Snow

It is actually snowing as I write this; I am all nestled up in my bed, covered with 3 beige blankets and a bright red winter sweater. I cannot believe my eyes, this just seems wrong when it is August! It also hailed yesterday at work and my Taiwanese friend thought it so peculiar that she could not understand what was falling from the sky. So it is has been very cloudy and cold and is making me feel as if I am in an English winter. I guess it is fitting weather since we celebrated Christmas on the 25th; the canteen was decked with a plastic tree, tinsel and random colourful decorations around the place. It certainly doesn’t feel like summer anymore.

I got my exam results on the 19th via the internet, I attempted to check them at 11pm here because they are supposed to be released at 6am in England, but no luck because the internet refused to work. After constantly trying to find them out it worked 5 minutes before I had to rush to work the next morning. I was pleasantly surprised with some of my results while disappointed with others. I got an A* in Sociology, which is the highest grade possible so I was very excited, a B in English and a C in Photography, which I was not so happy about. However, as dad informs me, my teacher was appalled by this result and felt it an unfair examination (the photo examiner is notoriously harsh). So the school have already signed the folders up to be re-marked by a chief examiner, which is great news. The grades I achieved mean that I can get into any one of the Cultural Studies courses, but I would obviously prefer it higher after all the work I put in.

My closest friends here just left in the past week, we had a big party of people seeing Johanna, Jordan and Emma off, before they drove back to Minnesota. This was a 16 hour drive which seems a minor trip now that everything is so spaced out, unlike in England. People are shocked when they discover I have not been to Scotland or traveled Britain much; I feel I know the landscape of America better than the U.K. Mary also left the next morning with her father, who had flown into Bozeman from New York so that he could drive her back in her car (Ithought this was odd). She also left a $100 tip in her room as she stayed here with her father; unfortunately she was in another cabin area. I swear I have witnessed more people sobbing in this past week than in my entire lifetime, everyone lives, works and eats together so people get very close. I have had to make new friends, most of them internationals.

I went to visit Jen the Housekeeping manager and I discovered that I’m not allowed to be a Truckey either, which she kindly didn’t bother to inform me about; so it’s back to cleaning rooms for now. It is because I am not 19, so by law cannot drive a truck and they need more drivers.

Job

It poured it down for all of a few days ago, a first for me here, and I was cleaning the cabins so had to drudge around in it going from room to room. Summer has now officially passed in Yellowstone to autumn, although the morning and nights surely feel like an English winter to me – some people say there are only two seasons in Yellowstone, summer for the two months of June and July and winter for the rest. It may snow soon, should have bought warmer clothes!

In the end the Housekeeping manager barred me from moving to the gift shop after she had a quick talk to the manager, she wouldn’t let me go because so many people are leaving from all the departments, which they attempt to fill by giving us a one day weekend. It can be irritating because Xanterra controls almost everything in your life, what you eat, when you eat, what job you can do, where you live, when you can be noisy, when you wake up, etc. However, I am allowed to move to being a ‘Truckey’ where you primarily pick up all the housekeeping linen and drop it off. When I tell people that I am trying out as a Truckey everyone exclaims ‘What, you’re a turkey?’ It must be my strong English accent with which many people are perplexed and intrigued by, especially the internationals as they have learnt from American speakers. I had 3 trial days starting yesterday morning, beginning work an hour earlier at 7 am. I was thrown in straight away, they were missing two people because copious amounts have quit from all departments. This job seemed a walk in the park compared to cleaning rooms as you mostly sit in the truck, put some linen away and collect or drop it off. The only difficult part is when you sort the dirty linen, picking up hundreds of heavy bags and putting them into the correct bin in the baking sun. I am not sure whether I am working full time on this job yet, I think it might just be when Housekeeping don't need anyone. I am not allowed to drive the trucks since you have to be 19, which is somewhat a relief because reversing onto the docks seems challenging. I won’t get tips with this job, which was a nice perk when cleaning rooms, for two weeks we got $32 each in a packet, of which Penn my area manager humorously sketched on a cup of steaming tea and wrote ‘Tea (English)’.

