Ya Ya
There has been a lot of change in Banff recently; we've entered that period in which the ski hills are turning off their lifts for the season and as one crowd of people leave town, a whole new one is just arriving. The weather is also going through a most welcome shift, the ice is melting and we're finally able to kick our boots off and enjoy lazy wanders around town in the beautiful sunshine.
There's been a little delay in my sitting down to write this post as I've been very busy the past month and have had to go through some adjustments and changes of my own. I've had to say goodbye to a lot of my close friends in town, one of my best high school friends came to stay with me for a week and I've moved out of my home of the past seven months and into a new place where I'll hopefully stay until it's my time to leave. It's been surreal recently, but the new season has brought new challenges and that's all part of the beauty of this adventure.
One of the friends I've had to say goodbye to recently was a constant source of light in town, my darling friend Ya Ya. I'd been thinking for months that she would be a really interesting interviewee and before she left town last month I jumped at the opportunity to sit her down and talk about her adventures past, present and future.
There's been a little delay in my sitting down to write this post as I've been very busy the past month and have had to go through some adjustments and changes of my own. I've had to say goodbye to a lot of my close friends in town, one of my best high school friends came to stay with me for a week and I've moved out of my home of the past seven months and into a new place where I'll hopefully stay until it's my time to leave. It's been surreal recently, but the new season has brought new challenges and that's all part of the beauty of this adventure.
One of the friends I've had to say goodbye to recently was a constant source of light in town, my darling friend Ya Ya. I'd been thinking for months that she would be a really interesting interviewee and before she left town last month I jumped at the opportunity to sit her down and talk about her adventures past, present and future.
I met Ya Ya through Roots where she worked part time alongside her full time job at Cascade Gifts on Banff Avenue. We've worked together for just under 7 months and she has been a ray of sunshine from the start. She worked a couple of evenings a week and her brightening presence always brought a smile to my face and gave me a final push of energy as I was entering the last stretch of my eight hour day. Originally from Taiwan, Ya Ya had been living and working in Banff for just under a year and, much to my despair, left town a few weeks ago to go back home via a little detour to the states. Ya Ya is such an adventurous person and I knew she had some wonderful stories up her sleeve so I was really looking forward to her sharing them with me.
I met Ya Ya one evening in early April at Banff Brewing Company, a favourite of ours along Banff Avenue where we'd shared a number of evenings over the winter surrounded by our work friends. We settled ourselves in a quiet corner and had a lovely long chat about life, our dreams and boys over a couple of locally brewed beers.
I kicked things off by asking Ya Ya what it had been like for her living in Banff for the past year; "Really different [from Taiwan] because I've never worked in a snowy country and I'm actually pretty afraid of the cold *laughs*. After work I can do a lot of winter activities, that's really good...I really like working in Canada, that's why I'm planning to stay here, I wish I could bring my parents here *laughs*. I've never been hiking before and I've never seen snow before because Taiwan is so hot, it's really, really hot! I can't go snowboarding either so this is my first time doing it, I really like it. It's good to try something different."
I sometimes get the impression that people back home who see our lives here only through social media, forget that being in Canada on our visa isn't simply a prolonged holiday, we all have to work to be able to afford our lives here. Yes we post a lot of beautiful pictures of the mountains on Instagram, but we all work anywhere between 30-50 hours a week. Its our days off that we live for and have to make the most of by going out and having adventures. Since her arrival, Ya Ya has had a few different jobs around town so I asked her which she preferred and what they were like, "I like Roots better than my full time job *laughs* because we can talk a lot. Otherwise in the gift shop I can't really talk too much, just 'Hi, how are you?'. I work by myself because its not really busy so we only need one person. I really like working at Roots because I can talk to you guys." When she first arrived in town, Ya Ya worked in housekeeping at the renowned Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. This grand old hotel towers over the Bow Falls and looks like a gothic castle in the mountains, but as Ya Ya told me, working somewhere that's world famous isn't as glamorous as you might think; "I felt so lonely, I didn't have friends to talk to when I was working because you always clean the room by yourself. The only colleagues you'll see is the supervisor and the colleague who strips the sheets. Also at that time I'd just broken up with my boyfriend so I was so sad...he was my elementary school classmate and after ten years we caught up again and got together, but we had some problems to work out." We then got into a long discussion about relationships and how travel is the ultimate cure for heartbreak. Ya Ya's ex-boyfriend was in the US and after things didn't work out she changed a plane ticket she had booked to go see him and changed it for one to Seattle with her friends instead! She had the best time and she's been somewhere new every month since then for a few days getaway. I've loved hearing about each place she's been to the next time we've worked together and I'm so happy she's had the opportunity to travel so much by being here.
