The Body Shop Haul.

I am so so happy that The Body Shop exists in Canada, you have no idea! When I walked onto Banff Ave and saw the light gleaming outside I think I might have done a little yelp. Now I don't have to worry about forking out a heap of money to get my Mum to ship out a box load to me every couple of months.

You see every part of my skin routine revolves around the Body Shop, even more so now I'm here and it's freezing cold and my skin is so ridiculously dry it upsets me. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw that they were doing a Black Friday 50% off everything sale!!! Another perk to living in North America, all these events and cool holidays that we don't get back in the UK. Don't get me started on how distraught I was when I realised I'd arrived after Thanksgiving! But anyway, back to the topic - all my lovely lovely goodies!

I am obsessed with the Vitamin E products. They are so nourishing and moisturising for my skin, I cannot explain how it has revitalised my skin into something I'm actually not bothered too much about covering up with make up! I already have the facial cleanser, the serum-in-oil (incredible!) and the exfoliator so the toner and moisturiser will be a welcome addition. I'm so excited to use the moisturiser it makes my skin so soft and hydrated. In one night it will have cleared up all the patches of dried skin that the freezing conditions have conjured up.

The seaweed exfoliator is supposed to be a really nice gentle daily exfoliator to help combat the dry skin so i'm sure that will end up being reordered plenty of times during my time here. My housemate Ella raves so much about the face mask, so Sunday we are having a girls face mask night after yoga and I shall see if it matches up to the hype. The drops of youth is another thing Ella recommended me and I'm hoping it will work miracles on my under eye bags. I hope it's not another 'time reversing' fad that doesn't actually work, time will tell I guess.

I will swear by the Body Shop products for giving me good skin after the years of horrible teenage breakouts, so I would recommend it highly. If you're not sure which products would be right for you, then pop along to their website and do the skin diagnostic test to find out what will best suit your skin. There's always offers online, currently by 3 get 3 free; take advantage of it whilst it lasts.

Fresh Pow.

All I have heard since I have been in Canada is how every cannot wait for a big dumping of snow so they can have a powder day. I had no idea what all the fuss was about, but I was quickly about to learn.

So yesterday I was woken up at 7.30am to get up and get out so we could drive up the hill and get the first lifts so that we can make the most of the 'fresh pow'. After being given a little pep talk about how to change my technique to adapt to the new terrain and told that no one was going to wait for me as 'powder day is no friends day' I was a little apprehensive about what lay ahead. But hey, the worst that can happen is I fall over right? Right.

This picture doesn't even begin to come close to showing what it was like up there. Such heavy snow, poor visibility, but man is skiing on powder bloody awesome. The technique is just so different to skiiing on more icy, compact conditions. From what I gathered you pretty much have to lean back A LOT more and adapt an almost squat position. It's a hell of a workout for the thighs, and boy am I feeling it today.

Of course I fell over. It was inevitable. I did what people here call a 'yard sale' which pretty much means I went arse over tit, skis flying off one way, poles the other. It really was pretty impressive. The dude who came to help me out seemed to find it pretty funny when I told him it was my first powder day as he passed me back my rogue ski and bombed off. Big thanks to Georgie for taking one for the team and hanging back with me for the morning, it's much appreciated. 

So yeh, now I totally get it. Powder days are awesome, but God above I have never seen weather like it. It's the means to an end, the ski hill will be incredible by early next week, but right now this storm is just insane. For a girl from a small town in England it really is crazy to look out of my window and see 3 foot of snow on my balcony after only clearing it last night. So next time the snow has settled 2cm on her floor at home and the schools have shut and civilisation has pretty much ground to a halt, I shall have a little chuckle to myself. You guys haven't seen anything yet...

Slowly but surely becoming buried, with another 15cm set to fall over the next 24 hours I don't think il be able to make it out the door tomorrow! 

Week Two.

