How I'm going to get through the awesomeness of the past few days (which has come in truly epic proportions) I really don't know…but here goes! Last time we left off I was about to lose my James Bond innocence - we trekked all the way down town (like…an hour and a half, no joke, it's amazing how far one will travel for a $2 movie ticket - I paid more for my bus fare! And that was only because I thought I'd lost my U-pass on Friday, but then when I went to replace it first thing on Monday morning I pulled out a $20 note to pay for my replacement and out fell my pass! Haha the lady behind the desk thought it was pretty hilarious, and I was fairly mortified, but the consolation prize of not losing twenty bucks was pretty sweet! Now, where was I…) to see the new movie and I actually really liked it! Most people said it was pretty average as far as Bond films go, but having no basis for comparison I was pretty stoked. Although, having not seen the prequel I had absolutely NO idea what was going on half the time and just laughed at Lionel Richie look-alikes with Veronique (watch for the scene in the bar, you'll see what I mean! Haha).

The rest of the week we were blessed with some pretty amazing days weather wise - I'm talking, sitting on top of Convocation mall in just a long sleeved t-shirt, chowing down on my favourite dining hall snack (ye olde fruit and muesli parfaits! I was chatting to Sophia when I bought that and she was like "oh Olivia, it's going to be sad when you leave here!" - she's so lovely hehe like the Italian Nonna I never had :P), listening to josh pyke on my ipod, not a cloud in sky - gorgeous! Although, absolutely no possibility of snow, which is a little lame because the opening week at Whis is only a week away now and IT

On Wednesday night Veronique and I ventured off the hill with Daniel and Christoph for dinner at Luca's place and I can tell you right now, there is something about Italians and pasta that just goes hand in hand! Luca cooked beautiful pasta with prawns and I've scarcely eaten so well in the past 6 months! I asked him the secret of good Italian pasta and he told me you have to make it with love :) But I don't care how much love you pour into the pasta pot, I doubt it would ever taste that good! Haha Daniel brought cake for us to eat afterwards and we engaged in yet another round of the ongoing debate about how best to make risotto (many Italian hand gestures were made! Haha)

We headed home around twelve, and discovered that it's become really quite chilly these days - I'm thinking gloves would be a good investment right about now. And these days I choose my investments wisely because the financial crisis has really disadvantaged my former one to one exchange rate with the Aussie dollar, such that if I actually transferred money over from my account back home now, the losses would be pretty huge. So I really need to get on and earn me some Canadian dollars so my fingers don't feeze and fall off! Haha

Thursday night we took Helle's friend Kristin for the ultimate Vancouver student experience - Sushi Town! And it was fabulous, as always! I don't know what I will do without my trusty $3 sushi up in Whistler…we chatted and laughed and had a really lovely time. And then I departed for what would turn out to be really quite an epic trek down town. FYI - effectively moving house via public transport, is not really the greatest idea in the world. Fortunately, for the most part, people are lovely and take pity on you having been so ambitious (or foolish) and will carry one of your two huge suitcases up stairs and onto buses for you. But I made it down to JL's in one piece, and then had a very good night's sleep that resulted in me missing, the 8:00, 9:45 and 11:00 buses to whistler the next day. I settled on the 1:00pm bus and joined the masses of young, enthusiastic, ski and snowboard toting youngsters moving to Whistler to live every young person's dream.

The bus driver was super strict and they were checking bags, threatening that they would throw anyone off the bus who had alcohol with them (I'm like, uh hello - it's one in the afternoon!!). And it took a lot longer than ever before because it's getting so much busier now and there's more gear to load etc. But finally we were on our way and I began to feel the unmistakable twinge of immense excitement in my tummy! Just as we pulled into the village, big flakes of snow started to fall and I felt my heart soar! My stupid phone was being temperamental (as always) so I couldn't text Maggie, but I managed to jump in a taxi and gave the driver the address - my address, for the place I now LIVE IN WHISTLER!! Aaaah I never get tired of saying that…

I pulled up and went inside to find Maggie waiting, she'd been worried when she hadn't heard from me and she is just so lovely! Everyone I'm living with seems really nice actually - there's me and Maggie in our room (our room with the TV in it and the double bed AND the walk in ward robe about the size of the entire bedroom I'm currently living in! Haha) and she saved me the double bed! I protested but she kindly said she thought I deserved it after months of living in uni residence sleeping in a teeny tiny bed (I have to admit the last couple of nights have been the best night's sleep I've had in a LONG time). There's Jane, who's English, Alistair (Canadian), Steffen, Simon, and Kristian (from Denmark) and Steve, who's a Perth kid like me :) After I arrived Maggie and I went down to the local IGA and I got a bunch of basic essentials for a weekend of partying ie. tonic water, eggs and bread. We also swung my the most amazing candy store, only to find that the Watermelon jelly bellies had been replaced by Cherry Cola! Not cool!

