PLEASE PLEASE OH MY GOD PLEASE

FUCK MY LIIIIIIIFE !!! ADHJADHAS

For those of you who obviously don't live on this planet, my favourite band of four years and fo' sho' forever are Death Cab for Cutie, and it is one of my dreams, my complete dream, to see them live. They came to England when I was 16 but it was when I didn't have a job - the tickets were £16 but my parents weren't going through shit so I didn't want to ask them for money. They're from Seattle (near the Canadian border) so I was hoping when I came here to Canada they'd be somewhere nearby. And now what do I find out. THEY ARE GOING TO BE IN MANCHESTER IN APRIL FOR £20 WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME OH MY GOD I WANT TO DIE

Yes you may think this is an exaggeration, but I love them so much. They've been the soundtrack to my 'growing up' - a massive cliche I know but I really don't give a shit. I am in shock. My god.

HOWEVER they are playing in Calgary on May 25th... But there's two problems. A) I was planning to leave Alberta early May and head out west to Quebec, a 3 day bus journey B) They are $56. I do not have $56 to spare.

A can be solved pretty easily - I'm not even joking, I'm that desperate to see them I would stay in Lake Louise longer just so I could. They've been together for such a long time now (There is like, seven albums I think?) that I'm paranoid it'll be the end sometime soon and I will live my life without seeing them.

B however, is more difficult. I am getting down on my knees and begging and saying PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE GOD LET SOME RANDOM STRANGER GIVE ME $56 OR SOMETHING HAPPEN YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW MUCH IT WOULD MEAN TO ME ARGGASFJDJKGGBAJSASJDAJ. Why hasn't my credit card come in the post yet.

I know I sound completely crazy in this post. I am. ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG I CANNOT BELIEVE IT I WILL NOT RECOVER FROM THIS FOR A LONG TIME

see HERE for previous deathcab obsessive post

internationally TBTF

Complete photo dump of two of the possibly the best days off ever... As planned we went cross-country skiing, although we didn't get up quite as early as we wanted! Crystal introduced Jess and I to the wonders of yolk in the hole/holey egg, a breakfast delight which has now become a slight addiction to the point where we're cutting the mould off old bread in desperation. Actually, that happens quiet a lot here... cooking with moudly food I mean. Damn the village market and it's ridiculous prices.

Cross country skiing was AMAZING. It was bizarre to not be strapped into just one plank of wood for once - and much more dangerous it appears! There was one large downhill section that I literally screamed the whole way down and stood rigid still whilst praying to the snow gods that I would remain upright. And I did! Not so much for Jacqui and Jess though... hahahaha (: Never a funnier sight. 

We took a route down from the Chateau at the Lake. It was so beautiful - definitely making for feelings of being in Narnia! It has been snowing all day so the visibility wasn't great but I still think we got some pretty sweet views!

So after skiing, it was off to Banff... Had the easiest hitchhiking experience ever! We weren't even on the highway yet, just on the slip road, and the first car that drove past we thought we'd try our chances with and thumb it... AND IT STOPPED! We were so excited. The bloke was so nice, he had to clear out his car and everything for us. He was a Calgarian that had been skiing/snowboarding here, and was so nice, he didn't even get annoyed when we took him on a wild goose chase rounds the houses of Banff searching for the HI! (I stayed there for a week so I had an idea of where it was, but just not as good as an idea as I thought...) After checking in, a trip to the Hot Springs was in order... Sitting in a hot pool whilst being snowed on. A bizarre experience. Oh wait, I forgot about the maccers stop! Hahaha. We ate it twice that trip :Z Terrible I know, but we feel we are deprived in Lake Louise without one, and so unashamedly abuse it whenever we're in town. Nom.

