What to do on the weekend? – Snowy Ideas

This weekend will be breezy with a good chance of snow in Vancouver! So, what’s there to do?

One thing that’s always a good idea is a trip to Whistler. Come with us on our day trip to guarantee a snowy weekend in the mountains of BC. Whether you want to ski, snowboard, ride a snowmobile, go dogsledding, tubing, snow shoeing, ice skating, zip lining, or maybe explore the village with less action loaded activities like the peak 2 peak gondola, a day at the Scandinavian Spa, a visit at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, or other indoor activities like Ax Throwing, or an Escape Room adventure. Whistler offers so much, I’m sure there’s something to do for every preference and budget. Sometimes I like to just sit at one of the many great cafes, drink a hot beverage and warm up from strolling along the snow covered village paths, really can’t go wrong with that! Saying that, make sure you dress warm enough, the air is always a little colder up North than it is down here in Vancouver! I recommend multiple layers of warm functional wear. Also don’t forget to pack according to the activities you’ve planned, e.g. want to go to the spa? – Bring a Bikini. I sure am excited for our Canadian Winter adventure. 🙂

If you choose to stay here, there are multiple other things you could do. How about you visit one of the local mountains, like Grouse? There you also have the chance to go ski, snowboard, snowshoe, or just sightsee what the mountain has to offer e.g. the Light walk which I would recommend after dark and imagine there’s actually snow falling while you walk through this magical winter wonderland! You can easily get there by public transit. There’s also a cafe at the top where you can warm yourself up with a hot beverage and some food. 🙂 On your way you could also stop at the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park which lights up your gloomy winter days with many colourful installations along the trails! Perfect for some nice Instagram shots, or to get a little happiness boost during this dark and cold season. 😉 If there’s actually going to be snow, then I imagine it to be extra pretty!

If you’d rather escape the cold temperatures this weekend why don’t you go to the movies? My recommendation is to check out some of the movies VIFF (Vancouver International Film Festival) is showing. I assure you it’s different from watching the same old Hollywood Blockbusters. VIFF shows extraordinary films that can be entertaining, educational, empowering, encouraging and much more. You’ll find local artists, artists of colour and you’ll probably walk away thinking about what you’ve watched for a little while after your visit. ‘VIFF encourages understanding of the world’s cultures through the art of cinema.’ Since they are a not-for-profit organization you’d also support what they do by going to one of their movies. Why not try something new and different? Maybe you’ll like it. 🙂 And did I mention their delicious popcorn? I usually get it buttered and I feel like I can smell it right as I’m writing this. 😀

Let me know what you’ve been up to at our next Pub Night! Can’t wait. 🙂

See ya,

Laura 🙂

Candidate Exposé – Lukas Hug

New week, new candidate – rather a new “old” candidate.

I am happy to present the story of Lukas, our previous INTERNeXer 🙂 glad he shared all his special memories with us.

Today it’s all about Lukas, a 25-year old student from Germany. During his time in Canada he did his bachelor degree in economics but now he’s already finishing his master’s degree in Finance and Accounting in Munich. Originally, he’s from the Black Forest. Additional fact 😉 – in his free time he likes to play soccer by the sea.

First things first, he enjoyed his time abroad very much. Since he wanted to work and live abroad for his entire life, the day Timothy visited his university and did a presentation about the programs INTERNeX has to offer, made Lukas’ decision. In this context a huge thank you to the INTERNeX team for making this opportunity possible for him. He did a practicum with a wealth management company which is a common company especially in Canada and the US. Primarily his tasks were to organize and taking part in networking events mostly to get new clients as well as recruiting and consulting tasks. He also did some office organization jobs which definitely sounds like an interesting and varied workday.