2nd Week - Days Off

Unfortunately on my first day off I didn’t get to go kayaking because I was too late to sign up. Instead I went to the Canyon at a dramatic time of the lowering sun, visiting the raging falls for the first time and viewing it from above, below and by its drop off point – watching the billowing mist. I also attended a friend’s leaving dinner in the guest restaurant later on, what a relief to eat some decent food. The group of friends I have gotten close to are mostly all leaving in the next week, which will be sad. They are also my friends with cars, so it is likely to be hitchhiking for the rest of my stay. I think that it will, for the most part, just be the internationals left – though everyone is so nice here, apart from some hierarchy, I am sure more friends are to come.

On my second day off, Wednesday, Jordan drove me, Johanna and Todd in his car (All three from Minnesota) up to a mountain named Avalanche Peak, around 20 miles past Lake Yellowstone. It was only a 2 mile climb to the top; however it was tremendously steep in most areas so it took us many hours and we were blindly shielded from knowing the distance to the summit. We passed through dense woods with sandy bottoms, sweltering at the foot of the trail, but with each step higher the cool breeze growing stronger. For Todd and Jordan it appeared a daily stroll, while Johanna and I wheezed in each breath stopping at any chance. The sights differed at varying points, in one patch we traversed an emerald floored forest with pink and yellow flowers weaving through the grass, and then we reached a sliding grey rocky beneath, the stones gaining in size the higher we reached. And from the pinnacle we conversed with youthful strangers, inside a makeshift cave, and gazed at Yellowstone Lake along with the snow dotted hills and all blue skies around. We all split at the top, viewing from different points, me with my Rolleiflex in hand (which after much debating am glad I bought along) and Johanna talking to other Xanterra staff. Todd and Jordan decided to descend so we followed minutes later, although we could not tell if they had gone exploring off the trail, so waited a 45 minute period expecting them to meet us, Johanna sounded the eagles call but nothing. Eventually, we decided we would all end up at the car anyway, so began downwards and to our surprise found Todd and Jordan sitting peacefully on the trail just 150 yards down – I now know what it is like to have no mobile phone. We got to the Xanterra Lake Lodge just before dinner finished at 6.30 pm; our staff cards allow us to eat at any Xanterra location which is very handy. On the way back we also witnessed the sight of a huge black bear and three cubs sprinting across the open green lands, we stared in awe as the car behind was oblivious to this wonder.

On my final day off, me, Jordan, Johanna, Mary, a Malaysian guy called Brian who spoke faultless English, 3 people from the Czech Republic called Market (said as Marcata), Lucas and Adam and finally one Russian girl, Irena, all got in two cars driving through early morning Yellowstone. The roads in Yellowstone are all very good, they are few but well kept, therefore there is a lot of construction, of which we met on the way – sitting for 30 minutes. We were so bored while in the unmoving mile long line that we started a dance party between the jam, blasting awfully cheesy 80’s music from Mary’s car and dancing on the road as best we could – the people in cars kept on taking pictures of this enjoyable obscurity. We were headed for a 3 mile hike to Fairy Falls which overlooked Prismatic Lake, a large steaming rainbow pond, azure at center, then each outer ring from this changing from jade green, lemon yellow, a deep brown red and ending a carrot orange - all caused primarily from bacteria. The fall was just a trickle off a sheer drop high above, meeting a small basin and continuing as the river. We stayed and snacked, relaxing in the cooling spray from the cloudless day. We carried on a mile to see some geothermal features, walking through the dead and burned forests with many trees blackened to charcoal. The feature was a small pond, coloured like Prismatic, but with a near perpetually erupting geyser. The resulting stream bleached the trees powdery, or anything placed inside.

Later on we ate at the Old Faithful staff canteen; although we were not on time to see the geyser shoot (I keep on pronouncing it ‘geezer’ which people get a kick out of). They call Old Faithful the Disneyland of Yellowstone, which I can certainly see why. It is the most populated place, the car parks look like that of Wal-Mart and hundreds and hundreds line up around the geyser as if they were waiting for Shamu to pop up at any second. The food looked slightly better quality here, which is good in case I decide to extend my contract to work at Old Faithful through October. However, we met the canteen manager who was certainly not the nicest of people; we titled her as ‘The Mighty Bitch’, which she certainly deserved. She popped her head around the corner, like a snarling rat, and began hassling and shouting at us and her kitchen staff for multiple petty things. After lunch all 9 of us squeezed ourselves into a 5 person car, as the other car was half a mile away due to bad parking. 4 of us joined our bones together in the back and Adam lay flat across our laps, while the rest sat on each other, not a comfortable ride I can tell you that...or a legal one.

