Ophélie Lechat

Victoria harbour. Photo: Palestrina55 on Flickr

I find myself listening to a lot of Jack Johnson lately.  Maybe it’s because it reminds me of the last time I was in BC for a good amount of time.  I worked at Vista 18 restaurant, on the top floor of Hotel Chateau Victoria.  I worked the early morning buffet shift, which means I left my mother’s apartment at 5 am and walked to work around the harbour while the nearby Starbucks was opening.  I played Jack Johnson’s In between dreams every morning.  Actually, I think I listened to it on the same iPod I have now.

I would pour coffee and tea, set up a huge buffet, refill the scrambled eggs, bacon and waffles, bus tables, make lattés.  Around eleven we would clean everything up and start over for lunch.  I worked with some fantastic people.  I made about five dollars a day in tips, and what was then an amazing hourly wage for a Quebec girl used to $6.50-an-hour-at-Dunkin-Donuts.

On my days off I went to the beach with friends, took camping trips and walked around Victoria with my mom.  Every night we had dinner together in her little apartment, then we would walk two blocks to the beach and sit on the sand to watch the sunset.