Winter Olympics

I have been in the United States a whole ten days now, and it seems that I am leaving again. By the time I get to Alaska for work, I will have spent more time out of the USA than in the USA this year.

Next week I am heading to British Columbia, Canada. I am going there for the Winter Olympics. I will be working for Lewis Stages up there, as a bus driver. The Olympics are based in Vancouver, BC, but I know we will be going to other places too, like Whistler and Squamish. I will be living in Canada for two months, which should be interesting. I have never spent more than ten days out of the USA, and I only did that last week! Maybe I'll come back saying, "eh"...eh? I have always wanted to go to the Olympics, and I found this job opportunity online, and could not pass it up. We get paid $18.11 per hour, and we have free room and board, free food, and unlimited access to the events. The only drawback is that I will be taxed in both the USA and Canada. Yes, the United States taxes its citizens on all income worldwide (provided that the IRS knows about it.), which I do not like, but I have to live with. Even with that, I will not have any living expenses up there, so it should be alright, and there is a way to get all my Canadian tax money returned since I am not Canadian.

I just learned about this a couple days ago when the Canadian government emailed me my visa. Yes, you need a visa to work in Canada. I have been surprised by how many people have told me I do not need one. I wonder how many of them have worked in Canada! My visa is good until 21 April 2010, but I will probably leave by 31 March at the latest. I think that is when everything is finished up there. I am not allowed to travel outside of British Columbia, because I am being allowed into Canada to work, not for tourism and travel. I can leave Canada and then return an hour later and travel wherever I would like to. As long as the visa is valid however, I can enter and leave Canada for work, so I guess if I feel like visiting Washington, I can do that.

I am excited to go. I leave Utah on 28 January. I will be there for six to eight weeks, and then return to Utah for a couple weeks before heading off to Alaska. I will try to keep the blog up to date while I am there. I am not exactly sure how busy I will be though.

I have my first scheduled meeting in Anchorage on 30 April for the new season, but I have been advised to arrive sooner than that if at all possible, because I need to be trained on the VanHool motor coaches. I am planning on arriving there by about the 15th of April. As I mentioned, I will not be spending much time in Utah after I return from Canada. I would like to spend some time on the East Coast too before I go to Alaska. We will see what the schedule looks like as we get closer to April.

While I am in Canada, I can receive text messages, but I cannot receive phone calls from the United States. I will look into getting a prepaid phone or phone card while I am there to call the USA, but it depends on the price. I may just have to use an internet connection or something.