So the Czech’s left in Jordan’s car as they had to meet up with friends for camping, while the rest of us went to Boiling River just outside of Mammoth. Boiling River is a place where two flows of dramatically juxtaposed water temperatures meet up; the far side will give you hypothermia whereas the nearside will literally boil your skin. Therefore, everyone sits in a single filed line where these two rivers meet, while grabbing onto the clunky stones trying not to fall away on 1 and a half feet of water. It was a treacherous and painful walk along the bottom to get to an un-crowded part of the springs, especially with no shoes while trying not to fall into the freezing or burning areas. Though it was well worth it for lying in the surreal flows of gentle warm water; my feet drifted in Iceland while my back in the calescent Tropics. We met a guy who lived just 20 minutes away from Johanna in Minnesota. He had been enjoying the spring for hours, so the natural etches on his hands had wrinkled to a great pronouncement, looking something like Zodiac signs, and his skin turned pale from sulphur.

When we got back the car was heavy with our exhaustion, but we had promised the Czech’s we would go hang out with them at their campfire on the other side of Canyon. We didn’t pitch a tent because we had to wake early for work so visited for an hour or so, but none of us had anticipated the length and difficulty of the hike on the edge of the Canyon in the sheer black night. It is probably the worst time to hike because you cannot see the dangerous animals, there is a high probability of walking straight into one and this is the main time they roam. We had to shout, sing or whistle the entire time to ward off bears, our throats strained and sore at the end. The trail had at some points just 1 foot between us and the Canyon drop, leading to a tumbling death, which occurs more than you might expect; last year a woman was taking a picture of her family and moved backwards for a better perspective, unfortunately she walked too many steps that she instantly plunged below in her last step. Although, it was pleasant when we got there, the smoking fire casted off the nights' cool air with people boiling Spaghetti O’s in the tin and melting marshmallows. All of my five thick layers of clothing collected the sweet smoky wood scent. We didn’t get back ‘til 1 am.

Fugitives

Over the past few days there have been black and white pictures of three people showing up all around the village, including around our clocking systems, dorm pillars, the cafeteria, etc. These are not just any pictures, but photographs taken before arrest. There have been 4 fugitives on the run and they believed that they all fled to Yellowstone from Arizona. 1 was caught before the pictures were put up; there were two guys and one woman left. The men were put in prison for murder while the woman was an accomplice who threw wire cutters over the prison fence, letting them escape. I keep getting email updates from Xanterra on who has been caught and who is still on the run, the woman and one of the men have been caught in Wyoming while the other has not. We’ve been told to lookout for them and that it would probably be best not to hitchhike because they are armed. I was looking forward to hitchhiking here, it is supposed to be very safe – my friends have met some very interesting people in the process, but maybe I’ll wait a while.

A few nights ago I actually went to a bible study, even though I am not religious in the slightest, but a few people asked me to come along and I always like to try new things. It was their last one, because most people are leaving, so we spoke about two of the twelve disciplines. The first was fasting, the leader of the group told us about her experience of practicing during college which she had done so for up to a week. They talked about the spiritual side of it but also the health and psychological benefits. For instance, it completely clears out your body, starts you anew, a detox of sorts. Many people have spoke of how it made them feel so much better mentally and physically after practicing it occasionally. On another side, we discussed how it can change you psychologically, how it changes your connection with consumption and how it can bring around more appreciation. Also, it can be a way to discover your irrational addictions, not necessarily with food but with anything, it lets you break free from dependency – giving you more control of your life. The session leader also spoke about how it made her understand real suffering around the world, she began to know what real starvation felt like and what millions of people feel every day. This was the most interesting topic; one girl began on a fast for 4 days, doing it here is probably one of the best ideas since the staff food is so dire. An official ranking revealed that Xanterra staff food is only 2 points above prison food on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being Prison and 1 being 5 star restaurant, Xanterra was 8. Although, I don’t think I will try fasting at this point in my life.

The next topic was meditation, not the kind where you necessarily sit cross legged with pinched fingers in the air, but to dwell on things. To think about over and over for heightened understanding of anything, maybe literature, something that was spoken or any kind of topic whether it be personal or impersonal. We discovered that most people do not have a realisation that they meditate, but everyone does so even in banal thought, whether it is during hard work or sitting peacefully – we all mull over things. So, it was a more interesting event than I preconceived and it was nice to hear of other people’s beliefs – it is a very diverse place here.

