Jessica

Walking through an almost empty Whistler village in October, on the most beautiful blue bird day was such a treat. It was a lovely time of year to be there, there were still tourists around, (myself included), but it was quiet by iconic ski town standards. The weather was a dream the weekend I was visiting; sunny and perfectly temperate considering I'd flown out of Calgary a week and a half before in ankle-deep snow. The fall colours were in abundance and heightened the picturesque feel of the place, the mountains towering above the town as the runs finished just beyond the Upper Village and the Creekside district.

It was my natural reaction to compare Whistler to Banff, there being an element of competition between Canada's two most renowned ski towns. I knew quite a few people in Banff who had lived a season at Whistler and they had all said how much fun it was, which I believed. I'd visited the tourist information centre the day before to book myself onto a zip line tour between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, and was amazed at all the activities available throughout the year. The townsite was also a lot bigger than Banff, consisting of beautiful squares bordered with hotels, bars and shops. More people living and working up here, more places to go out in the town, the ski runs on your doorstep, I imagine it would be a great place to spend a season. I couldn't help feeling however, after living in my idyllic, historic, mountain haven for the past year, that Whistler felt a little like Disneyland in comparison.

Banff being Canada's oldest national park, they've kept the feel of the town more historic and any development has to go through a lot of planning in an effort to preserve the park and keep the town relatively small. Whistler on the other hand co-hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics, so of course the town went through a certain level of "polishing" prior to the games. The establishments were also more commercial and were mainly chains, whereas Banff proportionally has a lot of independent and locally owned businesses. Banff is quaint and charming, Whistler is huge and intense. In all probability it was my bias that made me favour the character and atmosphere of Banff, but I could appreciate the beauty of Whistler's mountains and why it attracts 3 million visitors every year.

On this day I was walking towards Fifi's, a little bistro that was to be the location for the first interview I had done in a year without having known the interviewee prior to our meeting. I had found Jessica on an IEC Facebook group again, it seeming the easiest way to spread the word that I was looking for participants for this project. Jessica is English like me, and kindly said she'd be happy to be involved, so on this gorgeous morning we sat down for a cup of tea and a chat in the sunshine.

As this was the first time I'd met Jessica, my interview had to cover all areas to get a full understanding of her travelling story. She graciously answered my many questions with a great level of reflection and honesty. When I was listening back to the interview to transcribe it, I remembered just how lovely this conversation was and how easy it seemed to talk. Travelling is such a great experience when you have wonderful moments like this, meeting total strangers but getting along instantly and being able to converse so easily. It will always be such a humbling experience for me.


My first question for Jessica was how long she had been in Canada, "I came to Canada on the 4th of December last year, 2017. I was in Vancouver for about four days and then I came straight up here. I've been in Whistler ever since then...I went to Hawaii and Vegas in April, then I went home in June for two weeks and then I've done a little road trip just now, but apart from that I've been here." Jessica had seen Whistler in every season, just as I had Banff, I wondered how she saw the contrasts between summer and winter, "You have like the shoulder season from April to June, so its quiet then which is nice for us because we can explore without there being too many tourists. Summer has been really, really busy as well but I guess its just for different things; people come to mountain bike so it has been equally as busy. But I remember getting here, starting work around December and Christmas and it was just ridiculous. I never expected it to be like that. So maybe it was busier in winter, but it just seemed really, really busy to me, I guess I was new as well."

I too came to Canada in the winter, ready for a snow-dusted mountain adventure. Thinking back, I was so naive not even think about how beautiful the summer was going to be. I don't ski particularly, but I love hiking, why on earth did I not even think about staying for summer when I was planning on moving here? Jessica said she too was surprised by how wonderful a Canadian summer spent in the mountains can be, "I never expected to love summer as much as I did here, it really impressed me how much there was to do and how beautiful it was really. I guess I just thought of it as a ski resort, I didn't really think about the summer...It's so different in the summer as well, when all the snow started melting, I wasn't expecting it, I was like 'oh this is what it looks like' *laughs* its so green!". Even in October I was amazed at how green Whistler still was, the climate on the west coast being a lot warmer than Alberta!

I'v already mentioned the differences I had seen between Whistler and Banff, but I wanted to know how Jessica viewed life here. I was really curious to hear her answers and see how my idea of the life I'd been living over the past year compared to hers, "Expensive I think, and people had said to me 'it's going to be expensive, prepare yourself'. You know you have to bring $2500? people had said that's not enough you need like $5000. But I was like I'm not going to wait at home until then cause I was already late for the ski season. I didn't want to wait until I had that much money, [I thought] I'm just going to come. So I did, and then I was still a bit surprised at how expensive it was. Just to buy groceries, and obviously rent is crazy but I guess when you compare it to back home, not that I like to anymore, but if you compare it it's not that bad. Groceries are ridiculously expensive; because it's a tourist town they can charge those prices. I actually went to Revelstoke last week and I went to the supermarket and I was like 'whoah it's so cheap here'. It seemed ridiculously cheap, like crazy cheap, I was really surprised. I thought yeah they do just charge you because they can. It's such an expensive resort as well, a lot of wealthy people come here and maybe they think they can afford it, so they can do it. People will still pay the prices anyway, you have to and that's when the diet kind of goes out of the window *laughs*".

