How was your weekend?

Unfortunately weekend is over, but let´s have a look on what we did the last few days. On Friday afternoon we enjoyed the good weather by going to Kitsilano beach. It was warm enough to wear swim wear and many people also went into the cold water. In the evening there was an amazing sunset and it was quite cool to watch it on one of the longest days of the year.

On Saturday we booked a trip to the Joffre lakes. Although it was a three hours drive to get there from Vancouver it was definitely worth it. The bus driver told us that the lower Joffre lake is the most boring one but already this lake was very clear and turquoise. However, we decided to hike the steep way up to the Middle Joffre lake. When we saw the blue color sparkling through the woods we knew we arrived. The bus driver was so right, because the Lower Joffre lake was nothing against the Middle one. The light blue water seemed so surreal. After making a short break and taking some pictures, we started to hike to the last aim: the Upper Joffre lake. On our way we came by the Holloway Falls, one of the most beautiful waterfalls in this region. The upper Joffre lake was just as turquoise as the Middle Lake and we decided to stay there for a while. While we ate our cookies some small birds joined us and so we had the idea to take some pictures with them. After that we unfortunately had to get back to our bus, but overall it was an amazing experience, that I can definitely recommend!

On Sunday we went shopping in the Metropolis Mall in Metrotown. It is pretty nice there and we all found something to buy. In the afternoon unfortunately we weren´t able to do our INTERNeX-BBQ at the beach, because the weather forecast predicted rain on Sunday. Instead of it we went to WhiteSpot, which is a typical Canadian burger restaurant to get something to eat there. We all enjoyed the good food! After it we wanted to visit the Jazz festival at the Robson Square, but unfortunately it was already closed. However, we experienced so much this weekend that we had nothing against going home.

 

 

Thanks to those who joined us at the WhiteSpot! I hope to see you at the PubNight on Wednesday!

– Franzi

 

INTERNeX International Exchange
International Village,
Suite 2077, 2079 – 88 West Pender Street
Vancouver, Canada -V6B 6N9-
Web: http://www.internexcanada.com
Email: pr@internexcanada.com

The Rockies Review – Part 2

We are back in Vancouver from our awesome weekend in the Rockies. The long weekend, which in my opinion was too short, was filled with many sights along the way. Since it was wonderful weather, we got to experience them in their full glory.

By Sunday we’ve already seen quite a bit of the Rockies, and that morning was probably the hardest for everybody to get out of bed, due to our long Saturday night. It was a sunny day in Banff, and no matter what everybody’s plans were, we had the best conditions. We had the opportunity to ride the gondola, which some of you did, and I heard it was amazing. Most of you, however, went to the hot springs and enjoyed the view. I explored downtown Banff, walked around and looked at what the stores had to offer.

 

By 1:30 we left Banff and drove to Lake Louise. The lake was completely frozen, allowing us to walk on it. Since there was still snow, it seemed like a winter wonderland.

 

 

In the evening, we arrived at the Mountain View cabins in Golden, BC. It was in the middle of nowhere and we stayed in white little cabins. As the name suggests, we had an amazing view of the mountains. The evening began with a BBQ with burgers and hot dogs. Later that night, we all gathered around the campfire, made S’mores, and our guide, Nicole, sang songs for us, while playing the guitar. The later it got, the more people went to their cabins, as it got quite cold. The next morning our hosts prepared an amazing breakfast and afterwards we headed back to Vancouver.

Overall, it was an incredible weekend with a lot of fun. I was able to get to know you guys better, which I’m happy about. I hope you enjoyed this trip as much as I did.

See you tonight at the pub night at the Beaver.

– Megan

INTERNeX International Exchange
International Village,
Suite 2077, 2079 – 88 West Pender Street
Vancouver, Canada -V6B 6N9-
Web: http://www.internexcanada.com
Email: pr@internexcanada.com

How was your weekend?

Weekend? What weekend? Still a little tired from all those days. I already hear some people think: What did he do? At the end of this blog post you will know exactly what was going on this weekend. So sit back and enjoy all my adventures I have been through this weekend.

It all started on Friday. At 14:50 a plane landed at the airport of Vancouver. Not just a normal plane, but a plane with 7 German students on board who are going to study here in Canada for a semester or even longer. Because they didn’t know that much about Canada yet, it was our job to welcome them and show them Vancouver. After they landed, they had to get to the immigration to get their visa. Mandy and I already went to the hostel they are going to stay, so we can already check in and welcome them when they are arriving at the hostel.