I now have a 3 day weekend after struggling with my schedule, hopefully kayaking today, hiking tomorrow, then hiking the next day and going to some hot springs, I can’t wait!

New Job

Recently I have been trying to get another job, after being tipped off that many people were leaving the gift shop I spoke with the manager a few times and he said he would take me on in a week’s time, my customer service experience in Morrisons helped a lot. However, he told me to check with the Housekeeping manager first because he didn’t want to go around stealing other people’s employees. This didn’t sound like good news because I knew this woman wasn’t the most flexible of people. So, I talked to some friends and they suggested that I become a really bad worker, so that they would be happy to be rid of me. So, I began to miss some parts of the cleaning process out, such as the ‘courtesy fold’ on the toilet paper or the cleaning of a sink or two. However, it made me feel terribly guilty because the supervisor kept cleaning up after me without reporting me to the manager – so this plan really failed. I spoke to the manager today and her immediate response was ‘uuuuuuhhhh’ mixed with a rolling up of the head and coming down with a blunt ‘no’. She informed me that 50% of the Housekeeping staff were leaving very soon so she couldn’t let me be taken away, although she said she would talk to the gift shop manager about it – I am not sure what that means. Hopefully he can convince her to let me go.
I have seen abundant amounts of wildlife lately, Canyon is quite closed off and in the middle of nowhere with woods surrounding everything. Last week I saw my first Grizzly Bear wandering all jolly down the slope of the hillside below, we saw it only for a second before it disappeared into the trees and green dips. There is also a ‘friendly, neighbourhood buffalo’ around the cabins that I clean, they gave it a name but I am lost for it now. A few days ago brown flashes began appearing around the buildings when I was cleaning, I couldn’t figure out as to what these were (it was certainly a LOST moment) until a single yet colossal buffalo came charging right towards me and my cleaning cart, scaring me witless. Luckily, it turned away within a few yards and sprinted around some distant cabins, but I was sure ready with an escape plan to take hiding in one of the hotel rooms after that – they can actually run three times faster than humans and many people have been attacked or gored by them so far this year. There are many small creatures too, like squirrel and gerbil type animals – I don’t know their real names but they often run inside the rooms while cleaning and attempt to eat the trash and put their mucky footprints all over fresh towels. My friend Mary was shouting at a very dedicated and consistent squirrel earlier, always hiding beneath the balcony at the sight of her. There are also many deer type animals, again I don’t know their official names, but they stand out in the woods around here a lot.
Last night I went to Lake Yellowstone with Mary, from New York, and Eli, from Macedonia – which I never even knew existed previously. We got stuck in a Bison jam which stretched for miles; I was fascinated, while Eli and Mary were not as they are common occurrences. It was like driving through a safari, albeit a very American one. The Buffalo were dotted all over, dark beads from afar, almost like rocks, and up close they remind me of Viking warriors. Although, very lazy and placid ones as they are often stuck still in the centre of the road with no apparent sense of the vehicles around them. Many began chasing each other at great speeds along the road, swerving in and out of the traffic at times, which I can tell you is pretty damn scary. When we got there it was around 8 pm, the sky was a dark grey with a hint of navy and the clouds curled and swelled in so many ways I have never seen. They blanketed the vast pool of water, except for a small golden opening in the mountain beyond. The lake was of such a great range that the water extended over the flat horizon, the closing day and slight mist formed the towering mountains across into silhouetted layers of multiple shades, like from the eloquent hand of the abstract painter.
Right now there is an intense thunderstorm going on, rain so dense and close between that I see teens bolting on ubiquitous self made paths, covering their precious heads with whatever is at hand. The power keeps going out in flashes, although sometimes I can tell not whether the blink of darkness is from a twitch of my eye or the spark of a bulb.
I now have my weekend again, as they say it is my Friday, so hopefully I find some fun stuff to do. I will possibly go kayaking on Lake Yellowstone tomorrow; however a friend invited me to their leaving dinner with some other friends at the posh restaurant above our terrible EDR (Employee Dining Room).
I also got my first pay cheque last Wednesday, it came all to the grand sum of 4 dollars and 95 cents – I don’t know what happened to the rest.

