What to do on the weekend?

Winter weekends are not the most fun in Vancouver due to the rain and cold weather, but that shouldn’t keep you from having a good time and making the best out of your stay here!
Let me help you find things to do on this weekend.

First I’d like to invite you to come with INTERNeX and experience the STRIDE Burnaby Arts Festival! Explore Burnaby Heights with performances, community art displays, artist talks, and more. We’ll be walking around the neighbourhood, find cool art exhibitions, and end up at the Celtic Kitchen Party which offers lively tunes, soulful songs and compelling stories, inviting to dance with your friends. And how convenient is it that there’s a really famous pasta restaurant right in this area? 😉 For anyone who burns too many calories dancing there’s a chance to check out the restaurant after the event, how does that sound to you? The restaurant is known for its great food and big portions, I dare you to finish it all at once!

Feel like shopping? I have a great idea for you – the Valentine’s Arts Market which takes place on Sunday from 1pm till 5pm at 1448 & 1450 West Broadway. I know it’s called Valentine’s Market, but who says you need a Valentine to go? Why don’t you treat yourself this year with a nice present? The market offers beautiful locally made craft items and art reaching from candles, to chocolates, textiles and more. There’ll be great promotions and treats for you to enjoy and I’m sure you’ll find something quite unique there whether it’s for yourself, or someone special in your life. 🙂

Who of you is a chocolate lover? If you, like me, can’t get enough of the sweet delight then I’ve got the perfect weekend activity for you: The 13th Annual Greater Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival. It’ll end on Valentines day so this will be your last chance to go around some cafes and try out their specialty hot chocolates (they are usually created especially for this festival and only available during that time). You can find 140 creations at 95 different locations and the great thing is you can explore a new neighbourhood while supporting local businesses and staying warm with a hot cocoa on a grey winter day. I recommend going rather early since the chocolates are pretty popular and sometimes sell out at some cafes! Also be aware that the price for a special hot chocolate might be similar to a price for a cocktail here, but trust me, it’s worth it. 😉

Here’s a link for you to see participating businesses: https://hotchocolatefest.com/virtual-map

I can’t wait to see you Friday, or hear about your weekend at our next pub night!

Cheers,

Laura 🙂

What to Do in Vancouver?

Welcome back again – our “What to Do on the weekend” series continues with the “What to Do in Vancouver” edition – as always things are a little bit different 🙂
To give you a first impression of what to expect in beautiful Canada I have compiled a collection of the “must do’s” in and around Vancouver.
For now we’ll have a closer look at the typical and highly recommended tourist attractions in Downtown Vancouver.

Gastown: a historic and beautiful place to enjoy your day and eat nice food. My recommendation is Peckinpah as they have nice burgers, and this location is a really cool place in the middle of Gastown. If you like to have a coffee with friends in one of the many cute cafés try the Nutella latte, it’s so delicious. Also really famous is the Old Spaghetti Factory – you can try one (or even two 😉 ) of the famous pastas.
Additionally, there are a lot of pubs where under normal circumstances the INTERNeX pubnights take place. Every pub has their own specials such as a bingo night where you can win prices like alcohol for free 🙂 You also have lots of possibilities for window shopping and of course to buy souvenirs for friends and family.
Have a look at the steam clock, a famous landmark. Every hour this clock plays a sound and shoots steam. It’s also a nice place for taking typical tourist pictures.

Vancouver Lookout: This attraction is just a few minutes walk away from Gastown. It’s an observation tower where you have an amazing view over Vancouver, the ocean and the mountains in North Vancouver. I highly recommend going on top of the tower by night to see all the lights of the city.

Next to the tower make a stop at famous Canada Place. A huge building resembling a ship. Sometimes there’s an open air cinema taking place. It is an awesome and of course romantic experience watching a movie outdoors in front of the skyline and the mountains.

Fly over Canada: Do you want to save some money but don’t give up the experience seeing Vancouver (or even other hilarious places on earth) from above? Then this might be a perfect attraction for you. Its an 4D cinema located in the Canada Place. There are huge signs in front of it, I’m sure you’ll find it easily.

Shopping: Additionally, Vancouver downtown has plenty of great places for a shopping trip to offer. Most of the shops are located on Robson street. My personal tip is to visit the shopping mall Pacific Centre, where you might find great special offers and sale articles in a city that, to be honest, is very expensive.

Science World: You may have already spotted the huge globe shown in so many pictures of Vancouver. This is Science World, a science museum with interactive permanent and changing attractions located at the east end of False Creek. It presents plenty of cool science-learning opportunities especially for families, however, people of all ages are welcome.

Vancouver Art Gallery: Since this city has so much to offer and is really open-minded to everyone of course there is something for our art lovers as well. The Vancouver Art Gallery is the largest public art museum in Western Canada presents the work of artists from all over the world.

Watching Hockey at Rogers Arena:
Go Canucks Go! For all the sports freaks 🙂 as you may know Canada is really popular for professional ice hockey. If you get the chance to see a Vancouver Canucks game at Rogers Arena (a huge stadium right in the downtown area), make sure you use it. The feeling of being in the middle of enthusiastic Canadians – especially during the national anthem- is completely overwhelming and so much fun.

Have a nice day 🙂

Cheers,

– Tatjana

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

INTERNeX News – Black Friday!

The most popular shopping day is just ahead of us – The one and only Black Friday!
And because we want you to be prepared for this, here are some information about the Black Friday itself and a few useful tips you might want to consider before getting yourself into this crazy shopping day! 

