Fun Fact Friday

This weekend, the world celebrates Earth Day. As you surely have noticed already, Vancouver is full of nature too. So, let me tell you some fun facts about the green areas in this beautiful city.

Have you ever heard about the Dude Chilling Park? That is the actual name of a park located in the Mount Pleasant area. It all started off as a prank when in 2012 the local artist Viktor Briestensky created a sign with this name on it. The Vancouver Park Board staff removed it, but an online petition with 1,800 signatures saved the sign eventually. Since 2014, it is back as a celebration of the unique community in the neighbourhood. This park is definitely worth a trip to take a cool picture in front of the sign.

There are many parks spread over the entire city. The most famous one is also the biggest one. Exactly, Stanley Park. It is even bigger than Central Park in New York and offers beautiful sceneries. When walking around, you might see some of the many animals that are living in Stanley Park. All grey squirrels actually have American roots. In 1909, New York City gave eight pairs of grey squirrels to Vancouver, so all of the grey squirrels in Stanley Park today are descended from these American pairs.

Another natural highlight in and especially around Vancouver is of course the ocean and its coastline. Wherever you plan a trip, you can choose diverse great spots near water. The total length of the coastline including the islands in British Columbia is 27,200 kilometres. Is that much? As a comparison, the length of the Earth at the equator is 40,075 kilometres, so not even twice that long. Pretty amazing!

Enjoy your weekend!

– Kerstin

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

INTERNeX Canada: Highlights of the week Ep12

This week’s episode of Highlights Of The Week is going to be about a couple of smaller things, which are still exciting and not to be overlooked, even though they are more part of the daily life in Vancouver.

Me not being in town for that long yet, I found it very noticeable on how many of the bigger houses in town the people seem to have designed little parks. They planted big trees on their houses, right there. I found that very peculiar, but it also makes me realize how ‘green’ a city Vancouver is and to what great length its inhabitants are willing to be creative that it is and stays this way. So this is a little daily highlight for me, because I can see many of these ‘parks’ on my way to the office each morning.

Another thing which I found absolutely adorable and which would come in very handy as a souvenir are these Red Vancouver Mittens. For $10 each, about $4 go to the Canadian Olympic foundation and therefore support the Canadian athletes during the next Olympic games in 2014. For me, this would be a souvenir highlight, which you can actually use in your daily life. Because winter will come as sure as the sun will set down tonight.

Concerning the more active highlights this week, I shall not forget to mention our very successful PuB NiGHT on Wednesday. We went to The Warehouse downtown which was especially great for our candidates under 19. The Warehouse is primarily a restaurant and therefore you can enjoy some time there, even if you are under age. We will try to do that once in a while now, to not leave you guys behind, so to speak. Upcoming events and things to do are the first Vancouver Color Run today, where you can celebrate life and happiness while watching how others stay in shape. And of course last but not least, the Giants hockey game we will go to on Sunday. Meeting point is Waterfront Station at 12.10 pm, so don’t forget. Go Giants!!!

So I hope you will enjoy the weekend and I will see you guys at the next PuB NiGHT, right?

Best,

Annika

INTERNeX International Exchange
International Village,
Suite 2077, 2079 – 88 West Pender Street
Vancouver, Canada -V6B 9N9-
Web: http://www.internexcanada.com
Email: pr@internexcanada.com

INTERNeX Canada: News /Fun Facts

Today I just want to share my personal opinion about this amazing city! Vancouver it´s the third best place to live in the world! Of course no one of us is stupid at all choosing Vancouver for doing our internship, working or improving our English here!

But why is Vancouver on the top ten?

I don´t know how is in your cities, but in Madrid it´s no possible at all sailing and in the same day skiing! But here you can do both or even change the skiing for a beach day! Awesome!

The first days that you are in Vancouver you think: Oh what a big city with all these skyscrapers but then once you have been living for a while, you realize how small Vancouver is! It looks like a big city but is like a village! It has the best things of the big cities: a lot of shops, cinemas, theaters, everything you can imagine… but also the best thing of living in a “village”: everything is near, you can walk everywhere and in a short period of time you will know the most of the people around you, your bus driver will be YOUR bus driver, you will know the most of your neighbors and you will find them everywhere! If you love the party you will see that the most of the people, even the international people like us that just stay for a while, are always the same! So this city is perfect to make friends! (And maybe not that good if you have enemies)

So apart of being a great city with a lot of beaches, mountains, it is also SO green! There are parks everywhere what are especially nice on this time of the year! Stanley Park is simply amazing! Every time I ´ve been there I think the same: it is not fair that not everybody can see it! I would love that all my friends to have the possibility of seeing and enjoying it!