Furthermore, he enjoyed being in a multicultural department with 4 guys from France, England, Poland, and Russia helping people to invest and save money with e.g., retirement plans or providing support in insurance tasks. There’s not only one thing that was the best about his stay in Canada, it’s a collection of memories. He really enjoyed being surrounded by friendly open-minded people who are always polite and tolerant. Because of this it was always easy to get to know new people from all over the world. For him it was not only about improving his language skills, but also getting work experiences in an international atmosphere. Another interesting fact he pointed out is the difference in financial planning between Germany and Canada as well as the different processes being used. This practicum helped him a lot to see finance from another point of view.

From the first moment on, Vancouver was a big adventure for Lukas. It all started with waiting for 5 hours at the immigration office because they were so busy. After that, he was able start to enjoy his stay with a BBQ at Kitsilano Beach organized by his host family. It was a great chance to get to know each other.

He enjoyed many of the INTERNeX events such as almost every pubnight on Wednesday. Additionally, he participated in a soccer club which is a funny story…. On his way to a hiking trip to grouse mountain he just spotted some guys playing soccer. He watched them until one of them asked him to join. He didn’t wait to be asked twice. From this moment on he was part of the team and participated in the training and games every week. He also enjoyed all the hiking trails like Garibaldi Lake or Grouse Mountain where he enthusiastically enjoyed the amazing view. However, for him, the Rocky Mountains trip was next to his trip to Victoria to meet some friends, for sure the best experience.

In his words he gave 5 out of 5 stars to the INTERNeX Team, his experiences, and the whole stay in Canada!!
Thanks Lukas

Have a great week 🙂

Cheers,

– Tatjana

INTERNeX International Exchange
2005-689 Abbott St., Vancouver, BC, V6B 0J2
Web: http://www.internexcanada.com
Email: pr@internexcanada.com

What to Do on the Weekend?

How fast the week has passed by and we are again facing a wonderful weekend ahead of us. And what great things are there to do this weekend – have a read below!

Vancouver as a very outdoorsy and sportive city of course celebrates its 10 Year Anniversary of the 2010 Winter Olympics. So for all sports enthusiasts, on Saturday,
February 22, from 11am to 6pm, a free fan festival will be held at Jack Poole Plaza, which is part of the Vancouver Convention Centre, which was the International Broadcast Centre during the Games. The festival offers athlete meet and greets, stage performances, sport demonstrations, lots of food and drinks, the relighting of the Olympic Cauldron, and other fun activities.

For those of you who would like to learn more about the local indigenous tribes and their traditional performances, you should consider attending the Talking Stick Festival. It is running from Friday, February 21 to Sunday, February 23 in various locations. This indigenous performing arts festival features artists and scholars, who come together to celebrate indigenous performing arts with the help of theatre, storytelling, writing, music, spoken word, dance, film and visual arts. Its 2020 theme is Chén̓chenstway, “upholding each other, lifting each other up”.

Being concerned with the indigenous culture, Stanley Park Ecology Society hosts a walk & workshop on indigenous plant use this weekend on Saturday. By walking through the park’s forest with an indigenous guide of Coast Salish descent, you will learn about edible, medicinal, and survival uses of plants, as well as the traditional and present-day indigenous use of and relationships with local plant and wildlife. You can register for this event online.

For everyone motivated in spending a part or even the whole weekend skiing or
snowboarding, Grouse Mountain is opening its doors for 24 consecutive hours of winter
fun! From February 22 until February 23, including sundown to sunrise, you can dance, ride or skate the night away under the night sky as DJs play cool tracks. Ski down Grouse’s beautiful slopes as long as you want to or simply dance the night away on Vancouver’s mountain roof top. Complimentary shuttles will run to make it easier to access this great event.

And then, not to forget, there is the movie night at Anniina’s place!! Her apartment building offers a really cool movie theatre that you guys should check out this weekend. Find more info and the link to an extra group in our Whatsapp group.

I hope this blog post gives you some inspiration for your weekend, enjoy every moment of it!! See you very soon! 😀

– Felicitas

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?