So it was back to the hostel for pre-drinks and subjection to terrible African music from Crystal... (: I'm only joking! Kind of. I couldn't help but find 'African Queens' funny. We ended up going to a place called Dancing Sasquatch, as it was dubstep night! So strange to be in a proper club, unlike the B&G that's only just bigger than your downstairs toilet and where we know everyone. It was a lot of fun, but I remembered why back home I'm actually not that into clubs... I just find them to be full of boys who think that they're gods gift to women and have every right to touch you and girls who always manage to convince you that they're a lot cooler than they actually are and make you feel like shit. Which leads me to another thought - I've realised that I don't like English girls much. Not personally, of course, but as a whole... I'm not friends with a single English girl here, partly because it's just me in Saddleback but also because English girls are so fucking bitchy! I can tell them from a mile away because they care too much. Care too much about their appearance, how they look to everyone else, how cool they are... I dunno, sounds bad but in work as soon as I hear an English accent (ESPECIALLY southern, ew) creep out of a girls mouth I just don't want to know! I really don't want to go home back to those kind of people. I want to continue not wearing makeup and not feeling bad about myself all the time and not being so judgemental of other girls as soon as I meet them. It's not going to happen, but my god when I think of going back to Manchester and back to that world I feel so scared...

ANYWAYS. The dubstep night was still awesome! I love this place and these people. I feel so, so happy right now it almost consumes me. I still don't know what the fuck I'm doing in summer, but I'm excited. I know it'll be amazing.

church night

There is no church in Lake Louise. (to my knowledge, anyway...) However, everyone religiously attends the bar on Sunday nights, of which they often end up with much worshiping of the porcelain god. Hence, church night! Pretty much the best night of the week... these photos are from around three weeks ago, a night on which I was described as 'the drunkest girl at the bar' - always a great compliment to hear. (Yes Dad, I see you there shaking your head!) 

This was Tarra's (Blonde girl in the second photo) last ever church night... She was supposed to be here 'til September but her Grandma got sick so she went home. It was my first Lake Louise goodbye, and my god I am not looking forward to May, as that's when everyone (including myself) starts to leave. I will probably talk more about this in a later post, but the idea of leaving this crazy bubble makes me so sad. The time has passed so quickly and it's so insane here that I thought by May I would be wanting to leave, but it's approaching soon and I can't imagine this life ending. I can't imagine not living with my wonderful housemates and living the BBSD lifestyle...

Although it happened a few nights ago, I must document it. I SAT IN A REAL IGLOO. Well, technically it was a 'quincy' as an igloo is made with blocks and this was more a massive pile of snow that'd been hollowed out. It was still fucking amazing though! Me and Crystal had decided that night to go party in Chucktown (coincidentally, at a 'tight and bright' themed party, interesting ice breaker) and happened to meet the bloke that made it. He operated CAT machinery stuff and the hill and one day just brought it home, made a massive pile of snow, and then hollowed it out. It was massive! It had fairy lights and sofas and a heater and everything... sitting there was just surreal. I really wish I had had my camera to be a good Asian and take photos. Oh well, I am definitely gonna be back there sometime soon anyway!

I AM SO TIRED. I've been working seven days in a row as I swapped my days off with Christel (she wanted to go to another ski hill in Golden with Mel for a few days)... It has been interesting. I opened sunday monday and today, and on Saturday night I went to bed (after igloo adventures) at four and on Sunday night (church night!) went to bed at three. And had to wake up at five. Brutal, but worth it. Another good thing came out of it too - for the first, and probably the last, time this season, both me Crystal and Jess have a day off together (tomorrow)! We were all so excited and we're definitely gunna make the most of it... We're planning to go cross country skiing, then hitch to banff, go to the hot springs and then out in town (: To a proper club, my god! We're gunna stay at the HI - it'll be nice to be back there again, so many good memories. Stoked! (:D)

soup over flowers anyday.

nineteen forever

A bunch of low-quality photos of some high quality chalk drawings... we thought this was a good idea at the time, and actually we still did when we woke up in the morning! It was only when we started trying to rub it off that we realised it probably wasn't the best idea we'd ever had. except at the same time it was, I wish so much we could've left it, because it looked so beautiful! Dry cloths took most of the excess off,  but it left strange pale colours on the wall like something you would imagine an lsd trip would look like. However thanks to some mr magic eraser it's now all gone... until three nights ago, when we decided it would be super awesome to write film an tv titles on the wall, but with one word replaced by penis. I'm not going to go into it because no one but us would find it funny, so Harry Potter and the Penis of Fire is all I'm saying. Try it.

