mikao's world

the summer job series, part 3

spring of 2000 i was really really hoping to get another camp job for the summer, but i was looking for a job at a Bible camp or some sort of a Christian camp. however, at the end of April, i went home from school still without a job, and found out not too long after getting home that i didn't get the job that i had applied for.

so, i really wasn't sure what i was going to do for the summer when me and my little sister found an add in the paper to work in the Yukon, so i called, and got the job. and so, may 15th i took the bus from Dawson Creek, BC to Teslin, Yukon, 19 hours, and arrived for a summer way way way up north.

Teslin is a town of 800 i was told, about two and a half hours east of the Yukon's capital city of Whitehorse. Whitehorse has 21000 people, the Yukon as a whole has 30000. the Yukon, in case you're not up on your geography, is the Canadian territory just east of Alaska.

i was working at a restaurant about ten kilometres west of Teslin (i.e. smack dab in the middle of nowhere) called Mukluk Annie's Salmon Bake. Now Mukluk Annie's is apparently home to the Yukon's best salmon, but i couldn't confirm or deny that having never eaten any salmon in the Yukon (hey, it was expensive, and i served it all summmer. the smell made me nauseous by the end of the summer!). i mostly waitressed, but also cleaned the grody bathrooms and the seven little guest cabins that they had as well.

now mukluk annie's of course specialized in salmon, but also had ribs and steak and hamburgers. the salmon, ribs, and steak all came with all-you-can-eat salad bar, baked beans, and rolls, as well as coffee or tea, and a brownie for dessert. the meat was all cooked inside the main restaurant part in front of the guests on a big open fire grill. so, all summer, i smelled like a bar-be-que (or "bar-be-cue" if you're andrew!).

i worked five days a week, usually from 6am-2pm, and had mondays and tuesdays off. i pretty much always waitressed from 7-9am (we had an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet with buttermilk pancakes, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, and something else, which i forget at the moment!), then cleaned bathrooms and cabins (i was always the bathroom cleaner if i was working), then went back to waitressing usually once i was done cleaning, or else washed dishes. there were usually just two waitresses on a shift, but most often only one waitressed and the other washed dishes... greasy fish dishes.

there were nine summer staff, besides some of the boss' kids (who were 18+), we lived in a trailer and a log cabin. i lucked out and got to live in the trailer for which i was very greatful... the cabin people however preferred their cabin. they were stuck 4 to a bedroom, but they had a tv. i got my own room. after two weeks all of my original trailermates left, and then eventually i ended up living for the most part with two sixteen year old girls for the majority of the summer.

we were on the shores of Teslin Lake, which is a kilometre or two wide, by 80km long, quite beautiful, surrounded by mountains with lots of trees. our trailer and cabin were a fair ways away from the restaurant, and looked out onto the lake and had the Alaska Highway on the other side. the lake was too cold to swim in, but i did do a lot of rafting with one particular roommate i had over the summer which was a lot of fun. there was an island that was across from us that we used to go out to late at night (the sun didn't go down at all for awhile in the middle of the summer).

i got to go to Whitehorse several times, and even stayed overnight there once, so saw a lot of the touristy things and neat shops downtown, and outrageously priced restaurants. Whitehorse is a neat little city in a beautiful setting.

the advertisement advertised Mukluk Annie's as a Christian family run business, so i had been expecting to work with mostly Christians over the summer. All the trailermates i had had originally though left because they felt mislead by the advertisement and there was a whole big extravagant situation with that. so, in the end, there was me and one other guy who were believers, and it was hard to see him stumble. the three weeks after my first three trailermates left i lived by myself in the trailer, which was both good and bad at the same time. i did, however, get a ton of the Bible read which was cool!

i saw a lot of sex and drugs that summer, and the frailty of humanity. thankfully thankfully thankfully the peer pressure was not a problem for me and i did not feel the need to do any of those things.

i counted down the days until i could leave and go home for a week before going back to school that fall. august 21st i boarded a bus and was relieved to be out of a situation i didn't really like. i loved working as a waitress and serving people for the most part (well, there are a few funny stories i could still tell you about waitressing!), and the Yukon was beautiful... but it was tough to work with people whom i did not have much in common with and especially since i did not make any good friends that summer who stayed very long. there were a lot of "politics" to all the relationships, and everything had such drama.

what did i learn from that summer? well, life is hard. things won't always go like you want them to. but you will be rewarded in the end.

i was the only staff who consistently worked morning shifts, which i thought very cruddy at the time, but i was thus the only staff who also go my full eight hours in every day as the evening shift never went the whole eight hours. so, in the end, i got paid the most out of everyone, made a fairly good sum, and paid for a whole semester of college on my own, which i'd never been able to do before.

and now, whenever i'm in a crowd with only one or two people that i know, someone pretty much always brings up the fact that i once worked in the Yukon... which is always a humourous conversation starter! people are always interested in it.