I wonder

These guys, Sophie, Jenny and Andrea I love! I spent the last 4 weeks of my time in Park City and beyond pretty much living in the pockets of these guys and now its kind of a little weird we’re all apart and scattered across the world. I miss you all. By the end of my time with you all, all we did was bicker like siblings and seemingly purposely wind each other up all the time and get in stupid situations that we usually later regretted. Either way, I love you all and miss you all lots. This started because I stumbled across this picture and I wondered what you all were doing right this second? It made me realise that for almost 4 weeks I pretty much knew exactly what all of you where doing. Strange. Its also funny because I know that when Jenny reads this she’ll be like… “Liz you’re a spaz.” and now she’s probably giggling and then I bet her next move will be to write me an abusive message on face book.

Jenny. I know you all too well.

Love to you all. xxxx

No place like home.

Why do I like travelling so much and still love home so much all at the same time? So many of my friends that I have met in the US are total travelling addicts, something which we all have in common. But most of them also have one other thing in common, and that’s that there not a huge fan of their homeland. I guess it makes me wonder if they’re travelling to find something better than the place they call home?

Its different for me. I really really love where I am from, I kind of feel lucky. I realise that a lot of people from East Yorkshire probably don’t agree with that, but I think home is what you make it and I try and make the best of everything. Home is the place you look forward going back to, home is that place you long for when your sad, home is where your loved ones are, home is where hundreds of memories were built, I guess home is that place that makes you happier than anywhere else. So really home is different for everyone, but home for me is in sleepy East Yorkshire and I love telling everyone my stories and memories from growing up and living there.

All this talking of home, made me wonder why I do love travelling so much? The thing is, is that there really is no place like home. But there is a huge massive world out there that is just waiting to be explored. For me travelling is one massive adventure; it makes me feel alive, I love meeting new people and making a friend forever, its experiencing crazy things, the excitement of making new plans, it’s the anticipation, it’s the memories, its those moments that you hate every second of but look back on with such joy…

I reckon by the time I have finished this little adventure, I’ll have been so far, met so many people, created so many fantastic memories, done too many crazy things to remember with people I have grown to love so much that it’ll be hard for me to call somewhere specific home at all.

It Figures.

Kayaking!

Had a nice day today kayaking. Whats best is that it cost us nothing, so i was even happier. It was actually quite a work out and Rob and I have realised that we are completely incapable of paddling in sync together. So Rob spent most of the time telling me not to paddle, I just chilled and enjoyed the ride. We actually made more progress that way. On our way back to the marina the calmness was interrupted by some dick heads on jet ski's. Two of them circled us and then tried to flip us off our kayaks. They totally failed in their attempt to knock us out, but they manage to spray the jet of water straight in Emma's face who was in the second kayak, it knock the shades straight off her face and into the water. She was so pissed. The thing is, is for the jet of water to spray someone in the face, they're way too close and it is actually incredibly dangerous. Whats worse, is that they weren't satisfied the 1st time round, so they came back for seconds. By which point Rob was knelled up on the back of the kayak with the paddle, ready to knock them straight in the teeth. He was so angry, he's like a little terrier. Emma and Joe were also shouting at them, I think they got the message in the end. Although i just think it fueled the situation even more. Emma and Joe ended up reporting them to park service, so hopefully she'll get some cash back for her shades. The little shits.

бабушка

бабушка - means grandmother in Russian (pronounced Babushka). Its word I've used a little too much this week for no apparent reason. Now at work, it's what we all call each other. Random I guess. But when the Jamaicans say it mixed in with Jamaican slang, it just sounds hilarious! My aim is to be fluent in Jamaican by the end of the summer. I quite fancy learning another language (a proper language) though, I miss learning stuff now I'm not at uni anymore. I'm surprised at how much stuff I have remembered off Elena though, I know a variety of Animals (dog, cat, donkey) and a few phrases. I'm easily reminded though, my Polish friend here is fluent in English and Russian, so he helps me along the way.

This week has been a pretty slow week at work. It’s been nice and warm (expect today) but it has been incredibly windy, 50 – 60 mph. It’s not exactly the type of weather people want to go boating in and we’re discouraged from recommending that people do so. We’ve only had around 6 power boats go out on average, which is nothing, and most of those have been back by noon to avoid the increasing afternoon winds. It has been steady to say the least. Although on the other hand it has been a really busy week for houseboats. It’s good. It makes the day go faster doing them, its nice being able to practice and see you get better and the best part is, is that your way more likely to get tips. This week hasn’t been a good week for tips for me though. I guess you win some, you loose some, I lost many. Rob on the other hand did pretty well.

