My first two weeks

So, time flies when you are kept busy! I've already been here 10 days now, and it's all good. Yes, there are mosquito's and it was super cold last week while camping in a tent (Same cold and rainy weather like when I left Schiphol), but I'm having a great time!

Last week the new guides of Timberwolf tours had their training week. With the jet lag still in my body I started that week together with 7 others. The first nights where cold, the rain was wet and the days where long, but it was really interesting learning, awesome to be in the Rockies again and I was surrounded by people who are super kind and helpful.

Later that week when the jet lag had left my body and we had seen some sun shine, I was able to relax more and really enjoy the surroundings too. As you can see, it is (still) beautiful: (Rosine, do you recognize it? :-D)

We really rushed through Banff and Jasper, no time for hiking or tourist stuff obviously, but we still saw a lot of animals on our short trip! Bear, moose, deer and lots of elk.

Our goal of the week was to learn where the interesting places are, where to park with the trailer, where the grocery store is, the liquor store (Although, they bring you a bottle of liquor to the campground in the middle of the night if you call them up!), where the post office is, where the trail heads are of the hikes we'll be doing with guests this summer, how to talk to the guests and make sure they have a good time. We even learned how to pack the boxes of kitchen utensils and played a game of who was fastest. 

One of the guides had his birthday last week during our training week, so I experimented with making some brownies on the campfire and it was a tasty first try! 

We also did some role plays where one would be the guide and the others pretended to be annoying guests, fun! I almost wet my pants...
I am still learning about Canadian history, fur trade, natives and the railway, so much to know. I'll do an interpretive guide course in Banff end of June to learn more about the Canadian Rocky mountains, too. 

This week most of us have been hanging around near Edmonton at the base of Timberwolf tours and it was all about getting things done like getting a social insurance number, a bank account, and a driver's license class 4. I just passed the theoretical test today, yay! I'll be doing my first aid course next two days, and then the only thing left is doing the road test to get my commercial class 4 drivers license, which allows me to drive the van with up to 14 people:

Half of the time there is a trailer behind the van. For the road test we can use a normal car, which is odd. We decided to practice anyway. This afternoon on a parking lot I tried backing up with the van and trailer together with two other new guides. Guess what, I'm a natural! Really glad I picked it up so fast, I'm now totally confident about driving that thing.

To beat the cold nights here in June, I've treated myself on a nice warm sleeping bag. I just spent last night in it, and woke up really happy. :-D

So, I am totally ready to start guiding and I am really exited! 

I've got a new Canadian number: 

+1-780-915-0765

And my mail address for the next few month is: 

Site 34, 51404 Range Road 264

Spruce Grove, Alberta, T7Y1E4, Canada