So we got the keys and waited for their arrival. So we waited and waited and waited. Because the immigration was so busy, it took 5 hours to get them their visas. After a long wait they finally arrived at the hostel. We gave them some domino’s pizza, because they were starving. When they finished their pizza, they were so tired they took their luggage and went to bed. So now it was time for us to go to the Bourbon to say goodbye to Iris. After a night dancing in the cage, it was time for us to go, because we had a long day to go on Saturday.

The alarm went off at 7 am, which means it was time to get ready for a busy day. We bought some bus tickets and drove to the hostel. We took the students to the bus and drove to the office. It was the first beautiful thing they were going to see today. At the office we prepared an orientation with a lot of facts about Canada and about the high schools here. During this orientation, they had a very Canadian breakfast from Tim Hortons, so they know how delicious Canadian food can be. After the orientation, we went to Stanley Park. We rented some bikes and did a bike ride to let them see how beautiful Stanley Park is. Of course we went to the totem poles, saw the beaches and the Lion Gate Bridge. After two hours cycling, we starting to get hungry again. We went to the Mongolian BBQ restaurant near the bike rental. What a delicious food they have there!

When we finished our bowls with meat and noodles, we went to the bus to go to Grandville Island. We did the scavenger hunt game, so they get to see the whole island in a funny way. The weather was nice, so our job was to get an ice cream and wait for them to come back. Because they did such a good job, we got really Canadian prizes for them: Maple syrup on a key cord. We went back to the beach next to the hostel. There was a volleyball net where we played a volleyball game. I don’t have to tell you how amazing my volleyball skills were. After our game we decided to have a BBQ on the beach with the master grill talent Tim. We ate out burgers and sausages during the sunset. To close the day, we had prepared a trivia game, to see if they paid attention today. After the trivia game it was time for us to say goodbye and get some sleep.

Rise and shine, it was a new day. This day we went to the hostel again to have a breakfast at the cafe next to the hostel. After the check out, we went to downtown to do the Canada fly over. It is a simulation where you sit in a chair and fly above all kinds of landscapes you can find in Canada. It was really fun to do. After our flight, we went back to the hostel and so the students could be picked up to bring them to their home stay families. So we had a little bit weekend left.

After these active days, I decided to do some more relaxing thing. So I went to the Lynn Canyon to dive of a cliff. What a beautiful place here in Vancouver! Totally worth it to go there some day. Afterwards we ate some sushi and I finally went back to the hostel. It was a busy but very fun weekend. Hope your weekend was fun as well and you can tell me all about that the next PuBNiGHT. See you there!

– Bart

Rocky Mountains

Although driving more than 2.000 kilometers in four days, without too much sleep, nothing will ever replace Internex’s amazing trip to the Rockies.  Early Friday morning a group of people from all over the world stepped into a bus, left Vancouver and took out on a journey to The Canadian Rocky Mountains.  Our tour guide was Hayley from West Trek Tours, who made this trip as unforgettable as it was, together with our bus driver Handsome Ian. We drove along the highway until we reached the beautiful town Hope where we had some pit stop and we already were surrounded by mountains. Next stop was in Kelowna were we had a picnic on the beach, enjoyed the hot sun and took a swim in the refreshing Kelowna Lake.  Back on the Canadian Okanakan highway we drove along the Okanakan lake until we made another pit stop at a farmers market to pick up some delicious fruits to enjoy on the way.

 

Finally before sunset we made it to the Mountain View Cabins in Golden.  After a long drive we were all hungry so the cabin hosts made us a BBQ dinner and after the dinner we grilled some marshmallows on a bonfire. Can you imagine sitting around a bonfire up in the mountains in middle of nowhere were you can smell the nature all around you?  Surrounded by forests and wild animals and being told stories of people running away from a bears? The night turned into a bonfire party, were our lovely guide Hayley sang country songs and played her ukulele and we all sang along. What a wonderful night!

