Whistler and the Alltracks group

So I'm in Canada, in Whistler, sitting in what will be my room for the next 5 weeks.

The journey was good once I had managed to get all my gear from my flat across town by Tube to Heathrow. Air Canada did a good job with the service and one of those seat back entertainment systems. I caught up on a bunch of movies (Margin Call: very good, Lincoln Lawyer: good, Sucker Punch: very rubbish even on fast forward and Puss in Boots: also very good) and had a couple of fairly good meals.

At Vancouver the first thing of note was a huge tank of jellyfish before you get to passport control (no idea why). I was met by Guy, who it turns out is the head Instructor for the resort and really really tall!
and after hanging around for ages for another flight, in the bar watching ice hockey with an American and a Dutch lad, we got a coach to the resort.

The house I'm staying at is in a little quiet corner of Whistler called Valhalla. It's a modern development with a communal hot tub for all the houses in the square (more of a round actually) to share in the middle. Unfortunately the hot tub isn't working due to something to do with heath and safety. The house has all the things you would expect including a big TV, good wifi, microwave and washing machine (so no trips to a launderette, thank God). There are 7 of us sharing, 2 downstairs, Ben and Dom, who are friends from the UK. Upstairs we have two single rooms and a big room with three sharing. Nick, a tall South African and myself have the two single rooms and Arthur, Mike and Ed share the big room. Arthur and Ed are English (Ed is also the only snowboarder) and Mike is a blue haired American from Oregon. My room is huge and I definitely got the best deal in the house. I've got a huge double bed, a bit of a balcony and a walk in wardrobe.

Saturday we had the welcome meeting and in the evening a welcome drink. The most interest information was finding out just how many people are on the course. Once we all managed to get into the Hilton Whistler's main meeting room, there were about 70 of us with about 20 or so being snowboards. Most of the group appear to be either 18-19 and straight out of school or in their mid 20s (my house mates, except Mike (mid 30s) are all in this group). There a few grey haired individuals so I'm not the oldest by a good few decades.

It all seems well organised, the people seem nice, the town looks lively and the weather looks snowy so fingers crossed it should be a good trip.
the size of the group