#25 And then there were Three

Hey, well-rested? Then let's start with my longest blog post. I had the weekend off, so I used the time for a new project. I noticed in our communal room that the table legs of one of the tables didn't look as good anymore and one was really broken. Since our customers will also sit in this room and I thought it wouldn't make a good impression to have a crooked table with broken legs there, I wanted to make a new table leg. So I looked for an old piece of wood and tried my hand at it. Since I have the same table in my little house, I could check it and it really worked. But then Jenny told me that it didn't look professional enough and she didn't want to use it. In the end, I was only briefly disappointed that she didn't want to use it, because I didn't even ask her about it, so there was always a 50/50 chance. But this "not professional enough" aspect was really funny (that's why I was only briefly disappointed), because now I have to show you the door handle (which took about 20 minutes). It's good enough to be used, but not the table leg. I found that amusing. My father was a carpenter back then and sometimes he built things with me (like a wooden sword, which is still ready for sibling fights at home! 😈), so I probably developed a love for wood. I just love this raw material. The appearance, the smell, and it's sustainable, which is why I enjoyed working on it so much, I don't care what happens to the table leg - I had my own project, it was fun, and nobody told me what to do 😅 and the fun factor is much more important to me, because I wasn't just sitting on the couch watching Netflix and doing nothing.

On Sunday, I started reading David's photography guide. This 85-page document (in English of course 😩), which fortunately also includes some pictures, I still have to study before the workshops start. Quite exhausting and yet somehow interesting, since I don't know anything about photography. I hope I can internalize all the content in time and, above all, understand it well enough to explain it to the customers. In the evening, we invited Peter for dinner (okay, I was the reason why he was invited. He's so lonely and I always feel sorry for him). But there, I also realized that in a very talkative group I quickly fade into the background. At the beginning, I don't say anything because I still think for a long time whether the question or sentence is correct in terms of language and grammar, and during that time the conversations have long since moved on, and in the end, I didn't say anything because my brain was on standby. It was insane, after a very long time to hear fast English continuously for over three hours, it's damn exhausting and then you become a penguin from the movie Madagascar - just smiling and waving. I was really exhausted after that dinner.

On Monday, for the first time since I've been here, I went to the city with David. Jenny always told me that I would love this route and let's just say: it's really beautiful in some places. But what Jenny didn't tell me is that sometimes you drive for miles along the road and you don't see anything but dead trees. There was a forest fire in 2017 and it must have been huge, really huge. Once we drove for 15 minutes and there was nothing but dead trees for miles on both sides, it looked so damn sad. In one photo, you can only guess the extent of the forest fire, the area was really gigantic. But Jenny also told me that nature is slowly recovering and in the summer this area is supposed to look really beautiful again, as the first grasses, flowers, and bushes are growing again. Also, during this drive, I experienced something for the first time, a kind of "microclimate zone". About half an hour away from us, there is a region that is about 15 - 20 kilometers long. In this region (for whatever reason), it is significantly colder. I have never seen anything like it. We left at -4°C and in this region, it suddenly dropped to -14°C, before it got warmer again. David knows about this phenomenon, but he also doesn't know how it comes about. Maybe because of the lake and special winds from the mountains?! I have no idea, but it's very interesting. But why was I actually in the city?

I exchanged my German driver's license for a Canadian one. Does that mean I'm staying here forever? Who knows - muhaha 😈, but the main reason is the Canadian law, which requires you to exchange your license if you have a permanent residence for more than 90 days in B.C., and if I should eventually buy a car here, I also need car insurance. If I only present my international driver's license to the insurance company, the insurance can cost up to 50% more, and of course, I prefer to save that money. The exchange went relatively smoothly. Since I've had my German driver's license for over five years, I didn't have to take a test, I just had to take an eye test and answer five questions at the end, all of which I got right thanks to the nice young woman and her secret support - kindness sometimes pays off. Here are the questions, by the way, where there were no answer options, you simply had to answer them correctly.

