Sunday 03.11.13 - Saturday 09.11.13: Hey all, Ok so our second week back in Vancouver has been quite productive and busy. We spent most of Sunday tucked up inside Toby apartment hunting. We're only meant to get 2hrs free wifi on each device per 24hr period at the RV park, but due to some kind of glitch we were both on it for most of the day - score haha. I'm not sure why it let us, but we just rolled with it & didn't ask questions! We had our coolest night and morning on Monday - the radio announcer said that it was only 1 degree Celsius when I got up. Brrrr. Then I walked over to the shower block and saw that there was frost on the grass. I thought that was pretty cool, then I also noticed that the hedges were frozen. Yep frozen. I thought they just had a little bit of frost on them, but when I touched them, they were rock solid. So awesome. Walking back to Toby I noticed that all unoccupied picnic tables that aren't under cover actually have ice on them. Then there was a woman de-icing her car windscreen before she drove off, so I guess it really is COLD!!! Walking to the skytrain I stepped in a little bit of water and almost went for a skid, because the water had frozen a little and I'd almost slipped on ice!!! All these new things to be aware of and watch out for hey! The biggest excitement of the day though was when I was sitting on the train just gazing out the window and noticed SNOW up on top of a few of the mountains - that wasn't there yesterday!!!! First snow on the mountains!!!!!! Woohoo!! I was so excited I almost squealed out loud right there on the train haha... Work has been fantastic so far. I did 4hrs orientation on Monday and then 8hr shifts for the rest of the week (Tuesday-Friday) and it's been a real learning curve. Everyone has been super nice and really welcoming, it's definitely made coming in at this late stage a lot easier. We have one week till the store officially opens so it's all hands on deck to get everything ready and all staff trained up before our opening. I'm mostly going to be responsible for supervising & providing assistance to cashiers, working the guest service desk, working in the cash office (cashing and banking all the registers) and generally providing a high level of service to our guests (at Target we do not have customers, we have guests). It's totally different to anything I've ever done before so I'm looking forward to the challenge - it's a bit nerve wracking but exciting at the same time. Benny has also been applying for several jobs online and went for an interview with Pristine Labour Hire on Wednesday which then scored him a job. Yay! They basically specialise in jobs for new immigrants to Canada so they're really flexible and only take on jobs that are close to public transport, which is what suits Ben. They work on a system where they text you each afternoon to see if you're available for work the next day. If you are, you text back yes then they'll email you the job site details. If you want a day off you just text back no and that's that, no black mark against your name etc so you work when you want to. Ben's basically classified as a 'skilled labourer' with them and doing really basic, menial, mind-numbing tasks (he's waaaay overqualified for the job) so he's not loving the work, but with it being close to transit and their flexibility are the 2 big draw cards. Plus it's better than no money coming in at all... So at the moment he's working on building a new townhouse complex in East Vancouver - 10mins to downtown. He says it hasn't been too bad (except for the day he had to work outside in the rain, which was miserable as you can imagine - we have to buy him some wet weather gear ASAP). But, the WORST thing happened to him on Friday!!! For this to make sense you should know the key to dressing warmly over here is by layering your clothes. So this particular day Ben had on his singlet, t-shirt, flannel shirt and then his jacket over the top. So he gets to the job site and was working inside so took his ********** straight away. After working for a while and getting a bit warm he took his flannel shirt off as well and continued on. About an hour later he thinks 'Oh I better go grab my shirt and put it with my bag so I don't forget it later.' Except he goes back to grab it and (DISASTER) someone must've thought it was a rag so one sleeve has been completely torn off and the painters have wiped their paintbrushes over it... That's not the worst bit - guess which shirt it was???? HIS MOST FAVOURITE RED CHECK LUMBERJACK FLANNEL SHIRT!!!!! Ohhhhhh nooooooooo! If anyone sees another one at Woolies, he will love you forever if you grab it for him - it's his FAVOURITE (as many of you know). So apart from this downer our week has been pretty good - you're no longer looking at 2 unemployed travelling bums, we both have jobs now haha! Hope all is well at home. Chat to you soon. Lots of love, Benny & Loz xxxxxxx *** Happy Birthday Troy for the 8th and Maisyn for the 9th. Hope you both had great days :)