Ya Ya has been an inspiration to me while I've been here, she has such a get up and go attitude and takes every opportunity for an adventure. With only two days off a week, they can easily pass you by with little achievement. For those of us only in town for a year or a season, you'll only get this opportunity once, if you don't make the most of every possible day then you could miss out on doing a lot of the things that brought you here in the first place. Ya Ya did not want to leave Banff without any regrets, "I really envy you guys, because you can have a two year visa, for us we only get one year. If we come in summer, and we miss a summer activity, we can't do it again the next year. If we want to do something, you have to do it immediately, otherwise we don't get a second chance."
The seasons here are so contrasting that it truly baffles me. The coldest temperature I experienced this winter was -31 degrees centigrade, these ginormous lakes all around the national park completely froze over, the wildlife hides away underground and we make lives for ourselves in these adverse conditions. Then in contrast, the summer is well on its way; the animals are emerging, the trees are turning green again and the sunshine never seems to end. The transformation is spectacular. With two such opposing seasons, I wanted to know which time of year Ya Ya had enjoyed the most whilst she called Banff her home, "I think that's really difficult, but I think summer. In the summer you can canoe, hike, in the winter you can only ski or snowboard, nothing else." As Ya Ya had previously said, she had never seen snow before she came to Canada, I asked what it was like the first time she experienced real cold; "Oh my God I wore three pairs of pants *laughs* and three jackets when I went outside to work. I showed a picture to my parents and they said I looked so ridiculous, they didn't believe me! My Mum said "How can you survive in this temperature?". I never thought I could wear three pairs of pants, I was so fat *laughs*".
Ya Ya has been an inspiration to me while I've been here, she has such a get up and go attitude and takes every opportunity for an adventure. With only two days off a week, they can easily pass you by with little achievement. For those of us only in town for a year or a season, you'll only get this opportunity once, if you don't make the most of every possible day then you could miss out on doing a lot of the things that brought you here in the first place. Ya Ya did not want to leave Banff without any regrets, "I really envy you guys, because you can have a two year visa, for us we only get one year. If we come in summer, and we miss a summer activity, we can't do it again the next year. If we want to do something, you have to do it immediately, otherwise we don't get a second chance."
The seasons here are so contrasting that it truly baffles me. The coldest temperature I experienced this winter was -31 degrees centigrade, these ginormous lakes all around the national park completely froze over, the wildlife hides away underground and we make lives for ourselves in these adverse conditions. Then in contrast, the summer is well on its way; the animals are emerging, the trees are turning green again and the sunshine never seems to end. The transformation is spectacular. With two such opposing seasons, I wanted to know which time of year Ya Ya had enjoyed the most whilst she called Banff her home, "I think that's really difficult, but I think summer. In the summer you can canoe, hike, in the winter you can only ski or snowboard, nothing else." As Ya Ya had previously said, she had never seen snow before she came to Canada, I asked what it was like the first time she experienced real cold; "Oh my God I wore three pairs of pants *laughs* and three jackets when I went outside to work. I showed a picture to my parents and they said I looked so ridiculous, they didn't believe me! My Mum said "How can you survive in this temperature?". I never thought I could wear three pairs of pants, I was so fat *laughs*".
This adventure wasn't Ya Ya's first working holiday visa, before she came to Canada she had worked for a year at The Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. I knew this prior to our interview, but I never really knew much more. In a discussion primarily focusing on travel, I had to ask her about it; "It's so hot, it was really good but too hot...It's hotter than Taiwan, it's around 30-35 degrees there but the Grand Canyon is 35-40 degrees. When you go hiking you have to carry a lot of water, fortunately they have so many water stations on the trail, but the most terrible thing is that sometimes people fall off the edge because the trail is too tiny. I saw in the news one lady wanted to walk by some people who were taking pictures but she fell off and died. She was one of the managers of YELP and that's why it was on the news, I was there I was so terrified. So every time we went hiking we were so careful and every time we wanted to take pictures we were really careful. That's why I chose Banff, because the Grand Canyon was the first time I went hiking and I really loved it. It's really different to hiking in Banff because you have to walk down and then hike up, but here you hike up and then go down. The Grand Canyon is harder but it's really beautiful. When you hike down you can see some really amazing views and creatures."
Ya Ya showed me some pictures of the trails and places she'd been to while she was in Arizona and they were stunning. Scroll back through her Instagram feed long enough and you'll find them, she told me about one in particular that sounded incredible; "This place is called Sedona, they have a natural water park, like a slide rock, you can slide down because of the water, it's really good fun." Ya Ya clearly felt she had found her place in the US, she loved the outdoor lifestyle she had there. "After my time in the US I went back to Taiwan and got a job but I didn't enjoy it so that's why I came to Canada. I told my parents I want to stay here and they said 'ok just stay' because they know the job in Taiwan is not fit for me."
