We were in a quandry as to how to entertain our British clients on their visit here to Vancouver. As British Columbians, we’re somewhat oblivious to the natural beauty surrounding us, tending to assume that our city and environs are boring – hardly of any interest to those from a place as historic as Europe.

Take our office’s location. We bill the Sun Tower as “historic” on our website, though at only 95 year old, its historic quotient is just not as impressive as we are fond of believing. As our guests entered our office, I overheard Brit #1 (Pete) remark to Brit #2 (Chris), “Cute new modern building eh?” (OK, so he didn’t say ‘eh’, this was added for Canuck flavouring. In fact, the entire conversation may have been fabricated, but there’s no proof of that.)

Come along with us while we walk you through our riveting rafting adventure!

With a visit to Whistler already on the agenda, Alex suggested a whitewater-rafting trip, something none of the Brits had yet experienced.

Alex’s wife Laura signed on, as well as our Project Manager, Rick and his main squeeze, Anca. As usual up for anything, our German work visa employees, Peter & Michael, also made the trip. Brits Chris, Pete and Jamie, representatives of The Student Room, were the guests of honour.

As the spring run-off was in effect, the Green River was unusually engorged, making it very fast that fateful day. A trip usually taking between two and three hours was completed in just over an hour. Normally a ‘Class 2.5’ run, Rick estimates the level of intensity was rendered a Class 3 by the additional moisture.

To put these numbers in context, Rick thoughtfully provided me the following guide:

• Class 1: A pleasantly gentle float for pets and small children
• Class 2: A good trip for your out-of-town visitors (minimal chance of injury)
• Class 3: Fast and exciting; beginners may need a change of underwear
• Class 4: Experts only; Abandon hope all ye who enter here
• Class 5: You will die

The trip started in Green Lake, where our guides went over the basics: paddling in unison, the importance of keeping one’s oar in control at all times, and rudimentary rescue procedures. When the group was asked for a volunteer “victim”, Michael was in the water before the request was even complete. It’s unclear whether Michael wanted a quick cool-off, or yearned for the attention that came with the role; a full investigation is currently underway.

Shortly after commencing the trip down the river, international relations became strained when Rick, surrendering to a burst of North American aggression, splashed the Brit’s boat.

Tragically, retaliation and further unpleasantness ensued, before the demands of the swiftly moving current distracted participants back to the task at hand.

Happily, both groups come together at the crunch and worked well as teams. No other major mishaps befell the intrepid adventurers, though some unseemly mugging for the cameras (situated at intervals along the route) by Laura and Rick were observed on more than one occasion.

All in all, our brave voyagers made it back to the safe harbours of Green Lake with minimal casualties. We’d like to thank our guests of honour for graciously picking up the tab for our exciting adventure. The next whitewater rafting excursion is on us!

Tags: the student room | team | ze germans | whitewater | rafting | company life

This entry was juiced up on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 11:01 am and is filed under Company Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.