This work week has gone so quickly, I’m not exactly sure why as work has been slow, but either way it only feels like 2 days ago it was my day off, so I’m happy. Today our boss told us that we could take some of the power boats out for free and he’d throw in a full tank of gas too (he needs the engines breaking in slowly), so that’s the plan for Wednesday, we’re going to go all the way up to rainbow bridge. I’m looking forward to it. Tomorrow I want to stay in bed at least until 10 and in the afternoon I quite fancy taking some kayaks out and having a little adventure, that does depend if its windy though.

Spoke to Mum today and she sounds really optimistic about coming to visit either at the end of June or mid August. That would be super cool. She’d come with Sammy too. Fingers crossed she’s able to get a good deal on a flight! I miss Mum and Sammy so much!!!

The Office...

A day on the lake

Take Two:

Today we took our driving tests, written and practical. We passed them both! Yay! To be honest i've never seen anything like it, in our driving tests we were literally driving for less than 5 minutes and it was honestly a straight drive down to the visitors centre and back again. We also had to parallel park in this coned space that would have honestly fitted a tank in. Basically if we had failed it would have been pretty embarrassing!

Good Intentions and No intentions!

So our wake boards, its a no go. The story, our landlord from Park City sent as email today declaring that we would not be getting our deposit back. He effectively said we'd trashed the place and made no effort to try and clean the place what so ever. The only true thing he did state was that we hadn't replaced 4 light bulbs and that we hadn't vacuumed the floor. Apart from that, the place was in exactly the same shape as what we got it in. Its kind of annoying because we're no longer in Park City to dispute all this. Rob is going to send him a polite email to set him straight but we both know that we should cut our losses and forget it. He obviously had no intention of returning our deposit. I knew we should not have paid our last months rent.

So thats why we can no longer get wake boards, because we're $500 down. Its quite a big chunk of cash, actually $25 a week over 20 weeks. So it actually effects our budget quite dramatically. I guess we're going to have to throw on the charm and start making even better tips.

Anyways, over and out. I'm off to do some driving test revision.

Fridge

We're going to buy a fridge! I/we have realised we really cant exsist on noodles and salad. So we're going to invest in a fridge, a small price to pay for a balanced diet is what I say. Its so hot here too that you need to eat well as the sun just drains you of every last piece of energy you have. Not good on long days.

Works going really great, I'm really enjoying it! I've now been signed off on M boats and J boats, that will mean nothing to most of you but its basically the most basic house boats we have, they're 49' and 53'. The cool thing is, is that since we've been instructing on the bigger boats (for 2 days) we've been making some good money. I made $65 and Rob made $40, I think having blonde hair and long legs goes along way on the tip front, especially when you top it off with an English accent and the customer is American. Either way I'm not complaining. Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day, and I'm also looking forward to getting trained up on more boats.

Tonight we're going for a curry with Indian guy called George, he's cooking for 7 of us. I'm actually quite excited! On Tuesday we're doing our theory and driven test, so wish us luck!!!

DAY 10

So we've been here 10 days and I feel like we've done a lot in that time. We're settled into our new jobs and our boxy little rooms, in fact works going great. We've got a big portion of the training done and when we return back to work on Thursday we will hopefully be signed off to instruct on the first set of house boats, which means we can start making some good money in tips! I've also come to terms with the fact that there really isn't much to do here. So I'm just going to have to embrace it and make the most of it, but I guess things are what you make them. Thats kind of been my philosophy for a long time now and it seems to be working out just fine. What ever I do I have fun and I intend to keep it that way.

Today has been our first day off work and typically the weather is horrible. It was a glorious 85F+ day yesterday with a light breeze. Today is a totally different story, its ridiculously windy, freezing cold, it even snowed at one point! We were planning on going on a boat tour today and seeing some of the sights on the lake, but the marinas have all closed... so that didn't really go to plan. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day and we can finally take a boat out and have some fun. We shall see. Fingers crossed!

We're also ordering our wake boards today... so I'm pretty excited about those arriving!

Iron Man 2

I don't usually like super hero films at all. But the Iron Man films are slowly becoming my favorite. Iron Man 2 was absolutely awesome, so good, I want to go see it again. Its rare that I think the sequel is as good as the first film, Iron Man 2 is definitely as good as the first. I'd recommend to anyone!

