The Rockies Review – Part 1

As I am writing this blog post I am having some mixed feelings. I am sad because our trip to the Rockies is behind us. I am relieved that everything went well. I am happy because I have some time to rest now. I am also thankful for all the great memories we made during this trip. This weekend was something I am never going to forget.

I still can’t quite process how much sightseeing we managed to do during these past few days. I am not even trying to list all the places we saw since that would require a lot of space and I don’t think it would be that interesting to read. For a change I am going to tell you more about few things that were the highlights of the trip for me.

On our way to Banff we stopped at Glacier Discovery Centre. It was time to have a nice walk on a glacier. We hopped on to this vehicle called “the Ice Explorer”, which is especially designed for driving on a glacier. The weather was spoiling us as it was a sunny day and you didn’t really even need a jacket outside. We spent some time walking around the glacier, taking pics (ofcourse) and enjoying the amazing view. There was supposed to be an opportunity to get some super pure water straight from the glacier but it had been snowing so much the previous day that we didn’t find any running water. Instead we ended up collecting some snow from the glacier to our water bottles. I mean it kinda does the job, doesn’t it?

Half way through our trip we spent a night in Banff. A stunning little town surrounded by breathtaking mountains. The night in Banff was a party night for us and we sure partied like there was no tomorrow. The next day it was time to explore the town itself a bit more. Checkout from the hotel was early and our party group was feeling pretty tired after having only few hours of sleep. We made a great plan and decided to visit Banff Upper Hot Springs which was located only a 10-minute-drive away. There we spent a relaxed sunny morning in steaming hot water. The views from the pool to the Rocky Mountains were absolutely gorgeous. What else can you wish for?

As mentioned, this weekend was super eventful, and this was only a sneak peak of the whole trip. If I were to tell you every single thing about the trip, I would have to write a book. What can I say; this trip is something you really have to experience yourself. Thanks to everyone who participated. I had such a great time with you all and without you guys it wouldn’t have been this amazing!

-Jasmin xx

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 Rocky Mountains 2019

Have you wondered how awesome would a trip to the Rockies be? Would you want to visit a beautiful city called Banff? Are you thinking what would be the best way to make it happen? Well I got some good news for you; INTERNeX is going to The Rocky Mountains in April and only thing you have to do is to make sure you sign up on time! Now I will take some time to tell you more about our Rockies trip.

We will see a lot of stunning views and visit some famous lakes. Here are some of the places that I’ve heard are included (depending on the weather ofc); Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Two Jack Lake, Jasper and Columbia Icefields. If you want you can take the Lake Louise Gondola to explore some amazing views. I think we will have a chance to try out the hot springs, which are actually not open after April. We will also get to see the Mount Robson which is the highest mountain of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

We will spend one night at a hotel in a beautiful mountain town called Banff. There we will have an option to go explore the city and sit down for some drinks. Good news for the 18-year-olds; we are in Alberta and you are allowed to have some drinks too if you feel like it! One of the nights is spent at Mountain View Cabins where we will sit down around a campfire and enjoy some hot chocolate and marshmallows.

The 4-day trip takes place from Friday 19th to Monday 22nd (the Easter weekend). You can find a Facebook event for the Rockies through this link https://www.facebook.com/events/1216877111822641/

Make sure to sign up for the trip before 5th of April!

-Jasmin xx

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?

Beloved Monday is here and it is time to talk a little about what went down during the weekend. Ice Hockey, Hot Springs and Seattle; for me it was one the busiest weekends in my life but it was totally worth it!

Weekend started off with a Canucks game at Rogers Arena. It was my first ice hockey game here in Vancouver and as I had assumed the atmosphere was very similar to our games in Finland. I was accompanied with Sara and Carolin who I met two weeks back at our orientation. The game was entertaining although we didn’t get to see any good fights (the part I was most excited about). Sadly Canucks lose to New Jersey in the end with penalties but we still had a great time with the girls.

