Canada

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that, in the last couple of days, the Banff Oyster Representative details have changed. This is because Karine is expecting a child and has decided to step down as our rep after 4 years of hard graft to start a family and we wish her all the very best of luck.

Karine is due to give birth in December and over the past couple of months has been thinking long and hard about whether she will be able to combine the role of being a new mum with that of being our representative. As our November group of 9 people will be arriving in Banff about 2 weeks before Karine’s due date, she felt it would be best for her to stand down.

Karine has put us in touch with Alison who will be officially taking over the role in November when the group arrives. Alison, a born West Coast Canadian, first arrived in Banff, in the spring of 1999 as a summer student, working in the hotel industry. She enjoyed it so much she came back again the following year! Alison knows what it is like to be a long way from home for a long period of time, when she was 16 she spent 10 months in Italy as an exchange student!

Alison now calls Banff her home and is looking forward to sharing this beautiful part of the world with future Oyster participants. Alison still works in hospitality, as part of the marketing team for a local company. She has a happy dog, two friendly cats and loves the outdoors.

From all at Oyster, we wish Karine (and Brian!) the best of luck for the future and big thanks for all of her efforts. Also a big thanks to Alison for agreeing to become our new rep – we are really looking forward to working with you!

During my A levels the thought of a Gap Year never even entered my mind, UCAS forms and University visiting seemed the thing to be doing, so that’s what I did, however unenthusiastic I was about it! I knew I wasn’t ready for Uni but needed some inspiration so I did some research and found Oyster. Having never really done much traveling every placement appealed to me and the fact that they are a relatively small company made me feel secure and at ease with this new prospect of living half way around the world…something a couple of weeks before I didn’t believe I could do. Read the rest of this entry »

Nepal and Tanzania
The projects are based upon our current placements which we have been running for seven years but they are specifically for shorter time slots; such as painting classrooms, school holiday programmes and community work. The summer placements will last for 5 weeks and fit nicely into the academic summer holiday period making it ideal for students, teachers or those people that want to have a holiday with a difference. Included is a 4 week project and a week of other trips and activities. In Nepal we are including a 3 day Himalayan trek, 2 day rafting trip and 2 day Chitwan safari. In Tanzania the volunteers will go on a 4 day safari in the Serengeti which will be a real highlight to the summer.

For further details of the Nepal Summer to Remember placement please click here.

For further details of the Tanzania Summer to Remember placement please click here.

Canada
This brand new summer opportunity in Whistler will enable you to live and earn a wage in this world famous resort for 10 weeks. Whistler is famous internationally for being an international class ski resort. During the summer, the resort becomes popular with holiday makers looking for outdoor and adventure activities. The work in Whistler is designed to be challenging but fun, the pay is good and the social life is amazing!
You could be serving customers in a bistro or shop, maintaining mountain bikes as a bike technician, or be as ski lift operator for access to biking and hiking trails.

Whistler has very popular golf courses and most people choose to spend their time off outdoors enjoying the spectacular scenery and trying out some of the many activities on offer.

For more information about the Summer to Remember opportunities in Canada, please click here.

When I first arrived in Banff, my first 2 thoughts were how welcoming all the Canadians were and just how cold it was! After an early night, I woke up and looked out of my window, saw the mountains tower over us and realised just how lucky I am. The thermometer read -25 degrees. The town of Banff is very small and only takes around 15 minutes to walk from one side to another and the town centre is very nice, with everything you need and brilliant restaurants. You even get the odd deer wandering down the street.

Working in a ski-rental shop can get stressful and extremely busy, but the people are so friendly here and love to talk to you. It does bring more pros than cons and can be really fun at times. I expect at least a couple of early starts a week (waking up at 6 am) which can be very hard after a heavy night out but I’m soon woken up by the fresh mountain air. Skiing is mainly what I’m here for and I have been spoilt silly coming to Banff. A short bus ride away, and I am skiing in ‘Champagne Powder’ in some of the best resorts in the world. The views can be unreal and can seem like an oil painting. After a hard day’s skiing, I’m ready to hit the town with really decent pubs and clubs to go to. Banff is packed full of students all taking gap years and it has a real university feel to the town. I’m having an amazing time over here and I strongly recommend it to anyone!

Written by Marcus Guthrie (Banff November 2007)

For more information about work opportunities in Canada, please click here to visit our website.

