Tuesday, May 31, 2011

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.

Monday, May 30, 2011

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!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

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.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

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.

Friday, May 13, 2011

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 3rd 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 3rd world country I wouldn’t have those luxuries either. (I'm referring a lot to 3rd 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.

Monday, May 9, 2011

my 4 days on a bus.. thank god they are OVER!!

I totally saw a bear. The picture is crap because like i said before the windows were discusting.. but it was pretty awesome. It was a smaller black bear Im assuming, because of the colour. Our driver would actually stop on the side of the "road" so we could all have a look and take pictures. It was like being at African Wild Safari, all the was missing was the speaker phone descriptions of the animals.

Buffalo. Enough said. Actually no, I have a little bit to say on these guys. As we're going through BC I started to noticed this massive poo piles on the grass on the side of the road. They were HUGE, and I was wondering what they came from. What animal could Long John Silver that miuch out?! Other than the time in Zellers (which is a whole other story) Ive never seen poo piles that big. Then we stop randomly on the and I look out my window and see these buffalo out my window.. and understood.



I thought this was a beautiful picture. Of course in BC because thats where all my pictures came from since the rest of Canada I basically slept through!



Ahhh. Toad River BC. Pretty much the best place ever! The food was amazing.. I think this was the place we got food at, I could be wrong the entire trip just lburrs together.




OH HEYYY!!




This was also in BC, the water was still frozen but it was soo blue! It made me thirsty haha, it was actually water that I would swim in. It was so beautiful!!!!!




This is just a picture of some of the mountains we drove through in BC, they arent that clear because the bus windows were so gross but you get the point. It was a really beautiful view. too bad my camera couldnt capture the moment!




This picture is for Brandon. He always tells me this story of how he went to the grocery store with mom and saw these "GIANT wheels of cheese, they were like $150" when I would ask what was so special about them he would say "well.. they were for sale?!" So Brandon, I saw this and I thought of you. It was at one of the greyhound terminals they had all these books for like 1$, I would of bought it just for laughs, but my luggage is heavy enough.



This was in BC, finally the landscape started to get internesting! We were actually driving through mountains and our bus barley fit on the "road". They had wire netting against the rocks so that bolders wouldnt fall on cars and crush them, but if that actually happend the netting wouldnt save us. No doubt it would just hit the side of the bus and then push us over the steep cliff to our death!!



This picture is only showing the snow that was on the ground still.. not sure where I was, the whole trip just kind of blurred together because everything mostly looked the same. But I thought that it was funny because I was still in flip flops after getting a pedicure and have no warm shoes cept my runners ( which I wore for the first 2 days all the time so they STANK some fierce and I actually had to throw out my socks..)



As you can tell by my awesome photography skills we are in Sask. The greyhound terminals were in the middle of NO WHERE, so they would take us to these parts of town that had no civilization what-so-ever and that were completdly out of our way; just so they could drop off packages. THATS why our bus ride took 4 days, I was talking to a guy on the bus who sat across from me and he said that he has done the drive to BC by himself and it only took him 3 days. But hey, my ticket was only $150.00 can't complain.



This is one one on the first days.. looking some what decent and enjoying our ride. (My friend Michelle next to me).

If it weren't for those neck pillows Im pretty sure that I would of got off the bus and just went home!