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 :))

How was the weekend?

This past weekend INTERNeX went on a special excursion on the open ocean with one mission: Spot some whales in their natural habitat.

The day started early(ish) at 10.30am where we got to drive from Canada Place all the way down to Steveston where the whale watching company is based. Steveston itself is such a cute little fisher town with artisan shops, good food and a pier that resembles the famous pier in San Fransisco if you ask me. There’s also a fresh fish market and lots of other things to do, so if you’re still looking for areas to explore around Vancouver I recommend you check this one out. 🙂

Shortly after our arrival we headed over to the boat that was going to take us out on the water. We grabbed some comfortable seats and enjoyed the fresh ocean air around us. The boat was quite fast and it was fun going over the small waves with it. We didn’t have to search long until we saw some beautiful humpback whales playing in the water. We could see them blowing out water, swimming, turning, waving at us with their fins and even a few tails came to the surface. They got pretty close to the boat and the most amazing thing to me was not just seeing them, but being able to hear them as well. It felt majestic being so close to these huge animals in the water. They stayed for a long time with us and we even saw some Orcas passing through. Unfortunately these types of orcas are an endangered species, only 75 of them are left here in BC. In order to let them roam and hunt freely we kept our distance and didn’t engage further with the animals. After we’ve spent a bunch of time with the humpbacks we explored further for other marine life like sea lions and harbour seals who were living their best life on a bunch of big rocks. We could get a close look at them and even though they are dangerous wild animals they looked so adorable! After hanging out with the sea lions the wind got cold on the boat and we were heading back to shore successfully! We’ve experienced the sight of humpback whales, orcas, sea lions, harbour seals and cool birds. The weather was great since it wasn’t raining and the sun was showing every now and then, making the water sparkle. Before going back to Downtown Vancouver we had a few minutes to warm up and took the chance to buy some delicious mini doughnuts.

Overall I’d say it was a pretty amazing day that will be remembered. 🙂

How about you? How was your weekend? What did you do? Tell me more about it at Pub Night!

Cheers,

Laura 🙂

New ‘Kids’ on the Blog

Another dose of interesting information about our new ‘kids’ is waiting for you, so let’s get right into it!

Mia (she/her) is from Frankfurt, Germany and will attend a language school for a month before doing a volunteer practicum in event management and fashion. She graduated High School and is now taking a gap year to figure out what she’d like to do next. With tis experience she’s trying something new and different. Right now she’s thinking about studying law or economics next year, but nothing’s certain yet. She picked Canada because she’s never been here, but her dad studied in Van when he was about 25 and absolutely loved it which is why Mia now had to come and see for herself. So far she noticed many different cultures and that there’s so much to see in the big city with surrounding nature. It definitely won’t get boring! On her bucket list is a ski trip to Whistler, what a great idea for the winter! In her free time Mia likes to go running or to play tennis, anyone down for a match? 

Next we have Felicitas (she/her) from Munich, Germany. She’s currently attending a language school for the first 4 weeks before starting her volunteer practicum at a cultural non-for-profit, mainly helping with marketing, communication and events. She finished High School in summer and has been travelling A LOT in Europe and North America. Some places include: Berlin, Paris, Prague, Venice, Barcelona, Marseille, Menorca, and the East Coast of the US and Canada with cities like New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Toronto and Montreal! She’s also been in a boarding school in the UK and it’s clear Felicitas LOVES travelling. After her time here she wants to improve her French skills by maybe doing a farm stay or au pair in France and the start her studies next October, maybe in Management. She picked Canada because she likes Canadians more than Americans and she wanted to go far away from home, excellent reason I’d say. 😉 She also thinks Vancouver is a city a lot of young people go to and likes that. Her first impression was pretty good as she describes seeing the nature from the airplane and having lots off friendly encounters with people here. She also noticed right away that Vancouver is very multicultural. On her bucket list are skiing in winter at the best place possible, exploring nature, hiking, or anything near the water. She’d also love to celebrate Thanksgiving, so if you have a great plan, let her know! Her hobbies are playing tennis, badminton, going skiing, playing the piano, cooking and baking. She told us about her raspberry chocolate muffins and they sound delicious! Fun Fact: She hates anything that’s sticky or oily.

