How was the weekend?

Wet and cold. This past weekend the weather wasn’t really screaming summer, but to be fair, we are in Vancouver. On Saturday we had our bike ride through Stanley Park. When I checked the weather report in the morning I was excited because it said it was just going to be cloudy, but I should’ve known better. Pro-tip: Never trust the weather report in Vancouver and always be prepared for rain.

Once we started riding along the seawall it started raining lightly. Not ideal for a nice bike ride, but we were a tough group and nothing was going to stop us from going. En contraire, Beatrice actually told me she likes the rain. And I have to admit, the weather created a moody atmosphere, that suits Canada. The mountains covered in fog, the pine tree tops disappearing in the clouds. It was very peaceful and another good point was that the seawall wasn’t too crowded. We rode along the water and beaches on our right, and the flowers and trees on our left. After we returned our bikes we wanted to reward ourselves! Tatjana had the great idea to get ice cream and it was delicious.

In the evening I met an old friend. Martin from Denmark, once was a candidate at INTERNeX and decided to visit Vancouver again. Of course I had to see him, so we went out for a few drinks at a brewery in Olympic Village. It was really nice to catch up and to hear all about his life in Denmark. He’s now doing fashion photography and his pictures are awesome! Recently he worked with a big fashion company in Europe. I love that INTERNeX connected us years ago and that I got a chance to meet him again. 🙂

The next morning however, I felt the cold wetness in my bones from the day before and I needed to rest. Thankfully a day was enough to make me feel better, so I’m prepared for all the fun things we’ve planned for this week! Tomorrow we are going to watch ‘Top Gun’ at Second Beach in Stanley Park. Meeting is at 8pm, so we get a good spot, plus we have enough time to watch the sunset. 🙂 Wednesday we’ll meet for our beloved pub night, 7pm at Mango’s.

I hope to see you all tomorrow or Wednesday!

Cheers,

Laura 🙂

What to do on the weekend?

This weekend INTERNeX is going on a bike ride along the sea wall around Stanley Park. Definitely a must do while you are here. The route offers beautiful views, close to the ocean and the parks forest, while technically being in the city. It’s a unique park with lots of different areas to explore. We could of course walk around as well, but that would take a long time and it’s not quite as fun as biking. Don’t worry you don’t need to have your own bike, we can just rent them right at Stanley Park. 🙂

Another great activity for weekends is hiking. Vancouver is perfect for a day in the nature since it’s so close and has so much to offer. There’s numerous trails around that you can choose from. I recommend getting the AllTrails app. It shows you maps, routes, difficulties of the trails, time, etc. There’s also comments and tips from others that have been hiking those trails which can be really useful. Make sure to check out our ‘Hiking Survival Guide’ as well before you head out to your adventure.

If you like Music Festivals at the beach this one’s for you. The Vancouver Folk Music Festival takes place at Jericho Beach this weekend. It’s a unique, community-based celebration of contemporary and traditional folk and roots music. There’ll be artists from Korea, Chile, Mexico, Taiwan, India, Finland, the USA, and Canada. A day pass is $68.60.

In case you want a cultural program, but are short on money, you can get a free guided tour through one of the most beautiful and historic concert halls in North America. Vancouver Civic Theatres offers a 90 minute walking tour, led by the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame at the Orpheum theatre, which was built in 1927 and is now a National Heritage site. Fun Fact: Frank Sinatra got kicked out of the theatre once, for breaking one of the dressing room lights while practicing his golf swing.

Looking for something to do in the evening? Good news, the Richmond Night Market is still going on till October! It is the largest Night Market in North America and attracts over 1 million visitors each year. There’s lots of booths and unique food, sometimes live music on the stage and other fun activities. General Admission is only $6, so I’d say if you have the chance you should definitely go and check it out. These are their hours of operation: Friday: 7PM-12AM; Saturday: 6PM-12AM; Sunday: 7PM-11PM

So, what are you going to this weekend? Are you team active or team culture? Or maybe both?

I look forward to hearing about your weekends next Wednesday at pub night. Hopefully I’ll see lots of you on our bike ride. 🙂

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Laura 🙂

How was your weekend?

Maybe we experienced the last bit of sun this weekend. But let’s see what we or I did this weekend.

My Friday evening was quite relaxed. I spent a wonderful evening with my host family in White Rock. First, we had a look at the renewed pier, because it was closed for a while. After that we went to a cool and well known restaurant, at least in the area. After nachos and something to drink, we enjoyed the clear evening air and drove back home.

Saturday it was time to meet with the INTERNeX crew. We went on a bike tour with some of you. We met at the Waterfront Station and rented bicycles. Then it started for us. We drove the complete sea wall. Thank God, we got good weather and the thunderstorm that came later didn’t affect us. We needed about an hour and 15 minutes and after we had finished our bike tour everyone went their own way. Since I was already in Downtown, I thought that I could browse a bit in the shops and yes, of course I bought something. I couldn’t hold myself back. Then I headed home and watched a movie with my host family.

On Sunday I went for a brunch in Fort-Langley in the morning. If you’ve never been there before, Fort-Langley is a super sweet little town with lots of small antiques shops where you can experience a real journey through time. At least I found it really exciting to see objects from 1920. I spent a few hours in Fort-Langley before I made my way back. And then it was finally time to eat something German again, I was invited to eat, and it was cooked extra traditional German food. After three months in Canada, which I do not want to miss in any case, there are times in which one misses the food from the homeland. I was really full after I finished the food, on the train I almost napped, but I managed to wait until I got home.

Hope you all had a nice weekend and even if it’s rather dull weather today, I wish you a good start into the week.

See you at the PUB NiGHT on Wednesday!

-Lilly

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?

It’s Monday, so sadly the weekend is over. I hope you are all doing well and enjoyed the extra day off. Here is a little recap of what happened over the weekend.

Despite the weather forecast, it was great weather on Saturday and Sunday. So on Saturday, a few of us met up to ride bikes in Stanley Park. Once we got our cruisers, we were on our way. We followed the bike path around the park by the seawall. Thus, we had spectacular views the whole time. Further, we were able to see the water planes take off, which was quite impressive. We stopped a few times to take some nice pictures. One of our first stops was the Brockton Point Lighthouse.

After a while we split up as some wanted to make more stops and also hung around at some spots and enjoyed the view. Some of us continued with the bike ride. We saw Lions Gate Bridge, which leads to North and West Vancouver. We also saw the Girl in a Wetsuit, which is a statue on a rock out in the water. Afterwards, we passed the amazing beaches the park has to offer. At Third Beach we had a break to have some ice cream. Towards the end of our bike ride, we passed by the Lost Lagoon, and there were a lot of cute baby geese. Overall, it was a fun and cool way to explore the park. Thanks to everyone who came and joined us!

I actually enjoyed Stanley Park so much, that I went there the next day again. But this time I walked, which was a bit more relaxing. On Sunday, I also explored the center of Stanley Park. It was really neat and remarkable to see, how much nature there is, considering that we are in a big city.

Stanley Park is beautiful and has so much to offer. I highly recommend visiting the park, if you have not done so yet. Especially, if you want to get away form the stress of the city,  it’s the prefect place to relax.

Have a good day!

-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