Vancouver as you all can see, it is so international! There are a lot of Asiatic people, European, Latin Americans… A city plenty of international and young people, it´s like impossible don´t have fun!

And what do you think about Canadian people? Can be they been more polite? They have always nice words and they always try to help you!

Maybe it´s a personal opinion, but I find Vancouver one of the most interesting cities I´ve never been!  I understand that tons of people that just come here for a little period of time then fall in love with this city and want to stay forever. Absolutely comprehensible!!

If you have never been here and you have the possibility, come to Vancouver! If you are already here, enjoy every day like there is no tomorrow!

Let´s enjoy Vancouver!

Cheers,

Irene

INTERNeX International Exchange
Suite 200 – 211 Columbia Street
Vancouver BC -V6A 2R5-
Web: http://www.internexcanada.com
Phone: +1 (604) 662 8149
Email: pr@internexcanada.com

INTERNeX Canada: Expose of the Week ft Danielle

Danielle, who was one of our internship candidates, wrote to us to tell us about her experiences here in Vancouver and with INTERNeX..

“In March I started a 20 weeks lasting internship at a chocolate company in Vancouver. During my stay, I was working in the Purchasing department in their Head Office and besides assisting this department in general tasks, I got several projects to work on. My first project pursued the goal to find improvements for the unitization of the packaging material which is held in their warehouse that is located in the same building as the Head Office. I had to take the requests of different people and other determining factors into account like the warehouse employees, suppliers and storage capacities. In another project I was establishing a database of packaging material and another was about collecting information from suppliers concerning the traceability of the ingredients used in production and food-contact items.

In general, I learned a lot during my internship and enjoyed my time there. I had to deal with different people internal as well as with suppliers, could spend time in the warehouse and in the normal office environment.

I am really grateful that I could spend this internship in the city of Vancouver. For me, the city is wonderful with so many friendly people and diverse cultures living here together. But most of all, I loved the nature which surrounds Vancouver and wished the summer had started earlier to be able to enjoy the beautiful hikes, parks and beaches even more.

Besides, I would like to give positive feedback for INTERNeX. I had the experience that it is quite difficult to find a fitting internship abroad which is related to my studies in Germany. INTERNeX was able to find one for me and I am sure to take advantage of this back home. But it is also good to always have a contact person in case of any problems occur. Also, the PR interns do a great job organizing so many events for all candidates and it is easy to get to know people who are in the same situation.”

Thank you Danielle and I hope you have a safe trip back to Germany and INTERNeX wishes you the best of luck with your future endeavors!

Cheers,

Lies

INTERNeX International Exchange
Suite 200-211 Columbia Street
Vancouver BC -V6A 2R5-
Web: www.internexcanada.com
Phone: +1 (604) 662 8149
Email: pr@internexcanada.com

INTERNeX Canada: News/Fun facts

This is my first time in Canada, and there are a lot of new things that catch my attention.

The other night when I was coming back home, I saw three skunks in my street. I had never seen one before and there were three! They were walking quietly and at the same time like if they were hand in hand (or claw in claw…or whatever that the skunks have).

But there are more! My flatmates and I were having dinner and just in front of our window we saw a big rackoon climbing on it! Of course we hurried up a close the window like if there were a lion instead.

There are gentle animals, but it´s better not to approach them because if they feel threatened they can attack, and better not try it! Especially with skunks!

Everybody knows that Vancouver has a lot of wildlife, but I live in the middle of the city! There are just some plants and trees around my home! I can´t imagine what you can find if you live near Stanley Park or one of the multiple parks, lakes that Vancouver has.

British Columbia has the greatest concentration in bears of the world with more than 100,000 bears. They could be considered the most dangerous animal in Canada, but the main problem is humans usually see them like a cuddly animals because teddy bears or cartoons and some people feed them which is particularly dangerous because then bears associate humans with food! So never feed them!

In Vancouver Island are common the cougars, it´s is like a big cat, but dangerous. They usually attack the littler or more vulnerable people, so we must be especially careful if there are any children or we are short and thin (Xenia please take care!)

In some parks of Burnaby, New Westminster and Surrey nowadays we can often find coyotes. Humans are not usually in risk with them, but children can be!

We must enjoy all the awesome things that Vancouver offers like its wildlife but being always cautious!

Cheers,

Irene

INTERNeX International Exchange
Suite 200 – 211 Columbia Street
Vancouver BC -V6A 2R5-
Web: http://www.internexcanada.com
Phone: +1 (604) 662 8149
Email: pr@internexcanada.com