Yup, you read right, it's been two weeks. Two whole weeks. I have no bloody idea how or where that time has gone; but somehow, somewhere it has. I can't really say that is last week has been overly exciting or interesting in anyway if I'm honest, but it has allowed me to have that time to settle, to relax and fit in.

I mentioned he fact that I got accepted for a job in my first weekly post but I didn't really explain much about it. So basically it is one of the best steakhouses in town, with an awesome cocktail list and a bunch of seemingly lovely members of staff, half of which are my housemates. So yeh, I'm pretty stoked to start working there, or at least I was until I picked up my training pack this morning. Over 40 dishes, some with more than 14 ingredients, that I need to memorise and be able to describe by this time next week. Christ. As I write this I'm currently taking a break between learning the difference between romaine lettuce and butter leaf lettuce, what the hell pepperoncini is, and how an earth I pronounce the word arugula. It really is a lot to get my head around. 

In an aim to learn more about the town I'm to be spending the next year in, and as my housemates told me 'get loads of free shit', I went along to the Banff Ambassador course last night at the Whyte Museum. The course consists of two parts. 

Part one is a free one hour chat conducted by Banff Life, who are a voluntary group in the town that put on events such as pasta night, and movies under the stars to get people involved within the community. They spoke to us about what is on offer, basic facts about Banff and information on what those new to the town need to do/see when they first arrive. This then leads on to part two which is in partnership with Discover Banff tours, and it is a heavily discounted (by heavy I mean down from $55 to $5) sightseeing tour around Banff and Lake Louise. Once Danny gets here I am going to get straight on is, I've heard pretty good reviews, of course I shall do one of my own on completion. THEN once this is done you get an 'Experience Passport' which provides the aforementioned free shit. Always good!

I feel like I'm rambling a bit in this post, as I said I haven't really done anything overly interesting, but these weekly updates are meant to be for just that. Letting my family and friends back home know what's going on and what I've been up to. Obviously I've been practising my skiing, going up to the hill when I can and taking all the advice I can get. I've signed my lease, got a postal address for all those Christmas presents I expect to be receiving in a few weeks, and signed up for my healthcare so when the time comes and I do have a monumental fall trying to fly down a black run, I'm all covered. It's all riveting stuff I'm sure you'll agree, so I'll leave it there and end with the fail safe picture time. Lots of love ...

Yoga at Lululemon.

Well the title states it all. Last night I went to my first ever yoga class at Lululemon, which is a fitness clothing store in town. I've quickly learnt since being here that fitness and well being are things which are heavily promoted in the town, and consequently there are loads of free classes on offer. There's a running club, boxercise classes, free passes to the gym and as mentioned above, yoga classes.

My friend and housemate Georgie is a qualified yoga instructor, so I was pretty apprehensive about going to my first class with someone of her skill level and had absolutely no idea what to expect. It didn't help that we were one of the last to arrive so were placed right at the front, in the centre of the class. Excellent. 

The classes are held in their store on Banff avenue and it's free for anyone to drop along and join in for an hour long session on a Sunday evening. So the way they go about it, is to move all of the merchandise to the sides of the store, pop and load of mats down and get to it. Much to my surprise I absolutely loved it! It's such a strange combination of being ridiculously hard work but relaxing at the same time. I could really feel all my muscles working but I was completely in my own zone, off on another planet. That was until the instructor asked us to do a headstand, erm no, I'm afraid that is against my physical abilities. 

It's definitely something I enjoy and want to work on and improve, and it certainly helps being surrounded by all of the clothing. I picked out so many things I wanted to buy whilst staring at the shelves trying to get my balance. 

There is a men's yoga class running this Thursday the 27th at 8pm with drinks on offer afterwards for all who attend. Although it is predominantly a male class, women are welcome to attend if they bring their fella with them. I'll be heading on down and getting in some practice. Who knows, maybe il be able to do the crow by Christmas... 

Wish List.

