Whistler, baby!

Hey everyone!

 

So Friday was my last day of Canadian classes. Most of them were just spent going over what is in the final exams. I got 74% in my Crime and Society essay :) At the end of the day I wasn't expecting how sad I would feel to finish my classes here at UBC. I know back home I would be really happy to finish classes, but here it's the beginning of the end :(

 

In happier news, I spent the weekend in Whistler on a trip with UBC's Exchange Student Club. There was about 60 of us all up. We left on Friday afternoon and the bus arrived at our hostel at about 7:30 that night. Our hostel was really nice! It was only built in 2010, and for the Winter Olympians. The only problem was that it was a 20 minute bus ride from Whistler Village. I roomed with Rikki, Sally and Patrick.

 

That night we ate in the hostel's cafe, before being put into teams and doing team bonding games! Most of them were drinking games, so I wasn't really having a good time. There were also games where the teams had to verse each other in passing a mango, a cucumber, and a penny to each other without using your hands down the line of team members the fastest. Those games were very... interesting. Afterwards a bunch of us went outside the hostel for a snowball fight which was pretty fun until you get hit with an icy snowball in the boob. Ouch.

 



 

 

On Saturday we all woke up early and got ready for a day on the slopes! This was the view out our window on Saturday morning.

 

 

A few of us who had professional lessons booked caught the bus into the village to collect our lesson vouchers. We then met up with everyone else and collected our ski tickets and rental equipment. I had booked a full day level one skiing lesson, and so had my friend Alejandro, who is on exchange from Mexico. We went together so we were put into the same lesson. We were with a young couple from Vancouver, and our instructor's name was Dominique and he was from Montreal. He was really nice and liked cracking lots of jokes.

 

 

We took the gondola up then learn all about our skiing equipment before starting. At first I didn't like it because I wasn't getting it straight away. I'm a perfectionist, so it was frustrating me, but I slowly started getting the hang of it and started enjoying it. It was snowing the whole time we were there. I had never actually seen snow falling from the sky before. It was amazing and I looked up, stuck my tongue out, and ate some :) We did little slopes, learning to stop and turn. We then went on the "magic carpet" conveyor belt and got off and did the beginner slope a few times which was fun. Dominique then took us down a little but steeper slope to get to the gondola. I did it twice during the day but I always lost control and went too fast. We all caught the gondola to the top of Whistler mountain and had a break for lunch. I had definitely worked up an appetite by then!

 

 

 

 



After lunch we got the gondola back down and did the magic carpet a few more times. We even did it once without our ski poles. I was nervous about that but it was fine! We got the gondola back down to the base of the mountain at the end of our lesson. We were able to put our skis and poles in free storage which was great, and I bought myself a touristy Whistler shirt :) I met up with some other exchange students and we went to a cafe and had delicious hot chocolates, which was what I was craving! I was also craving a bubble bath, but that wasn't likely to happen. I was so proud that I didn't fall down at all that day, despite running into a couple of people haha! I didn't knock them over or anything though! We all then went to the Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant for our free dinner provided by the Exchange Student Club. It was good meeting and hanging out with more exchange students. Everyone went out that night but I was so tired and sore so I just stayed in and had an early night. Here's some photos of the village at night in the snow!

 



 

This was the view out our window on Sunday, so much snow fell overnight!

 



Here are some photos of the snow around our hostel

 





 

On Sunday I went into the village with Hayley and Sally to do some touristy exploring. The village is gorgeous with all the snow around. I bought some postcards and a shirt for Dad. We were carrying around our ski boots and helmets so it was hard to shop.

 

 

We got our skis and poles out of storage, then caught the gondola up to ski the baby slopes a few times together. We caught the gondola up to the top of the mountain to have lunch, and I met up with Philippa and Rikki, who also had half day lessons booked. We caught the gondola all the way to the base of the mountain to join our lesson. My instructor's name was Marcel and he was from Switzerland. He was quite old but really nice. I was with a couple from Conneticut. We did the magic carpet slope a few times and he helped me to do my turns better. The weather was gorgeous at the beginning of the day.

 



 

Then I graduated from the baby slopes as Marcel took us on the chairlift up to do the Olympic Chair run. The couple went on the chairlift and Marcel and I went on the next one. I have to admit I was nervous to do this run, even though it's meant to be easy! When you got off the chairlift, the slope was really steep and it wasn't meant to be like that. Everyone was falling. Lucky I was with Marcel because he linked arms with me and kept me upright. Then we all did the run! It was pretty fun, but some parts were what I would consider steep and were a bit scary. But I'm so glad that I did it. At one steep part I was going too fast and losing control so I had to fall over into deep snow! My first and only fall of the weekend! Woo! My skis were buried in snow so I had to take them off in order to get up, and then put them back on and finish the run.

 

 

We were heading to the gondola and there was a steep hill. Marcel told the others to just take off their skis and walk down, but he was going to give me a free run. I had to hold both my ski poles horizontally at my tummy, then he stood behind me and put his pole handles on the ends of my poles, and held onto his poles. That way he could ski right behind me and control my speed. We went down and it was a lot of fun. We got the gondola down and the lesson was over!

 

I returned all my equipment and then met up with the others. We went for hot chocolate and tried Beavertails! They are a warm flat kind of pastry that they put different toppings on. I shared a chocolate hazelnut one with Jess and it was soo good!!

 

 

A few of us then looked around in the shops. I got a Whistler sweater. It's so soft and amazing :) We went to the grocery store and got some food for dinner. We then caught the bus back to the hostel and got our bags out of storage because we had already checked out in the monring. We got changed and then heated up our dinner before catching the bus back to UBC. Everyone was so exhausted from the weekend that they just slept on the bus. Despite feeling so tired and sore for the next couple of days after, I had an amazing weekend in Whistler. But it feels like I didn't spend enough time there to really get the feel for the town! I'd love to go back one day.

 

I've spent the past three days studying for my final exams. Last night Clara, Abby, Marie and I went free food hunting as a break from studying. We had hot chocolate, cookies, cupcakes, and pancakes as our dinner, all for free! It was a fun, and random adventure. I had my first two exams tomorrow, and I don't finish til 9pm! I really should be studying right now, but oh well ;)

 

On Friday I'm leaving with Sally for our weekend in Whitehorse, Yukon! We're so excited and cannot wait! But apparently the weather on Friday will be a low of -26 degrees! Pretty sure I'm going to freeze to death guys!!

 

I can't believe I only have exactly two weeks left at UBC. I never want it to end :(

 

I love and miss you all so much!

 

Love,

Emily