So I took great delight in making myself an omelette that night - a simple dish, but it's amazing how much pleasure can come from cooking even an omelette when you haven't really had your own kitchen in about 4 months!! That night the whole European Social Club were set to meet at the gazebo in the village around 10:30 before heading to a club called Tommy Africa's, but phones being unreliable, buses running late, and the general disorganisation of 60 people meant that I couldn't actually find where anyone was living to join them for pre-drinks! Fortunately, Jane came to the rescue, and allowed me to tag along with her and Liz (one of the Aussie girls who lives in a little flat down below us) to catch up with a bunch of her English mates who are living in the village. And I mean, IN the village! The location of their place is pretty damn amazing - but then, there's three of them staying in a one bedroom apartment paying about the same rent as we are! That said, that's the way it's often done here in Whis, and most of us who come here are pretty much of the opinion that if that's how you have to live for a few months in order to experience this place and this lifestyle, it's absolutely worth it.

So we hung out there for a while before I went to meet up with my lovely exchangers, and then we headed off to Tommy Africas for good times galore! It was amazing cause there'd been a little bit of fresh snow fall that evening so everything in the village was looking gorgeous and white. When we left the club around three, a fairly epic snow fight between me, Kim, and Jop ensued, that left us all wishing we'd had the sense to actually take gloves out with us! I took a cab home, not wishing to have my fingers fall off whilst waiting for a bus, and was pretty stoked to find it only costs about $7 - money well worth spent when it's 3:00AM in a snow covered village! And the next morning, in the comfort of my own kitchen, I was able to make fried eggs for breakfast!!! Oh yeah…it's the simple things in life :)

The next day I met the girls in the village for a little bit of shopping (clothes shopping for them, grocery shopping for me - fun! Haha :P) . I went to the IGA to do a big cupboard stock up, carefully scanning the shelves for any discounts I could possibly find, and weighing up how times one could possibly eat oatmeal in a year without going utterly insane. The grocery prices are pretty steep here in Whistler compared to Vancouver, so it pays to spend a bit of time shopping around, looking for good deals. That afternoon I caught a killer power nap before heading back into the village to meet the girls at Veronique's place for ESC shenanigans: round 2.

We spend a few hours there drinking some crazy Austrian holiday season drink that consisted of (amongst other things) red wine, tea, cloves, and orange slices - all heated on the stove in a giant pot. Call me old fashioned, but I think I prefer a regular gin and tonic! Haha That night we went to Buffalo Bill's, which I'd been to once before on Contiki. Not quite so many hen's nights this time, although I did run into my awesome bartender friend who I'd met there last time - small world, awesome village.

The next day I took the bus to Creekside to pick up my beloved skis from John at the Can Ski store. It was the most beautiful day - clear blue sky and lots of sunshine! Perfect day to be sitting at the Creekside bus stop with new skis in hand feeling like the luckiest girl in the world. I put my skis safely into our shed then headed into the village to meet up with people for coffee and subdued sitting hehe every now and then we would shuffle a few metres outside and sit some more…there was much glazed-eyes-staring-into-coffee-cups and contented sleepy silences punctuated with "omg remember that" exclamations regarding the previous night haha When we'd exhausted our capacity to sit we went back to their lodge and "watched" part of the Rocky marathon that was playing all day on TV. All five Rocky movies. In a row. Enthralling stuff. Really.

That night we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory (my little brother would LOVE this place, definitely going there the first night he gets to Whis!), which is this really nice family type restaurant that's totally affordable; cheap and cheerful you might say :) It was a really nice way to end of a fabulous weekend. And when I got home I spent several hours chatting to Maggie and Jane, gummy bears fuelling fits of giggles about topics I won't even bother trying to explain they were so ridiculous. Suffice it to say I think I'm pretty damn lucky to be living with such awesome people!

Now it's back to the littler mountain, and three weeks of hard slog ahead…but it's OK, because the beacon of light that awaits me at the end of that is looking pretty damn bright right about now.

LIVxo