The day had finally come, the day that I was so excited for but nervous at the same time. On May 31st, 2019, Neil Thompson (East Coast Apprenticeships Finance Manager) and I set off on our journey to Vancouver, Canada. Not only is this my first time to Canada, its my first time out of Australia. I have been on numerous netball tours around Australia, but this is my first big adventure.
A first adventure can never go perfect though, am I right? Well somehow, I managed to live up to this and I left my suitcase in immigration. It took customs nearly an hour to retrieve the suitcase but after I got it back, I was holding onto it tight so there was no way possible that I could leave it behind again.
Not only had I never been out of my home country, I had also never seen snow and that was one of the biggest things I was excited for. It only took 14 hours on a plane to see, after descending beneath the clouds, the beautiful snowy mountains were exposed, and it was a sight that I will never forget.
With big flights, comes jet lag which I had never experienced before, and I felt the full force of it the first few days, especially the first night where I didn’t get a single minute of sleep. Because of this, I decided to go for a walk in the early hours of the morning and the scenes were to die for. I followed a bush walk, walking along a flowing river. The walk was amazing until I heard some sounds in the bush, at this point of time I freaked out and I was frozen. The sound in the bush was a wild raccoon, luckily it was as scared as I was and we both ran in the opposite direction. Despite the scariest morning of my life, I still managed to make it home in time for a buffet breakfast back at the accommodation
At 10:30am, the amazing Karen from Skill Source and Chris McLean picked me up from my room and took me up to Grouse Mountain. In this experience, we travelled to the top of the mountains in ski lifts, seen two grizzly bears in their den, witnessed stunning views of Stanley Park and downtown Vancouver. If you looked closely, you could even see USA in the distance. All of these were amazing events, but I was most excited to touch the snow at the top of the mountain, like a little kid when they get a new toy.
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