My winter in Vancouver

Lots has happened in the last month and I haven't really been good with keeping up my blog. So today just a post about my way of dealing with no job and very little snow, and for the rest a lot of pictures of Whistler, Christmas turkey, New Years party, winter decoration lights and random hikes in the last few weeks. Scroll down for the picture part!


Beginning of December I have enjoyed two weeks in the Netherlands seeing my family and friends again, which was a really, really great time.
I had been hoping that winter would finally kick in and snow would have come by the time I had returned to Canada. But I have been disappointed so far. Apart from a little snow fall just before Christmas (of which I made the Snowmen on my Christmas card) there has only been rain or very little snow, with temperatures mostly around 8 degrees. Most local ski resorts are still half closed, with only the runs open that have snow blowers. Even Whistler is struggling.

If that hasn't been enough to give me a warm welcome (pun intended) back in Canada, my contract has ended a bit earlier then expected. My next job starting only in February, I suddenly had the whole month of January free. This would have been great if there would have been lots of snow to enjoy... But paying money to be on a mountain with only a thin layer of man-made-snow? Näääähh.....
(For those that don't know me well enough, I'm an avid skier and snowboarder, loving the mountains even more with a good layer of fluffy white stuff. So you might imagine my frustration.)

To keep me off the streets and on the snow for free, I decided to sign up for VASS (Vancouver Adaptive Snow Sports) as a volunteer. Basically they provide skiing lessons for disabled people, and volunteers are given the chance to have a great experience helping out. As I had been teaching skiing in the past I was naturally interested in teaching the disabled in change of a free ski-pass for the day. But what makes it even more interesting to me is, with my background of design engineering and specialism in Ergonomics and the medical field, the equipment that is used and the creative solutions that you have to come up with for each individual to get them safely and in a fun way down a slope.
Needless to say, I have been excited about this and even more after the training days I have just finished.

A rare sunny day.
View from the slope on the city. Breath taking!!

I mean, really!?
City and ocean can be seen from up here!

Sitski training. Fun!

Pretend your legs don't work too well.
Or pretend you only have one leg.
I nailed it!

Obviously I also went hiking again, also on New years Eve. Guess what you then do on top? Drink champagne of course! From a sandwich container or a zip-lock bag if you have no other option... 

Zip lock bags are awesome for everything,
even drinking Sekt!

Proost!

Even the raven posed

Some hikes were very icy due to the lack of snow
and warm temperatures

Although foggy and icy conditions,
it still totally beats a day in the office!

A 'selfie', sooooo 2013.

Some of the neighborhood and park lights are quite impressive here around winter times: 

Meet my boyfriend

The snow might not have been perfect in Whistler, but the weather certainly was! And good company makes every day in the snow great:

Christmas Turkey dinner: 

New years Eve party:

Can you spot the slush puppie machine?

And to end this post, this is how you get rid of frustrations about not having a job at the moment and not enough snow on the beautiful mountains: 

Ooookaaaaay, I'm not complaining at all. :-)