1. What do you have to do when you see a school bus with its warning lights on and the stop sign unfolded? (I knew)
2. What do you have to do when you see a green, glowing light (I knew thanks to the lady)
3. How much distance must you keep from a bicyclist? (I also knew thanks to the lady)
4. What do I have to do when a car is parked on the side of the road with hazard lights on? (I guessed correctly)
5. Am I allowed to use my cellphone while driving? (I also knew)

According to Canadian law, you are only allowed to have one driver's license, so I had to give up my German driver's license. Now it will either be:

• stored in Williams Lake forever,
• destroyed,
• or sent back to Germany,

that's now in the hands of the people in Williams Lake.

On Tuesday, nothing exciting really happened. There was construction again, so I internally shook my head about some decisions Jenny made.

Wednesday is the namesake of this blog post...uiuiui. But first, another sweet story: Since we have to get up at six o'clock during the workshops, I decided to get up earlier and go for a walk around the lake. If David sees me, he lets the dogs out and they always sprint towards me and we run a round together. On Wednesday, I came out of my cabin and Daisy and Trooper were already waiting in front of my cabin, it was so cute. After the walk, I had breakfast and we approached the 9 o'clock mark, which represents the start of work. For several weeks now, Fatih sometimes even came at half past eight to have breakfast. But on this day, he somehow didn't come and I already thought that this might not end well, as he really has his final chance now. But then he came five past nine and I thought Jenny wouldn't make a big deal out of it. Jenny then had something to do in the office and told Fatih and me what to do. Fatih naturally said that it was no problem at all and got started. He took the first measurement, grabbed a piece of wood, and went straight to the saw. At that moment, I thought that I'm actually the one who cuts the pieces and I knew Jenny wanted that too. Fatih is not so good at precise work and that's absolutely fine. Every person has different strengths, one person can cook better, another can solve conflicts better, another can lift heavy things better, etc. and here I am very good at very precise work. So Fatih cut the board and wanted to attach it and BAM I'm telling you, the piece was like ten centimeters too short. I just thought "WOW", but didn't say anything and let him do it. Since Fatih doesn't like to ask for help, I went inside to make myself a tea and at that moment Jenny came and asked how things were going. I told her it's going well, but that now I understand why I should cut the wood. Jenny then realized that it's not me but Fatih who is at the saw. She went outside and told Fatih that I should cut and damn dude, his reaction was so aggressive that I went straight back to the kitchen so that I wouldn't get involved, but he was so pissed off. Then Jenny saw the board that Fatih and I had already installed and it was cut wrong, so we had to take it down again. However, Fatih was so pissed off that he just climbed up the ladder without waiting for me to climb up my ladder to hold the wood and unscrewed the screws and BOOM, of course my two screws couldn't hold the board, it broke off and fell to the ground. Fatih was really so aggressive that he even said he's going to make firewood now and we can continue working here alone. Jenny then tried to get him back, but he just left. When David came back from the walk, Jenny asked him if he could talk to Fatih and well, what can I say, David made short work of it and fired Fatih. I don't want to go into detail, but let's just say: I hope I never get fired by David, because that's a very loud and rather unpleasant way.

So Fatih disappeared for a while and didn't come back until the evening, and even then he just went straight to his cabin.

I'm telling you, that was a day and I felt a bit bad, not because I told Jenny that I now understand why I should cut, but because I had a really nice day. In the morning, I had two dogs waiting in front of my door, I worked hard and a lot, in the evening, a Mexican dinner was cooked especially for me with a very, very delicious red wine (don't know what it was called) and then Jenny's mother even gave me a pocket knife and socks for the workshops - so sweet!

On Thursday, I continued building the house in the morning while Fatih cleaned up his cabin and packed his things, and then he had a conversation with Jenny.

Here's a (rhetorical) quiz question: Who or what is to blame for Fatih being fired?

