adele

Sounds absolutely fabulous Allie! I heard about the devastation caused by the storm which hit Stanley Park in mid December, it's very sad. I have such great memories of rollerblading round the seawall, I'm looking forward to being able to do that again. Who knows where I'll end up living when I get back, but it'll probably be either Downtown or North Shore (budget permitting of course...!)

Happy New Year, and all the best with the move!

Adele x

AdamF

I am thinking about doing this and need to make up my mind soon for obvious reasons, so you have to get a reference from work if you want to apply then? I wouldn't really want to tell work til I hand in my notice.

KokiriChild

You don't need a reference from your employer, just a reference from someone who's not a friend or a family member. Employer is the obvious next choice, but as I was in the same situation as you I got a collegue to fill it out for me and all seems fine so far ^^

- KokiriChild

linzee_loulabelle

nah doesnt have to be employer, notable person would be good tho, eg something to do with school

KokiriChild

Yes! Luckily I work in a school, so by "collegue" I actually meant "a teacher"

- KokiriChild

linzee_loulabelle

I got my contracts manager to do mine. just waiting for my travel pack now... u know the whole pre booked accom.. we do that ourselves right?

KokiriChild

I certainly hope so!

- KokiriChild

linzee_loulabelle

i got a place to live after my first night, so wanna stay hotel for just the 1 night instead of a hostel

KokiriChild

Oh I see, well I'm pretty sure you can arrange your own accomodation, I just think it's careful wording to make sure you get some accomodation sorted as they only say "to your prebooked accomodation", and never mention once about arranging accomdation through them.

- KokiriChild

linzee_loulabelle

yeah thats what i thought. i only wish the website would tell us flight times etc... and not just dates

AdamF

So do I! haha.

adele

When I did the BUNAC thingy before and did the group flight they included one night's accommodation in the price - which they arranged and in the case of Vancouver on the date I went it was in the HI Downtown hostel. You don't have to use their accomm though, you could book yourself into a hotel instead, but maybe just let them know when you book the group flight so that they know you don't need a bed.

linzee_loulabelle

so what was the hostel like? im bit worried about that tbh, like was it safe to leave ure stuff there etc?

adele

Well the Vancouver ones (I've also stayed in the HI Vancouver Central as well as the Downtown one) were both 4 beds to a dorm (bunk beds), single sex, and there were 4 lockers in each dorm - one assigned for each bed to keep your stuff in. You just need to take/buy a padlock. I didn't have any concerns but obviously it's your call.

HTH,

Adele

adele

I received the reference today, and very nicely worded it is too

So now I'm filling in the work auth app form ready to get it sent off and processed asap. Fingers crossed the processing is fairly straightforward like it was last time - no real rush as I'm not going till October, but as I'm going to work in Norway for the summer I need to get it all sorted out before then.

Adele x