On Saturday I was facing a super long day. We headed to Keyhole Hot Springs with few friends of mine. Day started off with a four-hour car drive including one hour of driving the bumpiest road I’ve ever seen. In case you don’t have a jeep don’t even think of going because the car won’t survive. After the drive it was time for the hike and since none of us had been there before we got lost at first. In the end we managed to find our way to the hot springs and it was time to step into the steaming hot water. After chilling in the ponds for couple hours and making some new friends it was time to head back home. You have to hike back before it gets dark since the trail is pretty challenging already during daytime (also there are bears and other animals in the area). On our way home we decided to stop by for dinner at Whistler, which was pretty much half way. It was my first time in Whistler and by the short time we spent there it seemed like a Winter Wonderland.

Sunday Funday in Seattle! The INTERNeX gang headed to Seattle on Sunday with a tour organized by West Trek. Buss started from Vancouver Downtown at 8 am. It took about an hour to get to the boarder where we had our passport check and then about two hours until we arrived to Seattle. First we had a quick tour with the West Trek guide and after that there was about five hours time to do what ever. The guide listed us the main attractions such as the Space Needle, MoPop Museum, Gum wall and the first Starbucks. We also checked the Seattle Great Wheel which was only 16 dollars and absolutely amazing. All in all St. Patrick’s Day treated us very well and the sun was shining the whole day.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend and the amazing weather!

This week’s PuB NiGHT will take place at the Beaver bar @8pm on Wednesday.

-Jasmin xx

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

Winter in the Rockies: Part 2

Sunday was a day full of sightseeing, including many ‘wow’ moments and a hurting hand from taking millions of pictures. How come you might ask? Well, here’s the story:

We left the hotel early in the morning by bus to spent some time on Lake Louise. Yes, you read it right, ON Lake Louise. The lake that is especially famous in Summer for its turquoise coloured water was completely frozen. This made it possible to not only walk over, but also skate on it. All the snow that covered the ice, the mountains and the trees additionally made it look even more like a winter wonderland.

Back on the bus. Next stop: Johnston Canyon. Located in Banff’s National Park, we walked through the canyon along catwalks. Some parts were quite slippery due to the ice, so we had to pick up a few people from the ground. Johnston Canyon has two waterfalls to marvel at, but time allowed us to look at the Lower Falls ‘only’.

The next stop on our sightseeing tour was testing our fear of heights a bit. The Banff Gondola brought us within 11 minutes up to a platform that allowed us to see the surrounding mountains. It was snowing a bit and there were clouds, but we still enjoyed the beauty of it. After lunch, we took the Gondola down again. It was time to soak in the hot springs! The hot water made us feel more than relaxed and we all felt warm and cozy when returning to the bus.

Emerald Lake was the next place we went to. Unfortunately, we could not see the beautiful, emerald water as the name promised (how could we expect this during winter..?), but we had fun anyway. There was a lot of snow on the ice and we all sank in it once or twice. And what else to do when there is a lot of snow? Of course: a snowball fight.

Then, It was finally time to get to our accommodation for the night, wooden cabins in Golden. Shortly after our arrival, we could pretend to be kids again by doing an Easter Egg Hunt. We all gathered around the campfire, warmed ourselves up, shared talks and played the game ‘Werewolf’. When it got dark, our tour guide had the amazing idea of doing a night hike through the forest. Fun, some of us even got lost. The evening ended with a big party in the barn, including limbo and a Lip Sync Battle. The highlight: everyone dancing to Gangnam Style.

Monday, 8am. What, the trip is almost over again? How is this even possible? Well, time flies when you’re having fun, as Angy already mentioned. So, we all packed our stuff, had breakfast and sat in the bus again. The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round… We were welcomed with wonderful weather in Kelowna, the perfect place to have lunch. And three hours further with the bus, we were in deep snow again. Time for the brave ones to do the Polar Roll. You put on your swimwear and roll yourself in the snow. Brrrh, far too cold for me, but congratulations to all of you who did it! Only three more hours and we are back in Vancouver. We used the time to play Bus Olympics and the DJ Battle.