If you haven't seen the first, go rent it!

I think you might enjoy this.

I thought a few of you may enjoy this a little. My pic is pretty standard, I do look a little simple, but I think Rob looks hilarious! It did make me giggle! For some reason the lady wouldn't even put his whole name there. Apparently he only deserved 'Munby'. Funny! So now every time he clocks in, he gets to see this.

Our Pad

Its fair to say that our accommodation has been getting gradually worse over the course of this trip. Our room here is smaller than my room at Uni and there is to of in it. So for those of you who wanted a nosy at our new place, here are a few pics:

Today we actually got our hands on some boats. Easy! Its definitely not rocket science. I'm pretty confident everything will go well, and we've pretty much nailed our instruction speech apparently. They think we're ready to tackle the general public. I'm quite excited. This is officially the coolest job ever, its so chill on the marina. There are no bosses breathing down our neck all day and everyone knows there role and does it. Although our uniforms are horrible and its all mens attire, so the crotch on the shorts in really low... its basically rubbing the skin on the inside of my legs raw. I think I'm gonna have to invest in some new shorts.

First Day on the Marina

Today was my first day on the marina... i'm still alive and all the boats are still intact. I think I'm going to really enjoy this job. So far its seemed pretty easy, we just learnt about the spiel you have to tell to the guests to operate a boat and all the safety rubbish. All fairly straight forward it seems, although I have only been trained on a couple of the boats which are 19-20 footers. There are some seriously huge boats here (75 footers), I'm guessing its a much different story for them. We'll see who it goes over the next couple of days.

This afternoon we did our Defensive Driving Course, which we surprisingly passed. Although we didn't actually have to drive a car. Strange. We just need to get our Arizona driving license now, so we can get our certificate and actually drive company vehicles. Also the cool thing about the defensive driving course is that its recognized by insurance companies and it means they'll knock 20% off your policy. So thats pretty sweet!

Tomorrow morning we have our environmental course, which we have to do since we are working for an environmentally aware company and because we're working in a national park. Its no big deal really, it'll probably be quite interesting and we're getting paid for it. Tomorrow afternoon we're off back to the marina to get clued up on some different boats and we have to do some role play with our boss, that should be pretty interesting.

I think by the time I leave here in October I'm going to be 5 stone lighter. I've been here 5 days and so far I've eaten salad everyday, and only had one substantial meal. The foods all really basic and the majority is meaty and fried... neither suit me well. So I'll continue with Salad. Its making quitting pasta, bread, cheese and chocolate pretty easy so far.

I look forward to tomorrow, the work maybe not the food.

LAKE POWELL

So we have finally arrived at Lake Powell. Its really really beautiful. There really isn't that much here though, there's obviously the lake and there is this small town called Page that has a Walmart and a hand full of fast food chains and apart from that nothing else. Oh it does have the most churches on one street than any other places in the US. Pretty random to have 10 churches on one street considering there probably isn't enough people in page to fill one of the churches let alone all 10.

We did our orientation yesterday, which was like all other orientations... spectacularly boring! We do start our proper positions tomorrow though, so thats pretty good. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a boat. This afternoon we went to the driving school centre to get a Arizona driving licenses so that we can drive the company cars, we couldn't take the test today as we don't have a car to do the test in, so hopefully, we'll be back in the next few days to do the test. But we did have to take a theory type test... which I embarrassingly failed with flying colors. How annoying! The thing is, is that it had stupid questions about which way the tires should be pointing when parked, and the passing distance for cyclists, and stupid things like how many days you have to inform the authority of an address change on your license. Why would I know the answer to those questions? Well I didn't. But I do have 2 more chances to pass, so I can come back tomorrow and try again. Luckliy Rob also failed, so I don't feel like such a spaz. Fingers crossed for next time

Apart from that there really isn't much going on, we'll probably hit the Lake this afternoon.

I'll keep you all posted.

Bryce Canyon!

Bryce Canyon is so beautiful and kind of overwhelming. We've had an awesome day, it's the first day we've been alone in weeks, it was nice. Today we took a lot of awesome pictures as well as a hell of a lot of walking, all 10 miles of it. We thought we were walking on this 5.5 mile loop, we weren't. I got it totally wrong, I am not sure how, but I did. We were totally not prepared, by the end of it I was so dehydrated and my feet were so swollen they barely fit into my pumps any more. That aside we had a wicked day and we totally earn't our dinner. If you ever get the opportunity to visit Bryce Canyon go!