Ready for a change?

My time has come to leave this beautiful city and embark on a different journey. Here I am on my last day at the INTERNeX office, filled with excitement of what’s to come and sadness of what I’m leaving behind. Even though I’ve only been working at INTERNeX for the last 1.5 years, I’ve been part of the family for almost 5!

As many of you I decided one day to leave my little hometown in Germany and explore what else the world had to offer with all the intention to go back home after a year. My original plan was to go to a different city first actually, before coming to Vancouver, but the universe decided to send me straight to what quickly became my second home and I’m forever grateful for that because it lead me to INTERNeX and all the unforgettable memories I’ve made, amazing people I’ve met that became friends, and countless adventures I was able to experience.

From the start Tim and the team made me feel like I was part of the great INTERNeX community. I was one of those candidates who went to EVERY pub night, weekend event and trip, even after my Program was over, I was always welcome to join and I did!

Covid hit and I was not ready to leave Canada which led me to two more years in beautiful BC. Long story short, I fell in love with Vancouver so that I decided to keep on staying here, looking for new opportunities to grow, that’s when I heard INTERNeX was opening up again after the long dreadful pandemic period. I reached out to Tim asking for a job and I got it! It was a perfect match if you ask me. B-)

In my role as PR and Program Manager I’ve been challenged, I learned a lot about this job and myself, I grew professionally and personally, I made many more friends and contributed to what made my time here the best of my life. I love meeting all of you, hearing your stories and being reminded of when I first arrived here. I got to travel to the Rockies, Vancouver Island, Whistler, Las Vegas, and many more places. I had so much fun in the office, amazing interns that helped me through challenging times (thank you all for that) and now I’m handing over my reign to another amazing INTERNeXer: Talea.

In the short time we’ve been working together she’s proven that she’s got what it takes to run this show and I’m so excited for her to have so many laughs in the office, amazing opportunities to grow in this job and most importantly fun with all of you guys. Fun Fact: We share the same favourite TV show.

Before we move over to introducing Talea to you, I just want to thank INTERNeX for being a big part of my life, for always supporting me in my endeavours and I want to acknowledge that I wouldn’t be the person I am today without it. It makes me so happy to have shared experiences with so many of you and I’m sure this won’t be the last time you’ll hear from me. 😉 

For now, please welcome Talea:

Hi everyone! 

My name is Talea (she/her) and I’m the new PR-Coordinator at INTERNeX! 🙂 Some of you might’ve already seen me at Pub Night or on the last blog post and as Laura just told you, she is unfortunately leaving in a few days… they grow up so fast :’) (she’s older than me by the way lol). So that’s why I’m taking over her tasks, meaning I’ll be the one you’re gonna see during Pub Nights, weekend events and other activities.

To be honest, I don’t really like writing about myself (just like most people) but of course I’ll try my best, just for you 😉 So here we go: 

I am 19 years old and from a very small town near Osnabrück, Germany. I came to Vancouver almost two months ago to do a volunteer project at the Stanley Park which is one of the awesome programs that INTERNeX offers! As you might’ve guessed by now, I am doing a gap year at the moment, before going back to Germany and then going to university next summer. So don’t worry, I’ll be here for a while, whether you like it or not. >:)

I chose to come to Vancouver mainly because I heard so many people talk about the beautiful nature and I gotta say: it’s absolutely true!! I haven’t even seen most of it and still, it is already easily one of my favourite things here! Another reason why I came here is because my (and Laura’s) favourite TV show was filmed here: “Supernatural”. If you’re also a fan of the show, you’re more than welcome to geek out about it with me (maybe during the next pub night?) and we can look at some cool filming locations here in Vancouver! 😄

Other than that, I like playing basketball and have been doing so for over 13 years and I love singing, which I did in a big band and a choir back in Germany. Another interest of mine are foreign languages – I speak English, German, and French and would love to learn Polish, since my dad is from Poland. I also love music of all genres (hence, the singing) as well as fitness.

Now, I’m very happy to be here at INTERNeX because gotta be honest: this has to be *the* coolest job ever!! I get to meet every one of you lovely people and help you have an amazing experience here in Vancouver, so I’m very grateful to be able to do this! 😊

Alrighty, I think that’s enough about me! Thank you to Laura for everything you’ve done and for creating this awesome family! Have fun on your adventure!!

I hope you all enjoy the rest of spooky season and hopefully I’ll see you next Pub Night!

Take care!