One perception I have of Whistler, is that although Banff is infamously known for its party scene, Whistler's scene is supposed to be bigger and wilder. It's a bigger resort, there's more people, more travellers and therefore more parties. Although I was aware of the party scene in Banff, and you can go out every night of the week if you wanted to, you could also avoid it. I'm lucky that I found people who shared similar levels of interest in partying as myself, who preferred a couple of drinks at the pub rather than getting wasted or high every night. I wanted to know how exposed Jessica was to the scene in Whistler, and if it lived up to it's name, "Yeah definitely. It definitely lives up to it's party name, and I don't even think the partying's that good. It depends on who you're with and it's such a good vibe with people. It hasn't got the best clubs in the world, I just actually like it because everything's together. You can literally bar hop with absolutely no faff at all; everything's within a five minute walking distance or less. It's so easy to just find people, it seems really strange. Back home in my town, if you were going to go to a pub you'd probably go there all night, but here you can juts go anywhere. I'm not into drugs or anything like that, so that side of it doesn't really interest me but I know that it is a massive thing here. I don't do drugs at all, but I know a lot of people come here like 'no never done drugs before' then it soon changes when they're here, it's really easy to get into that. It's just the way of life here I guess. I haven't found that to be a problem since I've been here, I've still been able to have a good time and meet people."

Having deferred slightly from my usual line of questioning, I asked Jessica what made her want to come out to Canada in the first place, "Definitely the skiing, that was the main thing for me. I hadn't really looked into Canada too much before that, I think I was just like I'll see if I can get a visa because I know it's quite hard being english, there's not that many. And my Mum really loved Canada. I saw pictures of Moraine Lake and stuff like that, and I really wanted to see that but it wasn't really enough for me to come. But everyone said how Canada is the place to ski so I thought rather than go to France or somewhere, which seemed easy to me, I thought I can do that anytime. I got my visa so I thought I'm going to come here. You need to get away from home and do something new, live somewhere else." I asked if Jessica if she just skied or snowboarded as well; "I just ski, but I did buy a snowboard at the beginning of the year. I went up about three times on my snowboard, but I found that when it was a good day, I didn't want to be stuck on the lower slopes practising by myself when I could be up with my friends riding. I ended up most of the time opting for skis and going out to enjoy it instead. This year my friend, we gave her a few ski lessons last year so she picked up the basics, but she wants to learn to snowboard. So this year we're going to try do it together, actually give some time to it. All my friends, none of them came here knowing how to ride but they all learnt really quickly and they're all guys, so I think they just do it and make sure they know and learn quickly. They didn't want to wait for me to catch up *laughs* so I just thought if I put my skis on at least I can ride with you. So yeah, it was fun."

Jessica had mentioned she'd been on a road trip recently, currently travelling myself, I wanted to know where she'd visited, "My parents just came in September for two weeks, so we went to the island, we went to Tofino." I mentioned that I had been there the week prior, "It's amazing isn't it? We weren't there long enough and I knew we weren't going to be because everyone had said you had to be there for like a week but we didn't have the time. We were there for three days which was amazing, we had weather like this which was just perfect. Did some whale watching there which was really nice and then we went to Gibsons to get an RV. We went back through Whistler and we stopped at Nairn Falls, which is near Pemberton, and then up to Lillooet and round to Athabasca (glacier). And we actually camped underneath the Athabasca glacier which was so nice, it was freezing but it was unreal! Then obviously to Jasper and Banff, Lake Louise, Revie and we stopped in Merit as well which was an interesting one." I remembered Sophie, her sister Kate, and I had driven through Merit on our way to Vancouver in May. Dimly recalling it to be an odd little town, I wondered why on earth Jessica and her family would choose to stop there after all the great spots on their road trip, "My Mum was like 'it's supposed to be really historical' and I was like 'well I've decided where we go on the rest of the road trip so if you want to go there for the last night we can'. It was just like some western town it was so strange *laughs*. It was good to see another part [of Canada], even just going to Lillooet is so different, it's a bit western." We then got sidetracked talking about life on the prairies and cowboy country. I told Jessica that when my parents came to visit and we went to Calgary stampede, they kept making jokes saying I'd been out in the west and I was practically a cowgirl now, which I of course rebuffed. The one element of country culture I was exposed to however, to a degree, was the music. Roots Radio at work playing a number of Canadian country songs which then played at Stampede and I found myself singing along to. I know, the shame.