Everyone knows I have a bit of a shopping addiction/had a shopping addiction, that was until I needed to get my sensible head on and save money to move to this wonderous country! Something that I am pretty proud of, if I do say so myself. 

But of course, as every shopaholic knows, it is physically impossible to walk into a shop and not note down everything in your head that you want to buy. That is in no way different in Canada than it is in the UK. If anything it is actually worse for me. Being here has opened up this whole new world of shopping that I have never experienced before. Ski clothes and accessories are so abundantly available here in such variety that I find myself finding multiple items I want in every single shop. Danny is going to get such a brilliant Christmas list from me this year! 

But before I get carried away and go off on a complete tangent, there is one particular item that has caught my eye and i just cannot get it off of my mind...

Please ignore my terrible attempt at a gangster pose (I was wearing my male friends much too large for me version) but I cannot express nearly enough how incredibly amazingly awesome this coat is! It is by a company called Canada Goose and the cheapest version retails at $695, so around £375; but believe me, it is worth every penny!

Unlike many companies, Canada Goose have kept 100% of their production in Canada in order to provide the most outstanding craftsmanship. The fur trim around the hood consists of coyote fur, which is the best kind of fur you can have on clothing out here as it does not freeze, it does not hold water, and the uneven hair lengths create a windbreak to protect the skin, helping to reduce heat loss from the face. One of my favourite features is the fleece lined hand warmer pockets - nothing better than not having to wear bulky snow gloves and still having toasty warm hands on a freezing cold day. It's fair to say I'm pretty head over heels for this jacket

The women's coats are available in a variety of lengths ranging from $695 to $795. I'm hoping to grab myself a bargain in the Black Friday sale next week as there are rumours of 70% discounts in store, it's certainly a worthwhile investment when waking up to the -30 temperatures we are to be expecting in the coming weeks. We shall see, I fear the temptation may be too much for me to ignore...

Week One.

So I have now been here, in the beautiful land of Canada for a whole week. In some respects that time has flown by so fast and in others man alive has it dragged. I don't really know quite how to explain how I am feeling right now, because if I'm honest, I'm not really sure I myself know how I feel.

I will start by saying that I love the lifestyle here. I can't quite believe how friendly everyone is and how everyone (well almost everyone) that I have come across has been more than happy to help me out with anything I have needed and have been ridiculously chirpy and upbeat in doing so. It is incredibly refreshing coming from England and that rarely being the case. I really like the look of the restaurant I'm going to be working for, yeh that's right I got a job, and we got a car; basically everything that I could have hoped to have achieved in my first week here I have done. 

But I just can't help but not feel fully settled yet, which is to be expected. This is my first time away from home and my family, and despite the fact that I have spent almost half a year apart from Danny before, this week has been pretty hard. My housemates are awesome and so much fun to be around, but almost everyone I've come into contact with has been a couple, and i just feel a little left out. That will all change in 3 weeks I know, so I shall make the most of exploring and practising my skiing before I'm joined by the better half.

Other than that life is pretty darn good out here. Everything is so relaxed and chilled and my skiing is coming on relatively well so I am extremely happy with that. My technique is getting better and my confidence is through the roof. For now. I'm trying to get into ice hockey, the maple leafs to be precise, as one of my housemates is a HUGE fan so I plan to do a post on how that's going on. So yeah, il leave it there and once again add some pictures from the last few days for you to enjoy. 

MY FIRST SEASON PASS!!!!!!!!!

Learning Canadian.

You might wonder why I decided to write a post on this because Canadians speak English right? (Or French, though I haven't encountered any of those yet) Well yes, you would be correct in thinking that. However, people out here have several words that they use on a regular basis, some more than others, that completely flew over my head when I heard them. So I thought for the sake of my family and friends, and any of you reading this, I would share these new found phrases just in case I pick them up and try to bring them back to the UK. And with two Canadian housemates, I feel this may well be a possibility. 

