I’m Danielle, I’m 22 years old and I come from The Netherlands. I am studying International Event Management at the NHTV in Breda. My internship here is part of my study program to finish my third year.
I decided to come to Canada because I love travelling and I have always wanted to go abroad at some point in my life, so when I got the opportunity to do that for my study I knew this was the time to do it. I didn’t really mind where I would go, so I searched for a company instead of a country.
At my university they have a database with vacancies and that is also where I found the one for being a PR-coordinator at Internex. So now I am doing the practicum program since I had to do an Internship for my university.
I’m a PR coordinator for INTERNeX. It’s an awesome company to work for. I get to do a 
lot of stuff and besides my daily tasks I have projects that are challenging. The atmosphere in the office is really great and they don’t make me feel like an intern, but like I’m really a part of the team. They are always open to teaching me whatever I want to know. Here you need to be an open and social person, since you have to deal with a lot of candidates that come and go. You also need to be structured to know what is going on when. As I mentioned before it is for my university program and I have definitely learned things here that will help me in my future career. That included social media management, sales, video production and Photoshop.
Here I’m living in a house with 5 other people. We have a guy from England who is kind of our landlord, and 4 girls from Australia, Ireland, Netherlands and Canada. I found it through Roomster, a platform where people offer rooms.
When I arrived I first took a cab to the Airbnb I had booked, that was around 5 PM. I remember sitting in that cab and looking out the window thinking how different it looked from back home. At night Tess and I wanted to get some dinner and we passed trough East Hastings on our way there. In that very moment I was asking myself what in the world I was doing here and how I would ever survive the next 7 months. We got dinner, went back to the Airbnb and went to sleep. The next day the sun was shining and I felt very happy being there.
As a PR coordinator it is my job to organize the activities, pub nights, trips and events, so therefore I attend them as much as possible. But I feel very lucky to be able to organize and attend all the events. I have gotten to know so many amazing people from all over the world because of it. If I would ever go abroad again I would definitely try to find an organization like INTERNeX to go with.
I’ve done so much here it’s insane. I’ve been to Granville Island, saw the Chinese New Year Parade, went skiing on Cypress, saw a Junior Hockey game, a Canucks game and the Whitecaps. I’ve been to Metrotown, Queen Elizabeth Park, FlyOver Canada, Joffre Lakes, Stanley Park and Deep Cove. I’ve been to the John Legend concert at Rogers Arena, a boat party and experienced St. Patricks day. I went to Kelowna to go skiing and do a wine tour. Went to Kamloops to visit my aunt. To Whistler where I went bungee jumping. Spend 4 days in The Rockies, which were amazing. Visited Vancouver Island with my mother, sister and boyfriend. Rented a scooter to explore Bowen Island and went to Squamish with my group of friends. I’m still going to Kelowna, Seattle and The Rockies again!
What I really like about Vancouver is that there is always something to do. There has never been a weekend where I have been bored. What I love about Canada is the nature. There is so much to see here and I’ve had amazing views. Vancouver is an expensive place to live though, so as a student it can be challenging at times to manage my budget right.
It is really hard choosing my most memorable thing here in Canada. I’ve done so many great things and I’ve had some amazing nights with my friends here. I guess my favourite was our trip to the Rockies and my boyfriend coming over as a surprise.
This trip definitely inspired me to travel more. Before I always used to be scared to go abroad, but this experience has really shown me that everything is possible. I have so many places and people that I want to visit all over the world.
The first I will do when I am back home is EAT! I’m looking forward to eating all the amazing Dutch food. I’m also looking forward to seeing my family, boyfriend and friends again.
– Danielle
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
I am Tess Mallens, 20 years old and I am from the Netherlands. I study International Event Management at NHTV Breda. I am in my third year now were we need to complete a 7 month during internship to finish the year.
communication skills and you need to be adaptable. You are working with people from different cultures, so they also communicate different. I think you have to be open-minded about their cultures and also adapt yourself to every person to make everybody comfortable. I know Dutch people, me included, are very direct so I needed to be careful with that. I guess I found my way through it though, and I learned a lot from it.
Because I organise the pub nights and activities myself, I attend most of them. I think they’re throughly great, since they give you the opportunity to meet other interns and young professionals really fast. Those people became my family during my time here. I think it is great Internex created this, since it would be really hard to get a group of friends when you’re just working in a company and only socialize with your colleagues. We get to explore fantastic places and create beautiful memories together.
I visited many places around here. I did many hikes and I am still planning to do a few more. My favourite trips were the Rockies trip, traveling with my parents around BC, experience Canada day in Victoria, snowboarding in Whistler and my trip to Tofino.
Some difficulties I had while living here was the beginning of my stay, when I didn’t feel comfortable yet and I really had to adjust to the culture. Keeping up with my bank account was a difficulty as well, because you really run out of money fast in this city. Besides that I sometimes had to deal with home sickness, but that went quite fine. My friends made an amazing booklet for me where each of them wrote a story about me, accompanied with ridiculous pictures. They always get a smile on my face again with that, even though they are not here in person.
Becky, the Rockies trip and a surf trip to Tofino with my friends. Whistler mountain is amazing, and I felt throughly grateful for being there. It is a dream that came through, and with good company it only makes the experience better. I also surfed two times in Tofino and I really have no words for that feeling. Especially the second time was amazing since the conditions were just great and I experienced a great weekend with friends, beautiful sunsets and breathtaking nature.
INTERNeX Canada 