As we arrived here in autumn we came in the middle of the slow season so we took on some odd jobs to make some money to pay for the rent. It felt weird to be talked to in French in all the shops and cafes. However a few French lessons later we were on our feet and could get along easily with the locals here.
The winter season is when this town comes alive. Besides skiing and snowboarding there are loads of other things to do including skating, snowshoeing, dog sledding (yes all the rumours are true!) and snowmobiling.
The place we are staying is a quaint little town called Saint Jovite with beautiful scenery and a great location only minutes away from the mountain. Right now we’re working a lot and enjoying the great Canadian winter!

Written by Elaine Neufield (Tremblant October 2007)

How many people do you know who can afford to spend six months working and playing in Whistler? I’ll bet not that many. But that is exactly what 23 of us are doing right now. And we love it.

After an incredibly hectic and tentative few weeks prior to departing we all made it to Whistler. We began training for our jobs in Minis (3 – 4 years), Juniors and Supers (5 – 12 years). Spread right across the valley, from Blackcomb to Creekside, we began working a 40 hour week, with each of us stepping up to the task of teaching children to ski. Cries of “I want my mommy” or “I hate skiing” are commonplace, but as each day passes we learn how to deal with the trials and tribulations of teaching skiing. Plus, one look out across the valley reminds us all that we are some of the luckiest people in the world - I mean what an office!

Not only are our jobs incredible, but Whistler itself is one of the most vibrant places I have ever been to. There is so much to do and enjoy. Having just passed the half way marker, we are starting to realise that this dream is soon going to end. But this is certainly not the end for the 2007-2008 Whistler candidates, oh no! Many of us have achieved our Level 1 CSIA Instructors Qualification whilst being here, with one member achieving his Level 2 and others working towards it by the end of the season. We have had the time of our lives here and have made life-long friendships along the way. There have been some pretty tough things to deal with (injuries, accidents and interesting experiences at work), but it has certainly been the best 3 months of my life, and here’s to three more of the same! I wish anyone who is off on a Gapper’s experience (particularly to Whistler) the best of luck – but can you pack me in your suitcase first please?!

Written by Jen Dale (Whistler November 2007)

Do you remember the scene from the film ‘Cool Running’s’ when they are stepping out of Calgary airport for the first time and John Candy (the coach) walks straight out into the -30 degrees freezing air, leaving the four Jamaicans inside the airport too terrified to step outside? Picture the same scene but replace the ‘Jamaican bobsledders’ with 15 British students and John Candy with Evie (our rep) and you have a pretty good image of my first five minutes in Canada! The long drive to Banff in what seemed like whiteout conditions meant we arrived in the black of night. In the morning I drew the curtains to see Mt Rundle staring back at me with the sun rising over it and instantly knew I had made the right decision.

It was that morning I found out I was going to work in what was about to become the best job I could ever picture having; in the Inns of Banff Ski Shop. After my first couple of shifts I thought the most challenging aspect of working for the Ski shop was waking up at 05:30 (I know – I didn’t think it existed either!) But in hindsight perhaps it was the busy periods of the season, or working a full day after pulling an all night bender for someone’s birthday, or dealing with irate (usually British!) customers, or by living up to the incredibly high levels of customer service expected by the North Americans. Still, at the time, and looking back now, I have never enjoyed work more. Great staff from all over the world, new and exciting challenges everyday, and my favourite part was when the customers returned their rental equipment saying how much they enjoyed Banff and how upset they were that they were leaving, knowing full well I still had months until I had to come back!

I spoke earlier about challenges at work, these do not compare to the challenges I faced outside of work – words such as ‘cooking’, ‘washing’, and ‘vacuuming’ (which I still maintain is pointless!) first come to mind, however these were easily overcome with a little help from friends. The challenges I speak of come from the peaks of Sunshine village, the snow of Lake Louise, and the steep slopes of Norquay - I Speak of course of snowboarding! By the time I had come back from Banff I had come from not being able to stand up on a board (even on a flat surface!) to riding ‘double black diamonds’ including the infamous ‘delirium dive’ of sunshine village.

How to celebrate such victories at work and on the hill? I do believe the answer lies at the bottom of a pint glass in one of the many, many, bars in Banff. Sundays at Auroras (‘Sunday Funday’) and Tuesdays and Thursdays at Melissa’s (‘Super Mega Cheap Night’) are a small example of the few fond memories of some epic nights out in THE party town of Canada!

Alas all good things come to an end, around late May 2006 after 6 short months I took the long flight home to sort out University preparation – safe in the knowledge I would never stop snowboarding, always remember the cold walks to work, the rides down empty slopes feeling as if you’re the only person in the world, and most importantly always keep in contact with the friends I made – and guess what? Next weekend we’re having a Banff reunion in Liverpool – another ‘Sunday Funday’…

Written by Eric Hall