Black Friday is always the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving, which happens to be the last Thursday in November. It is officially known as the official start of the Christmas season. And because of this, this day has always been very important for sales, even if it wasn’t referred to as ‘Black Friday’ in the first place.
In fact, the day goes all the way back to 24 September in 1869. Two U.S. financiers tried to be so smart and bought a significant amount of U.S. gold, obviously hoping for an overall price soaring, so that they’d be able to sell it again for huge profit. Well long story short, this plan didn’t work out as you might guess. Eventually the U.S. gold market crashed and their actions left the the Wall Street Barons bankrupt. From there the U.S. was set into a really bad financial crisis.
The name ‘Black Friday’ actually came from the way American shops recorded their accounting details, as they’d note profits in black and losses in red. Over this hard time most shops only got to write red number, only after the day of thanksgiving they finally ‘went into black’ again. 

If you are currently getting ready to take part in this very crazy shopping experience, here are a few things you might want to consider.
When does it make sense to wait until black Friday itself and when should one of the current deals be taken. Obviously this is always a question of how lucky you’ll be on the day, but if it is a very specific product you are waiting for, in a specific colour or size, you may want to consider buying it before the time. I don’t want to disappoint you in this, but the chances are high that you aren’t the only person waiting for a deal on this product. If you are just waiting for the highest possible discount, you may want to wait until Black Friday.
Before you get yourself out there, getting lost in all the discount signs, you should do some research. Check out RedFlagDeals and RetailMeNot for some brilliant deals, coupons and special offers first.

Even tho all of  these offers, just seem too good to be true, please don’t forget that we are living in a time of climate change and an absolute consumption overload. And you buying unnecessary stuff  like crazy, is a part of this very big game, even tho if it seems to be just you!
Just think about where these product are coming from, that they need to be produced, and packed and that there is a whole chain reaction after this. I don’t want to be the Party-Pooper in this, but I guess especially our generation has a very good understanding of this and should proof this in actions! 

Not to doubt, this is the perfect time to make some great deals, but try not to loose your head over this. 

And make sure you’ve got some money left since next PuB-Night isn’t too far away and you still want to be able to pay for your drinks right? 
Till then, Happy Shopping you all!

Cheers, 

— Nadja

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?

One of the most exciting events is already knocking on the door. In case you haven’t realized all the decorated houses yet: Halloween is coming up! 

Since we all want to get to know the Canadian spirit, we started to get ourselves ready.  

And what is needed for the perfect Halloween Party after all? Right, an outstanding costume. So even though it was pouring rain, we got together and went all the way to Broadway to visit one of the places to get Halloween supplies. 

But calling it a store wouldn’t be fair after all. This was a Halloween-wonderland filled with everything you can imagine and even more.  

So we got to know each others different faces, literally! In a paradise of wigs, masks, decoration, fake blood and monsters we had so much fun trying on everything that came into our hands. Some of us even discovered new matching hair colours for themselves ;-). Every time you turned around and/or entered a different aisle, new stuff was waiting to be discovered. Time just flew by and our bunch of happy, exhausted people got to leave this magical and scary place after quite a long time. Therefore it just seemed to be the right thing to recover with a coffee and some delicious snacks near by. We got the chance to have some nice chats and actually discovered many differences of how we are usually spending Halloween back in Europe. Wouldn’t it be great to discover the Canadian way all together? I am glad you asked ;-). We do have something prepared, which we are already very excited about. 

We are happy to announce the upcoming Halloween Party on October 31st. We’ll get together at the Blarney Stone! You’ll find all necessary information on our Facebook page as usual. And don’t forget to wear your costumes! 

For those of you who just can’t get enough, and those who need to get more Halloween injected and obviously those who just love having a good time …. so basically all of you guys: We also have the visit in a haunted house scheduled next weekend. As mentioned before, check out the INTERNeX Facebook Page and let us know if you are taking part! 

Hope you weekend was as great as mine. 

Any costumes inspirations can be discussed on Wednesday. Therefore see you at Pub-Night this Wednesday. 

Cheers, 

— Nadja 

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?

Unfortunately weekend is over, but let´s have a look on what we did the last few days. On Friday afternoon we enjoyed the good weather by going to Kitsilano beach. It was warm enough to wear swim wear and many people also went into the cold water. In the evening there was an amazing sunset and it was quite cool to watch it on one of the longest days of the year.

On Saturday we booked a trip to the Joffre lakes. Although it was a three hours drive to get there from Vancouver it was definitely worth it. The bus driver told us that the lower Joffre lake is the most boring one but already this lake was very clear and turquoise. However, we decided to hike the steep way up to the Middle Joffre lake. When we saw the blue color sparkling through the woods we knew we arrived. The bus driver was so right, because the Lower Joffre lake was nothing against the Middle one. The light blue water seemed so surreal. After making a short break and taking some pictures, we started to hike to the last aim: the Upper Joffre lake. On our way we came by the Holloway Falls, one of the most beautiful waterfalls in this region. The upper Joffre lake was just as turquoise as the Middle Lake and we decided to stay there for a while. While we ate our cookies some small birds joined us and so we had the idea to take some pictures with them. After that we unfortunately had to get back to our bus, but overall it was an amazing experience, that I can definitely recommend!

On Sunday we went shopping in the Metropolis Mall in Metrotown. It is pretty nice there and we all found something to buy. In the afternoon unfortunately we weren´t able to do our INTERNeX-BBQ at the beach, because the weather forecast predicted rain on Sunday. Instead of it we went to WhiteSpot, which is a typical Canadian burger restaurant to get something to eat there. We all enjoyed the good food! After it we wanted to visit the Jazz festival at the Robson Square, but unfortunately it was already closed. However, we experienced so much this weekend that we had nothing against going home.

 

 

Thanks to those who joined us at the WhiteSpot! I hope to see you at the PubNight on Wednesday!

– Franzi

 

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