fingers crossed

i am currently in an employment limbo. i haven't started with the tour company yet, but i've already had my last shift at the bakery. i am supposed to be spending this week browsing for new jobs. "supposed to."
but i'm having trouble staying focused. day one of my job search didnt go as planned. the problem was that it was gorgeous outside. so i decided to take advantage of the sun and head to the beach. so day one was a flop. day two proved no better. it was spent running errands. and by running errands i mean that i went to the grocery store and bought a twelve pack of reese peanut butter cups and then came back home and watched an entire season of californication. day three continued with the trend. i poured myself a vodka cran at around noon. kept those coming, ate homemade sushi and stayed in my pyjamas until four, then i headed up the street to my friends place and watched my first ever audrey hepburn movie. it was marvellous. the cycle ends tomorrow though. i have a trial shift as a nanny for a family that lives close by. i already know that i probably wont take it. the pay and hours offered are both too low.
today i got an email from the tour company about my upcoming training weekend! this weekend, easter weekend, i am going to be heading out on a four day trip to the rocky mountains! i am beyond excited. i have already made a list of stuff to remember to pack and started picking out outfits. i feel like im in elementary school, getting ready for my first real sleepover.
i failed to mention one crucial factor in my interview. or maybe they just failed to ask it.
the thing is, this is a ten hour bus ride. not only will i have to be on the bus for those ten hours. i will have to be wide awake and exciting. full of enthusiasm. engaging the tourists with funny jokes, answering questions about the area and mingling while oozing charm. now i can rock the crap out of those characteristics in any other circumstance. but once i am in a moving vehicle its like i took a hefty handful of sleeping pills and cozied up to a hot water bottle. im out. and when forced to remain awake in a moving vehicle i get uber naseaus. i get motion sick just backing out of the driveway. asking me to consult a map while the car is moving is also out of the question. so my body has come up with a coping mechanism. ever since i was little, whenever im in a car longer than about twenty minutes i fall asleep. hard and fast asleep. im always given the bitch seat on roadtrips because its not like ill be awake to complain or to take in the scenic views. just give me a nudge when we reach a pee break and im pretty much good to go. so in preparation for the demands of my new job i have developed a plan of attack. ive bought mass amounts of anti-drowsy motion sickness tablets, ginger tea, and ginger root to attack the nausea. ive also decided i will drink coffee on the days of bus travel. im not an avid caffeine ingestor (unless questionable amounts of reese pb cups count?) so i figure shocking my system with that will help keep to my eyes open and the witty commentary flowing.
i will report back next week with either a story of how awesome my training wkd was, or how i got fired for falling asleep and/or ralphing on the bus.

monday afternoon at wreck beach, vancouver

last day at the bakery. blueberry scone hand.

still settling

it has been over a month since my last post.
i've found an apartment, got a job, made new friends, got accustomed with bus routes, got a second job, quit my first job, found a market close by, got involved with the couchsurfing scene in vancouver, started exploring the city, and lots of other things that go hand in hand with settling into a new environment.
yesterday was sunny. i couldn't remember the last time i had seen the sun here in vancouver. actually i probably could tell by flipping through the photos on my phone. no doubt i capture a picture of that ball of yellow in the sky the last time it appeared. i probably was just as in awe then as i was yesterday.
about a month ago i started my job as an apprentice baker at a small bakery in east vancouver. i live about a 35 minute bus ride from work. so the change in age and race of passengers as my bus rolls through the yuppie area of kits where i live, through to the downtown business centre, past chinatown and until it drops me off just past the church-run homeless shelters and parks lined with tented soup kitchens is like a proper tour through vancouver each morning. asian students, hipster infused white young family types, business men and women, poor asians, homeless of all races, white kids saving money by living in sketchy neighbourhoods, and that is when i get off and walk a block to work.
i liked the bakery. i still do. but at minimum wage i knew it wouldn't be enough to meet my bills and save as much as i wanted to. so i started looking for something part time to work on the side. this is when i found an ad online for a tour guide position with a company called west trek tours. i applied. went for a first interview, got called back for a second and then was offered the job! i was and am still beyond excited for this position. it is a part time position primarily on the weekends. but it just seems like something i should do. i had a gut feeling about it. interacting with travellers, being loud and outgoing, getting to do all these amazing activities and get paid for it. just wild! i knew i couldn't pass it up. so i told the bakery. i knew that this new job wouldn't be able to work with the schedule the bakery wanted me for. so i told them i would go. so this week will be my last at the bakery. my first training weekend with west trek is on easter weekend from friday-monday. i will be going on their 'rockies' tour. which is four days and three nights. so now i am kind of back to square one. because now i have a part time job and i still need another job to make ends meet. so im on the hunt for employment again.
and im not as nervous or as anxious as i was the first time around. i feel like something will work out. i feel good about my decision.
i went to my first couchsurfing meeting about a month ago. vancouver is such a bigger hub for travellers than halifax. at the meeting i met people from about fifteen different countries! and i have been getting requests from travellers who want to stay with patrik and i, so hopefully soon we will host people as well.

pumpkin sourdough at the bakery

tuesday night stroll along kitsilano beach

homemade pizza and dough from work

keeping in touch [boston-vancouver]

if you click the link below it will take you to a video of the tour company i will be working for and depict some of the stuff i will be getting up to over easter weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSqy2Qu20QQ&feature=youtu.be