Talea :))

Kato’s Canadian Adventure

Hi everyone !

Let me quickly introduce myself. My name is Kato and I am 25 years old. I am born and raised in Belgium but I consider myself a woman of the world since I have always had the urge to go out and explore. That’s actually how my INTERNeX adventure started back in 2022! I was still in college back then with the goal to become a social worker and I had to do one last final practicum before I could graduate. We had the possibility to apply for an international practicum, so obviously I did not have to think twice about doing that lol.

Vancouver was one of the options and I thought to myself “let’s try that one out, seems like a fun city”. INTERNeX was the contact for international practicums to Vancouver and that’s how I met Tim, Mina and Laura (and many, many others).

Fast forward to February 2022: a girl from a little European country called Belgium in this big city called Vancouver… But oh boy, what an adventure it has been! There is so much to tell that I could probably write a whole novel about my Canadian experience, but I will try to stick to the basics.

Thanks to INTERNeX I met so many new and amazing people at events like the weekly pub nights (cheers to that) or the trip to the Rockies. I was also lucky enough to actually have found a very close group of friends with people from Germany, Italy, Belgium and Ireland. Up until today I am still very good friends with all of them and I am so grateful for that! We used to hang out pretty much everyday and have movie nights (with sleepovers, duh), go for ice cream, play volleyball at Kits beach, try out restaurants, go on hikes and some of us even went to San Francisco together! One of my favourite memories is that we managed to get into a fratparty at one of the fraternity houses at a University here and I must say that was a whole experience to itself.

I can honestly say that my time in Canada has taught me a lot about myself. It sounds cliché but it is so true! In my opinion everyone should try out something like this, I am telling you: you will not regret it.

Fun fact: I am actually still in Canada as we speak. I fell so much in love with Canada that I did not want to leave. You can ask my friends who dropped me off at the airport in
Vancouver – I was crying my eyes out and I pretty much had to be dragged through security
to board my plane to Belgium. I am not sure if I would have stepped on that plane otherwise, haha. Canada felt (and still feels – thank you, INTERNeX for that) like a second home to me, so that’s why I returned on a working holiday visa in November 2022 and I am still here! But that’s a whole other story to tell. 😉

Goodbye BlogPost!

Guys, it’s insane how fast our 4 weeks internship at INTERNeX went by. 😦 Now it’s time to write our last blogpost. We are now writing to say goodbye and hand over our tasks back to Laura. We were extremely fortunate to do our internship here at INTERNeX.  Tim and Laura made us feel so welcome and as an actual part of the PR Team! Thank you so much for everything that you taught us !

Our hope was that we could make your time here nice and funny. As we can only speak for ourselves, that totally worked out! 🙂 Starting with our first Pub Night (which was very chaotic because we never thought that so many of you would come and join us ;D) we knew that the next 4 weeks will be full of fun, joy and excitement. 

We totally wish we had more time but duty calls again, and our studies will start again on the first of September. Overall, we are glad to say that we experienced so many cool things with you. Being a part of the Pride Parade,  the INTERNeX Beach Olympics, the Country Evening and all of the Pub Nights are events we won’t forget that easily. We hope that everyone of you has a special time here and we cannot wait to check out the upcoming Blog Posts and Reels to see what’s happening here in Van!

The memories we made here will last for a lifetime and we will look back at all of our photos and videos with a smile in one eye and a tear in the other.

Goodbye INTERNeXers!

We will miss you Vancouver! 😦

Cheers,

Lissa, Julia and Emily ❤

How I spent the best time of my life in Vancouver

Hi everyone, my name is Anna. I am 21 years old and I spent the last three months in Vancouver. Going there was a rather spontaneous decision on my behalf because I wanted to get away for a little while. To be honest, Canada was not a conscious choice and more of a where-ever-my-organization-takes-me one. In the end, working with INTERNeX was a lucky coincidence.

My current home is in Berlin, Germany and I am doing my Bachelor in education. My main
reasons for going abroad were work experience and taking a break from studying. INTERNeX
found me a spot at a lovely preschool in Vancouver together with a homestay for the time being. Mainly, I assisted in supervising the children and all the other tasks that come up, e.g. laundry, dishes, clean up. The preschool I volunteered at is an inclusive one where classrooms consist of children with and without disabilities and/or special needs. Even as a volunteer I still needed organizational skills, patience, diligence and creativity. I loved that I didn’t have to be too strict but instead got the opportunity to play with the kids and experience their joy in learning new things. I consider myself very lucky to be able to work with colleagues who gave me a lot of freedom in getting to know the kids and how to best handle my work. Generally, everyone welcomed me with open arms and always stood by my side with advice and helpful words.