Here’s Jesper (he/him) from Germany, near Hannover and he’ll be staying with us for 2 months doing a volunteer practicum in law which fits perfectly into his future plans of studying law once he’s back in Germany. Before coming here he just finished High School. Canada is a nice country he says, which is why he picked it for his time abroad. The first thoughts about Vancouver were that it’s an impressive, as well as beautiful city. On his bucket list are watching an Ice Hockey game and go skiing, I’d say he picked the perfect season for that. We should do a ski trip in December don’t you think? 😉 Other than skiing Jesper enjoys playing soccer and basketball in his free time. 

Let me tell you a bit about Darius (he/him). He’s from Lüneburg in Germany and here in Canada to travel for 6 months. He picked this amazing country because there’s a lot of beautiful nature around. Vancouver he says, is a big city and he’d love to explore it, but then he’d also love to go to Banff and hike Garibaldi lake as a day hike. Good luck Darius, that’s a tough one! Make sure you take hiking buddy with you. 🙂 Other than exploring he is also here to meet cool people and make new friends to maybe join his adventures. I’d say he’s in the right place for that. Before coming here he actually started an apprenticeship but didn’t like it, so he quit and decided to take some time to travel instead, how brave and adventurous! When he’s back he might go back to school but before he wants to travel the world and meet amazing people. Same Darius, same. When he’s not travelling he likes to play basketball and go swimming. We can’t wait to hear about all your travel adventures and hope you have a great time in Canada. 

We hope you all do! We’ll talk more about your plans and experiences next pub night. See you there!

Cheers, 

Laura

Fall in the Rockies

Can you believe it? We went to the Rockies once again and this time you could definitely feel the crisp autumn weather roaming through the majestic mountains. We were so lucky with the though, as it was sunny and all the leaves were dressed in gold like honey and wildfire. The contrast to the blue mountains and the dark green pine trees made the picture perfect at last. A highlight of the trip was to see Mount Robson’s mountain top which is only visible about 30 days a year! Robson is the tallest mountain in the Rockies and very impressive to look at. That’s not the only cool thing we saw, there were waterfalls and lakes AND we saw two bears, three elk and a mountain goat! They all came out to show themselves before heading into the cold winter season. 

Cold is definitely the right word to describe the temperature at the Athabasca Glacier that most of us visited to grab some pure clear glacier water and experience walking on the blue ice. The rest of us decided to take a walk to the foot of the glacier wich was beautiful but so windy that we had to hold on to our hats very tight. 😀 The Athabasca falls on the other hand were not that cold, they were just beautiful with their turquoise green colour of the water and strength, going down the cliffs, even creating a little rainbow. 🙂 

We arrived in Banff on day two in the evening and after an eventful day we started the night slowly with dinner and drinks at a bar. We tried Elk meat on Pizza and Burgers which is very typical for Alberta and of course we enjoyed a few beers with our food, enough to get us going to the club afterwards! This night we danced and drank and talked like we had all the energy in the world. We also met the people from the other tour that went to the Rockies, so that added extra fun to our night. 😉 

The next morning was not quite as much fun as you can imagine. Most of us slept for only three hours when we met on the bus to go have a lil breakfast at beautiful Lake Minnewanka. Two brave polar bears even went for a dip in the ice cold lake! The same two won our lake challenge which was going into every lake on our trip. There were 4 in total. The first one was Bow Lake, then there was Lake Minnewanka, next up was Lake Louise and the last one was Moraine Lake. I mean who can say they’ve swam in Canadas most beautiful glacier lakes? Not many, because trust me they are super COLD and you have to be a little crazy to do that. We even had people watch us go in cause they thought it was amusing watching us suffer in the cold water. 😀 The feeling when you get back out is indescribable though, the cold disappears and you feel like a new person. I highly recommend trying a cold plunge sometime as it also has many health benefits, but maybe start with something a little warmer than a glacier lake. 😉

The gondola was next on the itinerary blessing people with beautiful mountain views and an almost 360 degree platform to catch every single mountain top around. After being high up, there was some free time to enjoy the town of Banff with its cute shops and cafes. That day we also had our Thanksgiving dinner in Golden with the classics: turkey, mashed potato, gravy, squash, carrots, cranberry sauce and stuffing. It was delicious and the whole restaurant was booked just for us. 🙂 For dessert we had s’mores around the campfire and some used the appliances in the hotel including a hot tub, sauna and pool with waterslide. After all the dips in the cold lakes that must’ve felt really good! 