The last full week before Christmas has started, so lets get it on. This is also the last official week, where Christmas music in the office is .. let’s say ,tolerated’. So go out and enjoy .. at last this is what will be doing!

The weekend has been very active. Saturday morning the INTERNeX crew gathered in downtown for a very adventurous trip to the mountains. And by ‘in the morning’ I basically mean in the middle of the night, as it was still dark outside and not even coffee was working effectively against the jawning. Besides that it must have been very entertaining for outsiders to see us struggling with the heavy equipment making our way through downtown. Eventually we actually made it to the bus and headed towards Grouse Mountain.  The gondola took us all the way up the mountain and the first snow was to be seen. Some of us, maybe especially the Australian, bursted out in excitement by seeing the beautiful white wonderland. Apparently snow isn’t so common in down under ;-). Some of us decided it would be a better idea to rent out the equipment up the mountain, therefore the first stop has been the rental store. Those who rented there stuff in downtown waited outside, and decided to prepare for a little snowball attack to give the other ones a warm welcome as soon as they’d leave the rental store. Yes we know, this is incredibly grown up … :-D. As the waiting time turned out to be a lot longer than we expected, we ended up firing all the ammunition on each other. Of course we had enough time to even prepare a second round for the ones inside, which they clearly
appreciated… not ;-D. 
Anyways we finally managed to get up the mountain, put on those skies and/or snowboards and more or less successfully went down the slopes. For lunch we treated ourselves with pizza and some other semi-healthy snacks and cool beer and ciders before we went back out in the snow. Also discovering the fact that snowboards are the perfect toboggans, was a lot of fun and apparently a pretty good way to get down a slope if you are struggling to do it the recommended way, with your feet on the board. We also discovered that exactly that is apparently undesirable … spoilsports!

After this very long and exhausting day we got into the shuttle back to downtown. What a fantastic day. I cannot wait to go again. 

Sunday I went on a little hike to the Quarry Rock and we actually enjoyed a stunning view from up there. As it was raining in North Vancouver and the sun shining in Vancouver, the sky looked breathtaking. So in case you haven’t been there – this is definelty a place to see!

So far so good. 

I hope you already bought your Secret Santa.
In case you don’t really know what a secret Santa is and it will be working, check out the blog tomorrow as an explanation will follow.

Have a fantastic start into the new week! 

Cheers,
Nadja x

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?

The weekend is behind us, but before we start with this week, let’s take a look at what happened this weekend.

On Friday evening some of us went out. It was Julius’ 19th birthday, which means he is finally an adult in Canada, so of course we had to celebrate it. Our original plan was to go to the Pint, but due to technical problems it closed when we got there. So instead, we went to the Met. We stayed there for a bit. Afterwards, we headed to the Roxy, where we spent the rest of the night. It was a great evening.

On Sunday we hiked up the Grouse Grind. We met at 12.15 and had to wait quite a while, as our bus was late. Finally arriving at the bottom of the mountain, we got ready and then started our hike. The trail has quarter marks and the first quarter of the trail is suppose to be easier than the second and third one, but honestly for me they were all the same. Also, if you are already exhausted after the first quarter, it is recommended to turn back around, because it is not possible later on. I’m not going to lie, I actually considered turning around after the first quarter. The trail is almost 3 km long with an  elevation gain of 850 m and over 2,800 steps. So you can imagine how challenging it was. Thus, everybody went at their own pace. All of us finished the hike in under 2 hours. Up at the peak, we enjoyed the amazing view and of course also took some pictures. On the mountain, we also looked at the grizzly bears. Afterwards, we headed back down with the gondola.

It was a very exhausting hike and to be honest, I am not planning on doing it again any time soon. Nevertheless, it was a memorable experience. Thanks to everyone who joined. I’m proud of you and now you get to say, you hiked up Grouse Mountain.

Have a good day and see you on Wednesday at PubNiGHT!

-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