Days off

Well I just lost another blog post after my computer decided to turn off, this is extremely frustrating! But I’ll go over it again...
So I had a day off on Tuesday and on Wednesday also, although the weekends might be cut down to just one day because most people are leaving already. On the first day I went hiking up Mt. Washburn with two friends, it is just a 10 minute drive away from Canyon. The hike was 3 miles to the top, which was a nice amount. Although, I found it a little hard to breathe at times as I am not yet fully adjusted to the great difference in altitude. The views were stupefying; my English eyes were not used to this kind of beauty. The edge began steeply with pale sand and rocks, then blended into a sea of green (‘Christmas’ trees rolling like smooth waves). They descended into the ocher canyon and rose up once again at its end in miles of continuation. The horizon was built of darkly carved mountains and watching over, a sort of majestic purplish set of peaks with bleached tops made their way through the haze. A tourist or more aptly named with staff dialect, a touron – as in a moron - stretched out his aged finger and claimed loudly that these were the Tetons, though I was assured by a friend of his inaccuracy.
On our ascent we came upon a big horned sheep and her child, she stomped her feet in anger so we quickly proceeded on. However, we met even more of them on the way down with one even blocking the trail in stubbornness. Along with a collection of other hikers we slowly backed away onto a small hill and walked a semi-circle to return to the trail past the sheep, they can apparently become quite vicious and charge. When we reached the top it became bitterly cold after a few minutes with roaring winds, so we stayed only long enough for me to eat an apple, of which some native squirrel plucked the core from my side and began a miniature feast. It was my first real hike of Yellowstone, or in fact for many years.
On my second day off I went with two other friends, Jordan and Johanna, to a place called Trout Lake which was around an hour drive clinging to the hillsides and flatlands. I saw my first Buffalo or Buffalos where they stood as armies on huge dirt/grass lands. All around dust clouds formed sporadically as the Buffalo, or Bison as they usually call them, rolled around violently on the ground. One even walked right by us on the correct side of the road as if it was another car. Before we got to the lake we stopped at another Xanterra lodge in Roosevelt where we got exactly the same food as we do at Canyon, although it’s nice to be able to travel around and still get free food. When we eventually got to Trout Lake we had to climb a small rise and then down it to reach the start of the lake, which was more the size of a big pond. It was a calming haven of quiet with the trout swimming at our feet. We sat under a shaded tree from the white sunlight, gazing into the densely green hills and forests with the reflection of the rocky mount above. It was supposedly an otter swimming ground, so Jordan pondered and peered through his binoculars many times, often sounding from the excitement of a splash, but to find nothing more than a diving duck or some lone tree branch I had hurled in earlier. After a while we left from this pleasant sunny afternoon, returning to Canyon once more. Working here is really worth it if only for our two days off.

First Week

So I have just about got through my first week here at Canyon Lodge, yesterday and today were my days off – what a relief. I never knew how much work truly went into a hotel room before I started as a Room Attendant (Cleaner) here. I start out work at 8 am each morning where firstly we all line up and get our lists of rooms that need to be cleaned for the day, a list with many ‘occupied’ rooms will brighten up a face because they are much faster, and a list with yellow marker all over it with the words ‘due-out’ next to the room number certainly does not raise a smile for anyone, these take twice the time and effort.

(I just finished this blog post after an hour of work but it got sucked away by the web so I'll give a short version)

One large room with two double beds and an en suite is supposed to take 30 minutes to complete in total. Everything has to be deeply cleaned each time, even when the rooms are occupied. First all the rubbish and dirty sheets/towels are stripped from the room and thrown into multiple bags. Then a rainbow of toxic chemicals is bought into the room. Pink for intense shower/tub/sink/toilet rubbing. Blue for shiny surfaces. Green for deodorisation and Yellow for every other surface. All soaps and towels must be replaced and the shower and sink washed with buckets of water, then dried off. Every single hair must be removed since the bathrooms are all white, which is very difficulty. When the bathroom is done new sheets must be put onto the bed. These are simple cream sheets so you have to spread them out and tuck them under the bed like you would when wrapping a birthday present. A final cover is placed on top with two pillows folded into it at the top. Then you vacuum all the floor and clean every surfaces, after which all the coffee, condiments, leaflets and postcards must be replaced - not forgetting to empty the coffee machine. Then you finally shut the door and take a big breath, for there are normally 14 of these in a day. It doesn't look like much here but the length is in the details and running back to your trolley that looks like a fruit selling cart. I have no clue how it is humanly possible to finish all this within 30 minutes, but I am going to try. 

I'll write later about the interesting stuff I have done on my days off.