 

 

 

 

Early Saturday morning we drove back on the highway until we reached Alberta State and guess what?  We drove back in time. We arrived into Banff National Park where I’m pretty sure the most beautiful nature on this earth exists. First we went to see Emerald Lake and Lake Louise, a stunning beautiful lakes, as blue as the sky, with mountains all around them. Almost like standing in front of a picture. Then it was time to see Lake Louise from above. We drove down to the Lake Louise ski resort and had a lunch buffet before we took the gondola up to a mountain were we got the most amazing view ever. On our way up, we searched for some wild animals in the forest, but I guess they were hiding.  However we got lucky on our way back.  We found them.  Yes guys, up in the wild nature on our way back in the bus we finally saw some bears. Not just one or two, no we saw seven bears.  A black bear mother, feeding her two little cubs and the cutest grizzle bears hiding between the trees. I actually didn’t know that on this earth there existed a place where wild bears could just chill along the road, but now I know 🙂

 

Next we drove to the cute little mountain town Banff to check in to our hotel and have some relaxing time before dinner. It was Saturday night, so people were in mood for partying. We went to a pub for a drink or two and then we found a nightclub in town. Have you ever visited a nightclub up in the mountains? If not, there is one in Banff 😉

Sunday morning we woke up early and had our breakfast from Tim Horton. We had a long day ahead, the biggest sightseeing day on the trip.  We went to see Lake Minnewanka / Two Jack Lake, Bow lake and Moraine lake, which was even more stunning than Lake Louise. What a nature and what a place. The last lake we saw was Peyto Lake, were we took a polar bear swim were the water is only  5,5 degrees.  That was pretty awesome.  Then we drove in to the Jasper National park were we had the highlight of the day, The Columbia Ice field. The largest ice field in the Rocky Mountains which is about 325 square kilometres (125 sq mi) in area, 100 metres (330 ft) to 365 metres (1,198 ft) in depth and receives up to 7 metres (280 in) of snowfall per year. Our glacier adventure began with an opportunity to ride on the surface in the all-terrain Ice Explorer – a massive vehicle specially designed for glacier travel, and there are only 23 of them in the whole world. When we came up to the glacier, we walked on the ice and filled our water bottle with fresh glacier water. Defiantly the best water we’d ever taste. It was a perfect time to capture the beauty of the Ice field’s breathtaking mountain setting.

Back on the highway on our way to Mount Robson, we made a stop at the Athabasca Falls, the most powerful waterfall in the Rocky Mountains which was pretty amazing. It was cold so we found a Belgium waffle man and had some hot drinks and waffles there. Then we kept driving and were we almost reached Mount Robson, the highest peak of The Rocky Mountains, we unfortunately drove into a thick black fog where our beautiful sunny weather changed into heavy rain. Too bad for a view on Mount Robson. Before dinnertime, we made it to our country hotel in Mt. Robson, were we checked in and had a nice warm shower. A real country night was about to start, yes ladies and gentleman we were now all ready to see some real cowboys. We were picked up of the cowboys and their cowgirls who drove us to their ranch and served us a dinner and drinks. The dinner party soon changes to a wild cowboy party were we all danced line dance late into the night. Monday morning we drove back to Vancouver.

Thank you all for joining us on this unforgettable Rocky Mountains trip. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as the PR team.

 

AAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

PR Team

 

 

How was your weekend?

The weather this past weekend was just incredible! As if trying to prove itself the sun powered up and showed us the summer we will be missing from now on. So, to celebrate the end of summer we decided to have a BBQ which was most likely the last one of the year!

We all got together in Stanley Park right next to Second Beach. Everyone brought a little
something and the area on the grill quickly filled with lots of different kinds of meat and also some marinated potatoes.

Even though we were quite hungry we still had to wait for a bit but patience is a virtue, right? In the meanwhile, we chatted or played catch with the football and Frisbee we had brought along.
After only a short wait, the food was finally cooked and we could get started. It tasted amazing! However, we realized we should have done this a lot more often.
Because we had so much food the grill was constantly busy but eventually, around sundown, everyone was contentedly rubbing their stomach. And although it had been quite cloudy all day the clouds dispersed at the end and we were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset.

Thank you all for coming!

 

INTERNeX International Exchange – PR Coordinator
work + live + learn

pr@internexcanada.com – Email
www.internexworld.com – Web
www.internexcanada.com – Blog
www.facebook.com/INTERNeX – Facebook
www.youtube.com/user/internexcanada – YouTube
www.twitter.com/INTERNeX_Canada – Twitter
www.instagram.com/internex_canada – Instagram
www.flickr.com/photos/internex – Flickr