Spending three months in a different country is a bold decision. Nonetheless, I made that one very easily. I have wanted to go abroad for a few years now and finally took my chance. I knew that living in a homestay would never be the same as living at home. For me, that was exactly the point though — experiencing a different culture, living situation and work environment. It also sometimes means that not everything will work out perfectly. Problem solving is definitely a quality everyone should expect to use during that time.

Vancouver is a very diverse city with many possible activities. Downtown and also the rest of the city provide many opportunities for going out to restaurants, bars, clubs and activities like bowling, golfing, shopping or movies. Its location on the west coast of Canada means that there are several beaches with access to the Pacific Ocean. There is also a lot of nature to be found in Vancouver and surrounding areas. Many parks like Stanley Park or Queen Elizabeth Park are right by the city. Just an hour outside of downtown you can find forests and mountains which can be walked or hiked on numerous trails. Lastly, further up north are several snow topped regions during winter. Especially outdoor-lovers have a plethora of possible activities right next door. Personally, I loved the togetherness of all of those things. I could go out for drinks and dancing on Saturday and then meet friends for a hike on Sunday. The diversity of people living in Vancouver means that there are lots of choices concerning food, music and entertainment.

Additionally, INTERNeX provides students with at least two outings per week. On Wednesdays
there is always pub night, allowing people to meet and connect with each other and make plans for the weekend. Moreover, there is usually a weekend activity. In the past, those included fashion and art events, festivals, hikes, movie nights or sports events. During my time there we also took two weekend trips to Whistler and Sasquatch Mountain. All of those opportunities made it so much easier to make friends and find people with common interests. Without that I wouldn’t have met so many people my age that were as willing as I was to go out and do stuff. I have spent many nights laughing, dancing and having a great time with amazing people.

Let me tell you, INTERNeX makes it really easy to take part in excursions to see Vancouver and find people you like. I encourage everyone to spend some time abroad. I gained more work experience, learned many new skills, got even more independent and found a confidence I didn’t have before. I would do it all over again and stay longer if I could. So be brave and take that step!

All the best
Anna

TOTAL RECALL 2022 – Part III

Here it is, the last week of 2022! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I’m always still in the holiday spirit a couple days after, so I’d love to tell you about our most recent Pre-Christmas events to let it last just a liiittle bit longer. 😉 If you haven’t read the first two parts of our year review here are the links for you:

Part I: https://internexcanada.wordpress.com/2022/12/14/total-recall-2022-part-i/

Part II: https://internexcanada.wordpress.com/2022/12/21/total-recall-2022-part-ii/

So, here we go:

The closer winter came the more our Halloween activities shifted into Christmas/Winter. 😉 Have you been on the Christmas Market, or to the VanDusen Botanical Gardens Festival of Light? I love these kind of activities to get me in the mood for Christmas, they light up this dark cold winter time and help me stay sane. 😀 Or have you been to a Canadian Ice Hockey game yet? I can highly recommend it, even if you’re not too familiar with the sport it’s a great experience and who knows, maybe you’ll walk out of the arena as a new Canucks fan. 😉

Our last bigger trip this year was to Whistler, but this time for ski season! We had a nice hotel with a jacuzzi in every room which was really nice at freezing outdoor temperatures of -14 degrees! The weather was cold, but beautifully sunny. The first day we went on a stunning snow walk around the golf course, it looked like a real winter wonder land. The main event was obviously the skiing on the following day and for real it looked amazing, plus Whistler is also known for its great Apres Ski parties which many of us enjoyed. 🙂

Now 2022 is coming to an end and to conclude, the year has definitely been challenging with all the changes the pandemic has brought with it, especially in the tourism industry, but we can proudly say we had a great year with lots of adventures, learning curves, and most importantly awesome people.

We are grateful to be back and we want to continue helping you grow through your experience here with INTERNeX in 2023. Off to a new chapter! We wish you all the best for the next year and all the years to follow!

Did you set yourself any challenges for the next year? How has this year been for you? What was your favourite event/trip this year? I recommend sitting down for a minute and really think about what you’ve achieved and how much you’ve grown, it makes you really excited to see what’s coming next, doesn’t it? 🙂

Lots of Love,

Laura 🙂