Wanting to make Canada her home, I wondered what it first was that inspired her to leave her native country, was it a search for somewhere she felt more herself? "I think because I can see different things, different people...I don't know why I like travelling, maybe I don't like stable *laughs*. I feel like I can be released by travel. The only reason I work so hard is so I can go travel. Since October last year I have travelled every month; in October I went to Kansas to see my ex-boyfriend, November I went to Quebec, December I went to Seattle and in January I went to New York. That's the reason I want to work harder, when I travel I feel released from the stress."
Hoping to visit Quebec myself in the fall when my time in Banff has come to an end, I asked Ya Ya how she liked it; "I really like Quebec, because people there are like [Europeans]. At first I thought people there couldn't speak very good English so I was really surprised because they can speak really good English...The food over there is so nice, and poutine is from there too. Seafood is so cheap there, I really like seafood. I went from Old Quebec and drove from there to Montreal. To compare the two cities, I like Old Quebec the best, people say it's like North America's Europe city, because it looks so European. I'd like to go to Europe, I really want to go to England to do a working holiday, maybe after I get PR, then I'll go."
Now an experienced, working holiday traveller, I asked Ya Ya to reflect on her adventures and what she had learnt about herself in this time; " When I was in the US, we could do a months travelling after the work visa so at the time, my boyfriend was the one who organised everything for me. I would just go and follow his schedule, and then when I broke up with him, I became the one who would organise everything for myself and my friends. I think it's a good thing to go overseas and go by yourself, because you can learn a lot of things. I never thought I could organise a trip to the US by myself, with my english, it's really hard to do this so I'm so proud of myself...When I broke up with my boyfriend, I have a really good Taiwanese friend, my colleague, she's 30, she always told me about how to get along with myself and get over my heart break. She always comforted me, so I think it's good to come to Canada where I met a lot of good people who helped me to grow up."
I thought this was a nice, rounded place to end our interview and I thanked Ya Ya for being an angel and talking to me. We stayed in Brew Pub a little longer and talked a lot more before we walked home together half-tipsy, a journey that had become a bit of ritual for us. After she left Canada Ya Ya flew to the Nevada to visit Las Vegas with some friends from town and then onto San Fransisco where she spent a week sightseeing before finally flying home to Taiwan. I'm going to miss Ya Ya but I can't wait to follow her adventures on social media, and who knows she may even be back in Banff before I leave!
If you'd like to follow Ya Ya's adventures, I've linked to her Instagram at the bottom of this post. Thank you again to Ya Ya for sharing her story with me and with you readers, I hope you all enjoyed this post and that it inspired you.
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Ya Ya showed me some pictures of the trails and places she'd been to while she was in Arizona and they were stunning. Scroll back through her Instagram feed long enough and you'll find them, she told me about one in particular that sounded incredible; "This place is called Sedona, they have a natural water park, like a slide rock, you can slide down because of the water, it's really good fun." Ya Ya clearly felt she had found her place in the US, she loved the outdoor lifestyle she had there. "After my time in the US I went back to Taiwan and got a job but I didn't enjoy it so that's why I came to Canada. I told my parents I want to stay here and they said 'ok just stay' because they know the job in Taiwan is not fit for me."
Wanting to make Canada her home, I wondered what it first was that inspired her to leave her native country, was it a search for somewhere she felt more herself? "I think because I can see different things, different people...I don't know why I like travelling, maybe I don't like stable *laughs*. I feel like I can be released by travel. The only reason I work so hard is so I can go travel. Since October last year I have travelled every month; in October I went to Kansas to see my ex-boyfriend, November I went to Quebec, December I went to Seattle and in January I went to New York. That's the reason I want to work harder, when I travel I feel released from the stress."
Hoping to visit Quebec myself in the fall when my time in Banff has come to an end, I asked Ya Ya how she liked it; "I really like Quebec, because people there are like [Europeans]. At first I thought people there couldn't speak very good English so I was really surprised because they can speak really good English...The food over there is so nice, and poutine is from there too. Seafood is so cheap there, I really like seafood. I went from Old Quebec and drove from there to Montreal. To compare the two cities, I like Old Quebec the best, people say it's like North America's Europe city, because it looks so European. I'd like to go to Europe, I really want to go to England to do a working holiday, maybe after I get PR, then I'll go."
I thought this was a nice, rounded place to end our interview and I thanked Ya Ya for being an angel and talking to me. We stayed in Brew Pub a little longer and talked a lot more before we walked home together half-tipsy, a journey that had become a bit of ritual for us. After she left Canada Ya Ya flew to the Nevada to visit Las Vegas with some friends from town and then onto San Fransisco where she spent a week sightseeing before finally flying home to Taiwan. I'm going to miss Ya Ya but I can't wait to follow her adventures on social media, and who knows she may even be back in Banff before I leave!
If you'd like to follow Ya Ya's adventures, I've linked to her Instagram at the bottom of this post. Thank you again to Ya Ya for sharing her story with me and with you readers, I hope you all enjoyed this post and that it inspired you.
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