Erin Lempriere: Group email sent on the 7th of November

Kia Ora to all! Well I've well and truly landed my feet on the ground that they'll be jumping on for the next 6 months. I say jumping because I actually feel like its all a bit of a dream land right now….its blown me away and I feel like im jumping up and down inside a lot of

the time! Banff is just the most beautiful place. I can't explain well enough. I've only been here for 4 days and I really do feel at home. The people, environment and taste in the air is just so welcoming. My trip over here went relatively smoothly. I had half a day in Vancouver

…which was nowhere near enough time. It is an amazing city and truly put on the weather which made out for a great scenic flight over the Canadian Rockies into Calgary

that afternoon. I spent the first couple of days exploring around Banff and Canmore(a small town 15min east). Banff has really cool buildings down the streets, with

plenty of shopping and dinning. There's snow everywhere, trees and stunning mountains surrounding it….wild animals walking the streets… friendly faces all around…which is so new to me it just makes me smile the whole time! Oh and the road rules-i havn't stopped laughing about. It seems like there just is none. (ie. Whoever gets first to the intersection generally goes first?) Banff is about a 50min drive from Lake Louise, where I work, along the 'trans Canadian highway'. It's a great drive..long straight roads through the rockies with funny animals in the bush beside it, animal-crossings over top and once again- scenery you dream of. Honestly=just like the pictures! Breathe taking. I stayed the first few nights with my friend Karem which was cool. Great to catch up and instantly meet some really fun people. a couple of days ago I moved to Lake Louise… luckily I scored the last room in a "condo" (flat) instead of the staff accommodation I was expecting. (it didn't sound so good in the end) its in Lake Louise and im sharing it with 5 other kiwis! Hehehehe. Two couples, another guy and me – all Patrollers which makes it pretty fun. the rent will be much cheaper than Banff so that's all good. oh and I get much more of a sleep in the morn- yay! So I've four days of training at work now…not on skies yet…just doing training which has been fun. Cold the first day because we were outside in the snow for most of it- and I had no good boots. = cold toes! All is ok now I brought myself some 'Sorels' straight after work which fit me much better for the weather while training outside. + they're great to walk around the snowy streets. Most of the outside work is consisting of Chairlift evacuations. Pretty exciting stuff- having to learn all the different evacs we might be required to do for the different chairlifts and different circumstances. Yesturday was the best- we spent all day on the gondolas, ive attatched a couple of pictures taken of me training. woooohooo! We've got a great crew…half of the pro-patrollers are somewhat local Canadians, half are kiwis, and one ausie! Hehehe. About 30 of us. Then an extra 40 volunteer-patrollers for the weekends when we are busy. I can't quite believe my eyes when I look up onto our field. It seems never ending! And there's two more faces that you can't actually see from the base. How on earth am I going to remember all the runs! It's the biggest field in Canada! Oh well. Ill learn. the snow is amazing here- just like icing sugar! It was snowing all of yesterday. And last night. None today though…and they were getting worried because it wasn't cold enough for the snow makers so the pressure was going to be on for the World Cup preparation. Apparently it's the most amazing event to watch- speeds of 130km on skies straight through the middle of our front face field! But good news because ive just heard its dumping up there and we are already above average for this time of the year. Wooohoo! So parts of the field are opening up on Friday and I can't wait to get out there and have a play around. most of us (rookies) have three days off now and a bunch of us drove to Canmore today to do a bit of shopping and hang out with a work buddy who is from here. His parents just cooked all of us kiwis a lovely big feed of turkey and fresh veg. Mmmmmmm. Havn't had that in a while now! well ill stop and update in the near future…. But id love to hear what you are all up to so drop me a line or a hundy – I miss you all. ive attempted to add some pics of Banff, work and the house I I guess this house is going to keep me close to home though- I look up now and there is a big NZ flag hanging on the wall, a great map of the country on another, kiwi music in the back ground. Marmite in the pantry. oh but don't worry about me getting to know the Canadian culture….there's no lack in the social life here and ive already caught myself rolling my R's occasionally.ahhhhhh! ah well Right on. love to you all xoxoxo erin