/7 with the hotel haha.

Ugh I hate laundry. If I didn't have to do it I wouldn’t. In college I would go weeks without washing my jeans, if they were smelly or stained then they were good to wear all month. But no, since I'm scrubbing bathroom floors its a definite that I wash my work pants each week.. maybe even twice if I'm up for it. But I'm scared to death to put my clothes in the dryer! If I shrink my clothes.. and god forbid my work clothes.. then I'm outta luck. Ill pass on thrift store clothes for haning out.. and I doubt I don’t know if they would let me get another uniform just because I shrunk it. Who knows.

AHH! Had my first church supper tonight, it was delicious. First supper I've had since I left Whitehorse so its been a full week of just lunch at the wekstmark and then my miniwheats. But this supper was so good, I don’t know if it was just because I haven’t eaten like that in so long it tasted so good or if it was actually good. But I will for sure be catching the other one this Tuesday.

dawSON!

quick update:
going to a church dinner tonight because they give out free supper every tuesday. definitely taking advantage of that, i havent had a supper since i left whitehorse!

also i think i have a 2nd job? at a grocery store? im not too sure actually, i just went in and asked about it and they were like come back with your worktimes and we'll try to work you in. andt they said it would be good news when i come back. soo, who knew eh!? ive been looking for a job forever in brantford this big city, and i have to come out to a little 100 population town to land 2 jobs.
ill actually be living my chilhood dream of a grocery store cashier!!!! YEAH DAD!
my favourtie house. most houses here are bright colours, there is another favourite one thats purples but i have yet to get a pic.

the amount i paid for my mini wheats! mind you they WERE jumbo size

thought i was done with sharing a bathroom with random people.. but guess not.

most amazing picture ever. all the buildings in dawson are like this.

the hotel im working at.

This is our road, there are no paved roads, only the one highway that is on the outskirts of Dawson. Other than that, everything is dirt, and its best to close your mouth when cars pass.

Me and Michelles room, Mine is the one closer to the window. Since we are the closest to the front door, she can be the first to be murdered (HAHA we joked about this). As you notice, we dont have any comforters.. only these thin foam like blankets.

This is the house I live in. The bottom floor is all guys (lower A) and then all us girls are on the top floor (upper A). Could use a paint job if you ask me..

Was on the bus again, for another 6 hours. It actually went by fast though campared to the last 4 days, feet did not swell up this time but my butt still hurt! Everyone was amazed by all the mountains and the scenery, but I was not. I've seen it all before on the bus coming up haha.

So finally I arrived in Whitehorse, and no word of a lie it looks like a trailer park!!! I'm waiting to meet a Randy or Bubbles look alike, although everyone is SUPER nice. Maybe I'm just used to Toronto's style of ‘everyone for themselves’ where it’s safer to keep to yourself, but here people walking past you actually say hello and ask how you are! I cant believe it. Like when it first happened I looked behind me to see if the man was talking to a person he knew.. but no he was talking to me. I looked like a complete idiot haha but then said hello back.

I went shopping.. it came to about $16.00. all I bought was a little jug of milk and mini wheats. Milk was $4.00 and the box of mini wheats was $12.00!!!!! made sure to get a picture of that haha. It was a small store called the Bonza Market, they are looking for more help so I might actually see about apply there if I'm not getting enough hours at the hotel. Maybe ill get an employee discount on shopping... but I doubt it; that would be too awesome.
The house that we are all in is actually pretty good, going into it I had very low expectations. But its pretty roomie and comfortable, there is a living room with furniture and then a kitchen with dishes and stuff. There are about 6 rooms I think, I'm actually too lazy to get up and count them haha, there are about 6 people in our apartment so far. The bathroom met my low expectations though, there are only 2 bathroom stalls and 2 showers, which I cant figure out how to work? I was in the smallest one at first trying to figure out how to turn it on and then my shampoo fell off the shelf and threw shampoo all over my pj bottoms. So then I went over to the bigger shower to see if I could get that working and spent about 10 mins trying to get the shower to turn on. I never could get it on so I had to have a bath.. I felt more dirty getting out then I did getting in. But I figured people in 3^rd world countries have bathed in worse, so I just accepted it. Although ill have to figure it out for tomorrow because I refuse to have another dirty bath.
I had my tour of the hotel today to show me around for work, I was completely confused, I do not remember anything. So I start work tomorrow at 9 and I have to try and find my way back to this one building and back to the exact spot where we have to meet up with everyone else. Should be good times. The hotel has like 3 different separet buildings so the place is like a maze that all look the same; colourful looking old school buildings.
Ill close up with saying that my phone DOES NOT WORK. And its like everything closes at 4 or 5pm so by the times ill be done work and everything ill have no where to go and get internet. But I figure if I was in a 3^rd world country I wouldn’t have those luxuries either. (I'm referring a lot to 3^rd world countries because at the moment I am reading Little Princes, a book about this guy who travels to Nepal to help little abandoned children. Its really inspiring and good I recommend it.)

I had my first day of actual work today, im exhausted. I worked from 9am to 430pm haha with a half hour lunch that they provided and then 2 15min breaks. Everone on the housekeeping staff are awesome and nice, we have these 2 guys who are twins and the only way people tell the apart is because one of them have a mole on their face. Poor guy haha, "Oh yeah thats Blaire.. the one with the massive mole on his face!! Cant miss him!"
I will be going out tonight to see a burlesque(sp??????) show at this bar called Gerties. Should be goodtimes, apparently old Gertie herself (who is about 75 im told) comes out sometimes and dances too.

Ok well youll be hearing more from me when and if I can get internet again anytime soon!

Whitehorse! Sorry, no white horses...

So I was in whitehorse. The hotel was cute and came with a fan so I was happy. After arriving in Whitehorse at 3am and not getting to the hotel un 3:45am I was exhausted and barley awake therefore leaving my bathing suit on the bus, so THATS gone. Sorry gram. Anyways, so when i finally got to the hotel signed in and found my room I was out like a light. I was totally ready to fall asleep in my clothes but they were cold, so that was the only reason i changed into pj pants.
I was imagining Whitehorse to be this hick town where everyone wears plaid and drivers beat up vehicles but no! Well I was right about the vehicles but nothing else. It was still laid back style but there were some people who could of walked down town Toronto and not get starred at.


MMMMM. Soon as we got into Whitehorse you know I was asking all the locals where an all day breakfast place was. And you know I found one! RICKY'S! This was the most delicious thing I ever ate. 4 strips of bacon, 3 sasage, 3 eggs, 4 pieces of toast, home fries on the whole plate (or platter i should say) and then 3 big pancakes.
The answer is no I did not eat it all unfortunately. Could go for that now though..

And of course I would be the pne to hunt down a walmart. It was werid to see it not busy, like brantford you have to pack miles back, but here there were spots right up front! It was smaller too. There was a McDonalds in this one too, but I didnt get it here, I went out of my way to find another location.

There were a bunch of little hotels in Whitehorse, this was just an example of a cute one.

Some of the sights

There is a story behind this one.. which I probably should break the code and tell everyone, but what the heck. So when I came to college and had to share bathrooms with an entire floor.. i hated it and never wanted to go to the bathroom. So in the elevator one day with friends I came up with this saying "Long John Silver". We would use it when we would have to go to the bathroom but didnt want to because people wuold be in there, so we would suffer with that feeling. It caught on immediately, not to toot my own horn.. but im brilliant.