We will start with 'Eh'. Apologies for the poor picture, I was in a rush and as you can see, the woman who was trying to eat her lunch peacefully in Toque, did not particularly like being involved in the photograph. But anyway, eh is the word here that is pretty much added onto the end of every sentence and can mean a million and one things. I'd say, most of the time I've heard it, it's an alternative to saying 'isn't it' ie. 'It's a nice day today eh'. But depending on the inflection you can pretty much use it to mean anything.

Easy peasy. A toonie is a two dollar coin. Makes sense. Just like how I say 'fiver' instead of five pound note. I like it. The money here is cool, it's indestructible. It doesn't rip, it doesn't get wet, it's awesome I love it! The coins confuse the hell out of me though, there's just too many varieties, I can't be dealing with it. It's a good job tipping absolutely everyone is a necessity here!

So a toque, as well as being the name of the restaurant I took these photos in, is also a hat. Despite what it says on the sign above, from what I can gather a toque is a hat that is woolen and has some kind of tassle/bobble on it. Toque. It has a nicer ring to it than 'bobble hat' I'm sure you'll agree.

Now Deke is primarily an ice hockey term. This is a sport which I am trying to get into so il adopt the terms and pretend I know what I'm talking about. It's basically an abbreviation of decoy, so in ice hockey, you pretend you're going one way and actually go the other. Simple eh. You can also use it more broadly to mean deceiving someone, or talk about taking a detour, ie 'I'm going to deke into the store on my way home.'

So yeah, those are some of the terms I've learnt so far. I'm sure this list will only continue to develop over the coming months, I shall keep you updated and I shall sign off with some other fun/strange things I've discovered in the last few days...

- Maple smoked bacon is bloody awesome, we NEED it in the UK.

- You tip everyone, even the lady at the convenience store. It's just the done thing.

- Minus 12 degrees is warm and if you are walking a distance you will have to take a layer off.

- Shopping is hard. The price displayed is not the price you pay and things have different names. Hard.

- English tea is impossible to get your hands on. I've had to settle for Earl Grey. It's a hard life. 

- Pedestrians have right of way at most junctions, it's so strange. 

- Oh and crossing the road wherever you want is called j walking and it's illegal.

- Chips with cheese and gravy has a name. It's called Poutine. It's delicious. 

The Beginning.

QSo as many of you; my friends, family and avid Twitter followers will know, not long ago my boyfriend Danny, and I decided that we were going to move to Canada for the winter and embark upon our first ski season together. Heaps of excitement mixed with horrendous nerves and a ton of 'what the f@*k am I doings' I beat all the obstacles that blocked my path to start writing this post from the comfort of my couch in the stunning town of Banff with this bad boy of a view. Cannot fault my decision whilst looking at that, I'm sure you'll all agree.

For someone who has never left England for more than a 10 day holiday, let alone done a ski season I was, and to some extent still am absolutely terrified by the task that I have taken on. It's not one of those things that you can read up on and learn what you need to know to get through, it's kind of like being thrown in the deep end of a pool and having to make your way up to the top. Terrifying but at the same time a huge hit of adrenaline. It's a feeling I can't describe, and one I don't really think could be understood unless you go through such an experience. 

In the three days I have been here I literally have not stopped, and I am so unbelievably grateful that I have friends here who have walked me through everything from start to finish. Getting a bank account, a PO box address, health insurance, Canadian phone, job interviews, and of course going out skiing and visiting the local bars are just a few of the things that have been occupying my time. Oh and acclimatising to the -27 temperatures I've been waking up to. Unbelievable! 

I'm starting to feel settled and 'at home' as such now. My housemates are awesome, the area is beautiful and the jet lag isn't screwing me over too much - I really can't complain. I'm going to have so much to be posting on here in the coming days, weeks and months so I'll sign off with a couple of pictures that will make all you winter lovers jealous beyond belief. Enjoy.