I had the most wonderful time in the Rockies and enjoyed it to the fullest – I hope you feel the same way!

– Nadine

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?

Happy New Year! Goodbye 2017 and hello 2018! I wish you all the best luck and more beautiful moments during all your adventures. May it be in Canada, may it be somewhere else in the world. Before we can start talking about 2018, I first want to tell you how I experienced the last days of 2017.

The Christmas party on Thursday in the office was a good start to begin the holidays. We drank some eggnog with rum, beers and a lot of food, we were ready to continue our night in the Blarney Stone and later on karaoke in the Bourbon.

On Saturday we met up early in the morning to take the bus to the Rocky Mountains. It was a really cold trip, but what an amazing views! The first day of our trip, we drove to the cabins in Golden. We made S’mores above the campfire and we did a nightly glow-snow-shoe hike in the woods.

The next day we drove early in the morning towards Banff. We saw a lot of beautiful views along the way. The first activity we did today was snow tubing. After that, we stopped at Lake Louis to go Ice-skating. Later we also did a hike through Johnston Canyon to see the frozen waterfalls. We went back to the bus to make our last stop for today, we were in Banff! We dressed up nicely and went to a sushi place where we got served by a train. After the stomachs were filled, it was time to party. We began at a cheap pub before heading to nightclub Hoodoo.

Merry Christmas! It was the time of the year again. We started the day with viewing the sunrise at Lake Minnewanka and Two Jack Lake. Both were frozen and very beautiful. Because the temperature was minus 30 degrees, we decided to warm up in the hot springs in Banff. It was really strange sitting outside in your swimming pants with temperatures colder than your freezer. After we warmed up, we went up to Sulphur Mountain with the Gondola. Here we had a 360 degrees view over the landscape. It was definitely worth the cold. When we were down again, we drove back to Golden to have our Christmas diner. Even Santa Claus came to give us our Christmas presents. I went with our new friends to the hot tub and did a polar beer roll (rolling in the snow in our swimming pants) before going to the sauna. We ended this Christmas day around the campfire. Then the day arrived we had to go back to Vancouver. We stopped at some nice places to take photos and we did some fun games in the bus (which our side of the bus won of course).

You would think that we were exhausted after our trip, but because we are diehards we keep going. We had to say goodbye to two of our friends, Dawid and Maxine, who were about to leave Canada after several months. We met up at Malones for some drinks and went to the Met afterwards for some karaoke.

The next day was the perfect day for Ice Skating. So we went to the Ice rank on Robson to try out the ice. For some it was very easy, for others this was one of the first times ever they stand on skates. Later on we did some games and we ended up in the pub for a beer.

Friday was the last day of Julia with her host family. Because of that reason, her host family decided to throw a party for her. We had a really delicious diner, a cake and champagne. After a lot of laughs it was time to leave Surrey and go back to Vancouver.

On Saturday we decided to go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. The Capilano Light festival is still going on, so we enjoyed some nice views in the lighten-up park. When we were back in Vancouver, we met again with the rest of the group to play some games. After the games were finished, we went to the Roxy to close our night with some Jägerbombs and dances.

New years day! When the afternoon arrived, we did some games (surprise!) and popped a bottle of champagne. When the evening started, we headed to Canada place to see the firework show. When the show was over, it was time to go somewhere warmer, so the club it was. Once inside we counted down to the New Year with a balloon drop and some more champagne.

And now it is time to say hello to 2018! Let’s be real, no one is keeping their resolutions, so we might as well break them all in one night. So set aside that new gym membership, grab a beer and kick off the New Year with us during the first PuB NiGHT of the year tomorrow!

– Bart

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