I did not expect to be back here so soon, yet here I am!
The snowboarding in Jasper has been great for building my confidence on the slopes. In my excitement, I got my own board and have been up at Marmot Basin about 5 or 6 times now. The view is spectacular and when the low clouds set in, there’s a surreal feeling that you’re atop one of many snowy, 
mountainous islands, simply floating among a grey and white sea. I am learning how to carve now but am fairly certain I’d like to stick to the green and blue runs, avoiding the black diamond runs at all costs.
Jasper is definitely a big party town, so finding a venue on New Year's Eve was easy. We showed up at DownStream to catch a 
rave, and had just started to make our way down the stairwell when we experienced our first - of many - Jasper power outages. Apparently, there were something like 67 outages in 2009 alone! We celebrated in the Athabasca Lounge instead and had a wonderful time with our new friend Olivia, whom I'm pretty sure we'd have been lost without. We ended the night dancing at Pete's Club and had an absolute ball ringing in 2010.
I’ve finally settled into an apartment here and it looks like I may stay for awhile if finding work pans out. It’s the off-season for Jasper (which is primarily a summer spot), so very few businesses are hiring right now despite the town's close proximity to Marmot Basin. Unlike locations such as Whistler and Banff, there is no International Airport nearby, so most tourists and ski enthusiasts are unwilling to brave the treacherous drive in the winter. Further to my detriment, Jasper seems to suffer from a form of reverse-racism. Many businesses prefer to hire foreigners over Canadians because they work harder, for less money. By law, businesses must advertise the positions in order to prove they’ve made them available to Canadian citizens before they can hire a foreign person, however, they still maintain the right to hire whom they please. Talk about a loophole. As a result, I’ve gotten the run-around from various companies in town. It’s made my job hunt near impossible, so that finding decent work has gone on the backburner since finding ANY work has been so difficult.
On the plus side, I bought a discount poinsettia to go with my discount apartment (apparently, I’m in the slums of Jasper – I didn’t think Jasper HAD slums!), and deer walk through the woods outside my picture window every morning. I have my own post office box, which is very exciting as I've never had one before. Walking trails abound nearby, so I look forward to doing some exploring outside the confines of this 
tiny town.
Elk wander freely through town and are fairly comfortable having people and vehicles about. Many have had radio-collars affixed about their necks by Parks Canada (I have yet to find information regarding the collars, but hope to find out more). My 
preference is to steer clear of the elk altogether, as Jasper’s elk grow to be as long as 3m and anywhere from 230-450kg - large enough to elicit my respect as well as my distance. Thank goodness for my new telephoto lens!
The Sawridge Inn next door has become a regular hang out for us on Wednesday nights for “Wings’n’Sings”. Ten wings for $2.50 and cheap pitchers of draft. It’s great fun and makes for an enjoyable night out, not far from home. Trent and I also checked out Hopscotch, the annual beer, whiskey and wine tasting event. It’s not nearly as large as the Winnipeg Wine Festival, however, it included tapas (small tastings) of various dishes by the Head Chef and was a great 
way to mingle with locals, sample some new tastes and otherwise just get glam and go out.
I've learned a new word which inspires me to include my Word of the Day: Bones. Another word for Dollars or Bucks. Used in a sentence, "That'll be 16 bones".
Enough for now, time to go hunting for jobs!