If you didn't guess by the title, these shots are from the aftermath of my birthday. Which was a brilliant day! First to everyone back home - well, my Dad, Mum, Auntie, Godmother, Sophie, Laura, Kathryn + James - thank you so much for everything you sent! You have no idea how much it meant. I cried a rather large amount whilst opening the girl's presents + reading Sophie's letter, but I was so thankful. I did NOT expect to get that much! My boss told me he'd never seen anyone get so many packages and letters in their whole season there, nevermind in such a short space of time! 

So the day was spent waking up at 5am and going to work only to find a cake with lit candles with a singing Brooke... It was such a good start! The cake was great too! Then I boarded for a few hours, went for dinner, partied... I feel like I'm writing really strangely tonight. Blah. Anyway yes I'm going to stop now I think...

Oh but wait! In the last photo, you get a sneak peek of my snowboard... Isn't she beautiful? I absolutely love her. I still need to do a post on all my snowboarding stuff... One day! 

hit from the bong

L-R: Crystal, Jacqui, Hanna & the drunkest girl at the bar (apparently, as I do not recall)

Not sure if I ever did a post about my housemates, so it's about time! Although to be fair, I've had three different ones since I've been here... I've always lived with Jacqui & Hanna (the German girls!) and for a few weeks it was just us, then Swedish Christel moved in (I've mentioned her on earlier posts) then she moved out and Mexican Jorge moved in... and then he moved into to the boys house and now we have French Canadian Crystal, and my god I hope she stays! I've gotten a lot closer to Jacqui & Hanna in the past few weeks what with the arrival of Crystal - I feel like she completes our family :D ! It's so good to come home and sit on our couches watching an episode of Family Guy that was played three times that day already whilst pointing at things and attempted to say them in French.  This photo was taken at last weeks Church night, (a rather good one too - photos shall follow!) and I love it so much I'm tempted to blow it up and stick it on the wall, along with everything else like are you fucked? a dog in antlers and biff boom. I love my housemates.

everything in transit

Photo's from my first hitchhiking experience a few weeks back - something else to add to the seemingly endless list of things I never thought I would do until I came to this crazy place. In all honestly when we were on the way there and the first car pulled up I was ready to bolt, but it ended up being more fun than I could have imagined - despite the fact that we chose the completely wrong day! It was frighteningly beautiful as you can see but it was also -30... We went to Canmore, the next town after Banff and getting there was OK because the two guys from Vancouver that picked us up dropped us in the centre, but what we didn't anticipate that unlike Lake Louise, Canmore's highway junction was a good forty minute walk away with all our groceries...

Despite that, this section of the Trans-Canada Highway has quickly become one of my favourite places in the world to be. I cannot describe the feeling in my stomach whenever I'm travelling along it, whether it be on a bus or in the car of a stranger filled with laughter, but it is something of excitement and opportunity and purpose. I always had a strange love for motorways back home anyway, the way everyone was travelling really fast in the same direction and the shadows would bounce through the lamplights when it was nighttime, and so being surrounded by huge mountains and sky bluer than anything I have ever seen just multiplies the feeling tenfold. 

I realise that I haven't posted in ages - this isn't my wish! I would love to post everyday because I want to document as much of this trip as I can but it just isn't practical! For one I don't have internet at home anymore as the price went up for $30 for 30 days to $220 (no joke) and I just don't feel as much of the need to use it anymore... Can't be anything but a good thing, right? Anyway I've got a couple of post ideas in my head that I want to do - maybe I'll do them now and put them through as scheduled posts, or maybe I won't and you'll have to wait another three weeks. Who knows?

songs of lake louise

I'm on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shines aint always gonna be gold, i'll be fine once I get it I'll be good tell me what you know about dreamin' you don't really know about nothin'/save me give me wings to fly make me young reason to fight/we laugh until we think we'll die, home is where I'm with you/there was a time when my world was filled with darkness and i stopped dreaming, now i'm supposed to fill it up with something in your eyes I see the eyes of somebody I used to know long ago but I'm still trying to make my mind up am I free or am I tied up? I change shapes just to hide in this place but I'm still, I'm still and animal nobody knows but me when I slip but I'm still an animal...