Canada is usually one of three interchangeable destinations for working holiday goers; the other two being Australia and New Zealand. Similarly to myself, this venture was Jessica's first working holiday so I asked if she would consider doing another, "Yeah. When I was 18 I went to Australia just for nine weeks and I had never travelled by myself before, so I didn't want to start a working holiday visa without really knowing what I was doing. I didn't even know if I wanted to be there, maybe I'll miss home, maybe it won't work out, so I didn't want to race it. Obviously with Canada, Australia, you can't just get another one, it's a one off thing. So I just did a holiday visa for nine weeks to Australia, and when I was there I was like 'I don't want to come home, I just want to go to New Zealand or something and start my working visa and just stay and do two years if I can do the farm work.' In the end it didn't work out, Mum said 'just come home for Christmas' and then my Grandad died, but things happen and plans change. I started working and so I never went back to Australia, but I still have plans to go back. I would definitely like to do my working holiday and I think it's better I've left it longer because I do feel like I've changed since then. I'm 22 now and I was 18 then, although I definitely grew up when I was in Australia, I feel like that was a really good thing to do at a young age. I feel like now I'd probably appreciate it more, but yeah I definitely want to keep travelling."

I'm always intrigued by how people think they've grown through their travels. I hate the notion that people go travelling to "find themselves", I think it's an ignorant and pretentious phrase. For many, travelling a life choice, not a just a "gap yah". It also implies we don't know who we are, as if it takes hiking through a Peruvian jungle to finally take a good, hard look at ourselves. It's also too generic; people travel for all sorts of reasons and it depreciates the courage it takes to move your life across the world. I was discussing this concept with a friend I met up with in Montreal, and he made a comment which I thought was much more accurate: "Travelling doesn't help you find yourself, it helps you find your strengths". This was the next question I put to Jessica, how did she think she had grown through her experiences; "I learnt a lot about money I think. When I've met Australians, no one has credit cards and they've all got their own money, they've saved a lot. But I feel like in England, especially where I live anyway, they don't really teach you about debts and savings or anything, so I feel like I've had to learn that myself. Maybe the wrong way, cause I do have credit cards I'm still trying to pay off even being here. So I've definitely learnt how to budget more and make sure I can pay my rent because I've never rented before now. I guess I've learnt about eating better, only in recent months really, because I guess I started eating noodles a lot. I work late shifts a lot so I get home around ten and don't want to make a full meal, so I end up eating something quick. Then you realise it's not something you can keep doing. I learnt a lot about friends and obviously a lot of people come and go and it's always sad and it never gets any easier. You have to be sort of detached from it, especially in this kind of place because it is so transient."

Jessica was not finished with her introspection and I admired her for her self-awareness. She continued, "I always liked nature but I feel like since being here I appreciate it on another level. I would never purposefully litter or anything like that but I do smoke, so before I used to drop my butts on the floor. And I guess that is littering, but I never thought of it on the same level as dropping a crisp packet, and now I never drop it on the floor. Before I came here, I'd never seen a bear or anything, like in the wild, and I would never think you couldn't just go up to it to take a picture. And obviously now, my parents came and we saw a bear and I was like 'stop here, don't go any closer, give it space.' I find that I really respect it; it's not cool for you to get a good photo, it's better to give it the space it needs. I feel like I respect nature and the environment on a better level now." I noted that I had found the same with my parents when they came to visit and our conversations sounded very similar. When you visit a place you don't always think straight away about the effects your single encounter might have on an animal, but when you're living in a national park you see it more clearly. Four million people visit Banff National Park every year and there are an estimated 65 grizzly bears and 20-40 black bears in the park. 7,000 residents, 4 million tourists and roughly 100 bears. We have to be responsible and considerate to these beautiful animals and their habitat because it would be so easy for us to destroy it or put their lives at risk. Jessica agreed, "Yeah I think a lot of people do respect it, but you see a lot of people doing stupid things thinking they can do it without consequences. Even if it's not them that feels the consequence, it's the animal. It's not something I think you know straight away, but when you do know you completely understand."

I was curious as to how Jessica's response to my final question would differ from the opinions of my previous interviewees in Banff. It was, of course, was what had Jessica enjoyed the most about her time here? "I just think it feels completely different to back home; the things people care about, people have different priorities. Things like going out on a work night, like everyone does it here. Back home you try go out on a Tuesday night, everyone will say 'what do you mean? its only Tuesday'. Whereas here it doesn't matter what day it is, not that it's all about going out but everyone's idea of everything is completely different. Everyone's like 'yeah I'm going out tonight, who cares if you've got work at ten? you've got ages, you can sleep for a solid five hours still' *laughs*. I just like how everyone's attitude is the same generally, on the same wavelength. There's a lot of young people here so you haven't got a lot different generations telling you how you should be living life...Everyone wants to be out, everyone wants to be doing stuff in summer, out by the lakes and doing hikes. I feel like when you're at home and you say, 'do you want to go for a walk/go for a hike?' your friends will be like 'no, why?' they don't understand it. But here people just want to be out and busy and socialising and happy, or drunk, which might go hand in hand!"

We sat a little longer in the sun, chatting about this and that, before Jessica headed to work at the spa inside the Fairmont. It was a lovely conversation we had that morning and so nice to see someone new having an amazing adventure in the mountains. Whistler certainly was warming to me, and I could see why Jessica was clearly so happy there. 

I'm so grateful to Jessica for meeting up with me and sharing her story with me. It was such an easy interview to have and it filled me with a little more confidence for any others I recorded whilst travelling. Thank you all for your continued support and for reading this post, I hope you enjoyed it.


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