Starting the week on a Wednesday sounds pretty cool, right? Well, wait till I tell you about my weekend, because that was even cooler than just having a three working-day week.
On Saturday morning, I met 27 of you guys for our four-day trip to the Rocky Mountains. 6.45am seems pretty early, but the time that was lying ahead of us was worth the hustle of getting up so early. The bus took off at 7.30am and our adventure started. We got to know our West Trek tour-guide Hayley and bus-driver Lucien, who made this entire trip so much fun! Thank you to the two of you.
Our first stop was Hope, where we had some fun times at the playground and could 
just walk around the picturesque village. Aboard the coach again, we played some games, listened to music and started to get to know each other better. We had lunch in Kamloops and made a short stop at the Spahats Falls. And so, after a 9-hour drive in the bus, we finally arrived at our first night’s stay in Valemount. The evening activity there: Hockey in the Rockies. Teamed up and ready to win, both the “Pride Dragons” and “Tigers” chased the ball to score some goals.
While some of you were still playing, I settled down at the bonfire and enjoyed the last hours of our first day. We had some easy conversations, listened to Hayley playing the Ukulele, sang along to ‘Riptide’ and ‘Country Roads’ and just enjoyed the view of the mountains. At around 1am I decided to get some sleep, because I knew that we had a tight and busy schedule the upcoming days.
On Sunday morning at 7.45am, it was time for us to depart from Valemount. It was a stressful morning and I was quite relieved that I did not have to sing when I boarded the coach (the West Trek rule is that the person coming late has to sing a song for the entire bus). We had our first scenic Rocky Mountains stop at Mt. Robson. It is the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies and it gave us the opportunity to have a breakfast with a view. 
Afterwards, we all had the chance to take beautiful pictures with this giant mountain in the background. We boarded the bus again and drove to our next stop: The Athabasca Falls. Even though we had to leave quite soon after we arrived, everyone had the chance to take a stunning picture of and/or with the falls.
But the next stop promised some more breathtaking views: Athabasca Glacier. Already on our way to the icy phenomenon, Hayley taught us about the formation of glaciers and the relation to icefields. From the distance, we could see the Columbia Icefield, which is one of the biggest accumulations of ice south of the arctic. Some of us went up the glacier in a special bus called snowcoach. Personally, I did not join. Some of you just spent the time at the foot of the Glacier with me, having lunch and hiking through the moraine.
After the “Snowcoach-Group” returned, we boarded the bus again and continued the trip to Peyto Lake. Wow, what a beautiful place! The water was turquoise blue and the view was just breathtaking. Another perfect location to take stunning pictures your friends will envy you for. 😉 After this stop, we just had one more task to fulfil: The Polar Bear Swim in Bow Lake!
The bravest among us got ready to be cooler than they’ve ever been before. Of course, you’ve always been cool, guys – but I think you know what I mean. So, to visualize it: 20 crazy INTERNeX-people running into ice-cold water, screaming at the top of their lungs and cheering with the kicking-in of adrenalin. FUN! Great job to those who did it! I really enjoyed it and can only recommend doing it.
Back in the bus, we were all looking forward to making it to our accommodation for the night in Banff: a cute, beautiful little village. We spent the evening having dinner, shopping souvenirs and getting ready for our night out. And besides celebrating the great group and the new friendships we made, we also had a special anniversary that night: Henrike turned 19! Happy birthday, again. I hope you had an unforgettable night. I walked back to the hotel at around 1am, I did not want to be too tired the next day.
To not overwhelm you with everything, I will tell you about the last two days tomorrow. Make sure you don’t miss out on the blog post!
I hope to see you tonight for PuB NiGHT at the Beaver Bar.
– Elisabeth
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
This year Canada became 148 years old. In 1867 the British North America Act (today called Constitution Act) united the three colonies Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada into a single federation. The first event of the day, called Waterfront Party, started at Canada Place and was featuring various entertainments like live music, activities for children, street hockey, an armed forces show, a circus show and lots of food carts, as well. Next up was the Canada Day Parade. To finish the day with a bang, there was a firework, which we had a great view of from Canada Place.
In July we had a couple of nice alternatives to our regular Pub NiGHTS. We went to one of Vancouver’s most beautiful places: Queen Elizabeth Park and had a picnic-dinner together with pancakes, fruits, meatballs, salad, … and the list went on! After stuffing ourselves we played ball, chatted and laughed a lot.
Aside from the fireworks competition, called Celebration of Lights, there was a festival at Sunset Beach with various entertainment, vendor stalls and musical showcases.
The following day we had a little bit more spare time where we could decide whether we would like going up the Banff Gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountains or simply exploring Banff before heading to Golden. On the way to Golden we stopped at Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, which are regarded as two of the most famous places in the Rockies. The last day of our amazing tour we traveled back to Vancouver but not without passing Okanagan Valley to see the Last Spike and Othello Tunnels.
Champions League. The CONCACAF league includes all soccer teams from North and Central America as well as the Caribbean. That means the match between the Vancouver Whitecaps against Olympia from Honduras was quite a big deal. Before we marched together with many other Whitecaps supporters to BC Place we met up with the language school students at Doolin’s Irish Pub.
Natasja, a 23-year-old student from the Netherlands, who came to Vancouver for doing a practicum as part of her Bachelor study program. As a PR Coordinator she was responsible for organizing trips in and outside Vancouver, organizing Pub NiGHTS but also the contact person when a candidate encountered difficulties.
The itinerary is basically the same: we first stopped in Hope, Kamloops, then Valmont, Jasper, Golden and Banff. Among others we visited Mount Robson, the Last Spike, Lake Louise and many other highlights you need to see when you are in the Rockies. To make a long story short we saw tons of gorgeous places and had an amazing time with our tour guide who we called Papa Wolf. To get more information about our Rockies trip, click here for 
Everyone brought food, drinks and snacks. Chris brought a volleyball and Laura a Frisbee so we could throw around. Proudly I can say that we enjoyed the summer to the fullest!
INTERNeX Canada 