Overall it was an amazing trip with so much to see and so many fun activities to do. We had an unforgettable time and know we’ll be back one day. Now it’s winter season in the Rockies, we caught the last nice weekend before snow hits soon. But for all who couldn’t go in summer/fall, let me assure you, the Rockies are beautiful in the winter as well, actually I’d say they’re always worth a visit. 😉 

I hope you had a great weekend as well and I can’t wait to hear more about it at Pub Night.

Cheers, 

Laura 🙂 

New ‘Kids’ on the Blog

Have you had a chance to meet our new ‘kids’ yet? If not, then let me introduce them to you! 

Elias (he/him) is from Bonn in Germany and here with us for about three months. During that time he’ll be volunteer at an animal care centre which has wild and domestic animals. He loves animals of all sorts as they are part of nature and he’d love to help them. He just finished school and when he goes back home he’d like to study chemistry. He picked Canada as destination because of the landscape, the language and because he loves hiking, hunting and fishing. That’s definitely popular amongst many Canadians as well, so you’re in the right place Elias. 😉 His first impression of Vancouver is that it’s bigger than it first seems and there’s a lot of people around, even tough the population sounds smaller. On his bucket list are a visit to the Rocky Mountains, exploring nature and maybe even do a survival trip in the wilderness! At home he likes to play the piano and meet his friends. Fun Fact: Elias is half Turkish and therefore speaks Turkish fluently. 😉 

Here we have Clara (she/her) from the beautiful Sauerland in Germany. Clara loves animals as well and wants to do something meaningful while in Canada which is why she’ll be volunteering at a cat sanctuary for the next 6 weeks. At home she just finished High School and when she’s back she -same as Elias- wants to study chemistry. And no, there’s no relation, this is just a fun coincidence. 😉 Her parents been in Canada before and told her to go to Vancouver instead of cities like New York for example because they find it way more beautiful here. I can only agree! Clara likes Vancouver so far because it has everything the heart desires: mountains, city and ocean. While she’s here there’s nothing specific on her bucket list, just experiencing as much as possible! Her hobbies include horseback riding, pilates, swimming and playing the flute. A fun fact about her is that she’s the friend that talks too loud. 😀 If you know, you know. 😉

Pascal (he/him) is from Oberhausen in Germany. He’s going to stay with us for 6 months, how exciting! He’s already thinking about staying maybe longer depending on how it goes. 🙂 His volunteer practicum is very versatile with lots of different tasks including projects about carbon neutral practices, etc. His expertise is engineering which he just finished studying back home. He specializes in heating, lighting and ventilation of buildings. It was actually a co-op degree where he had the chance to gain some practical work experience on top of his theoretical classes. He might want to specialize more in energy with a masters program once he’s back, but he’s not quite sure yet. He picked Canada – and also this season – because he really likes the rain, how it paints the forest lush green, the fog and really the whole vibe of Raincouvers nature. He’s here to experience it all. On his bucket list is seeing a black bear, go to Vancouver Island and do lots of hiking. That’s a great itinerary I think. His first impression of Vancouver was that it’s a big city and a bit dirty at first, but he’s not surprised and believes it has some really nice corners and some that you just better avoid. In his free time he likes to play piano and sports, his favourite is probably Taekwondo which he’s been practicing for a long time now. Another fun fact: Pascal sings in a choir since 2016! Sounds like we gotta take him to Karaoke night, what do y’all think? 😉

I’m excited for you to get to know them all better and as always stay tuned for more new ‘kids’ on the blog coming soon. 😉

Cheers,

Laura