1. The constellation of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars
2. Jasper and Max, who are secretly having sex somewhere right now
3. Samuel Fischer
4. Peter Pan

It's really unbelievable that Fatih unfortunately can't reflect on his own behavior and has once again blamed me entirely. If he had come back and apologized for his (absolutely exaggerated) outburst of aggression, nobody would have fired him. But now he has squandered his last chance. He then said goodbye, to Jenny and David, but he didn't even acknowledge me with a glance or a word. In that moment, I was a bit sad because we got along so well in the beginning. We sat by the campfire together so many times and just chatted, and then (and this is just my opinion) I think he just had a problem with the fact that sometimes I worked better or more consistently. It's such a shame that he has now squandered this opportunity here, shortly before the workshops. He had such a good job here, because honestly, who gets a free house and gets paid while taking the dogs for a walk, having lunch, and then having a lunch break or sometimes only having to work until half past four, but still getting paid until five? And I don't know any employer who has given their employee so many chances and unfortunately, he messed it all up himself. I hope and pray that he finds the help he desperately needs in my eyes and then he will find a successful job again. He is not a bad person and he also works (occasionally) very hard and well, but he has problems and he has to solve them first.

Otherwise, Thursday was really nasty weather-wise. It was so warm that it was already drizzling on my walk in the morning and everything was thawing. Then it was dripping everywhere and everything was flowing into my sleeves or dripping onto my neck. Really disgusting. Even the lake is slowly starting to thaw in some places. These temperature differences here are so unusual this year. Thursday it was up to +8°C and for Saturday, it's supposed to be -23°C again, and then +6 °C again. Absolutely not normal. It even rained in the evening. I was so surprised by the sounds until I realized that it was the rain on my roof.

On Friday, Jenny and I continued building the house in the morning, and in the afternoon, I went with David to a spot to lay out bait and set up a camouflage tent. This path to the spot was so incredibly exhausting because due to the warm temperatures, the top layer thaws and then freezes again, resulting in a two-centimeter thick layer of ice forming on the snow, and with every step, you break through this layer and sink into the snow up to your knee while also dragging about 20 kilograms of meat behind you. It was super super exhausting. However, we found lynx tracks and tracks that were abnormally large. David suspects that it could possibly be a bear that thinks winter is over due to the warm temperatures of the last few days. He also explained a rule of thumb to me, namely that you take the two outermost claws that you find in the track and if the distance, for example, is 5 inches (12.7 cm), then the bear weighs about 500 pounds (about 230 kg)... the paw was about 7 inches long, which would correspond to about 320 kg. After we told Jenny about it, she suspects that it could have been a cougar. Doesn't make the situation any better, even though a cougar sighting is probably super cool because seeing a cougar in the wild is extremely unlikely. However, David and I didn't have anything with us that we could have used for "defense" (like bear spray or some kind of horn), we only had delicious meat with us. So it's a good thing that we didn't encounter a bear or a cougar. 😅

And with that, this super long post comes to an end. If you've read this far - respect. I wish you a nice weekend and maybe see you next time.

Take care.

Samuel

P.S. So that the blog post gets really long, here's a little addendum. In the last blog post, I forgot to mention that Kevin, who is the focus of the Netflix series "Big Timber", was already a customer here - oh yes 😎

Oh, and here are the answers to the questions:

1) What do you have to do when you see a school bus with its warning lights on and the stop sign unfolded?

• All cars, including those on the opposite lane, must stop and can only continue driving when the bus turns off its lights.

2) What do you have to do when you see a green glowing light?

• I still have no idea to this day since I didn't understand the lady's explanation either, I just pretended to understand. But I haven't seen a green glowing light here yet.

3) How much distance must you keep from a bicyclist?

• 3 seconds. First, I gave a measurement in meters 😅

4) What do I have to do when a car is parked on the side of the road with hazard lights on?

• Pass slowly and with enough distance, maximum 70 km/h (I didn't know the maximum speed)

5) Am I allowed to use my cellphone while driving?

• Of course not.