traditions

How was the weekend?

I had a really great weekend with a lot of fun! Friday I went downtown to see the Olympic Cauldron from the Olympics from 2010. Afterwards I was heading towards the Vancouver Convention Center and Canada Place to have a great view over Stanley Park, West Van & North Van! Walking down the Burrard Street I stopped at the Marine Building, which is an old skyscraper with a cool vintage architectural design in the entrance.

I then headed towards the Robson Square to go into the Vancouver Art Gallery, which has an ongoing exhibition about Artificial Intelligence. You should definitely check it out.

On Saturday I went to Chinatown to make a tour there. The town get’s a different feeling after you enter the grand Chinatown Millennium Gate, which was erected in 2000. I headed towards the Dr. Sun Yet-Sen Classical Chinese Garden to enjoy the beauty of nature and the silence there. There’s a freebie alternative next to the main entrance, so that you can enjoy the garden for free. After that I got to the Vancouver Police Museum to see the history of Vancouvers Police Department and the crimes, which have been committed over the years. That one was definitely worth a visit!

At night, I went to the Nat Stadium to see the Vancouver Canadians at a baseball match. I highly recommend going to a sports event in a stadium in Vancouver. The people there are so nice and you get to see many break shows, which are so funny to watch!

On Sunday, INTERNeX was going to the Mid Autumn Moon Festival, which was definitely a very cool event! We got to experience the Dr. Sun Yet-Sen Classical Chinese Garden at night with a very special vibe of lanterns and special lights all over the garden. You had the opportunity to be part of a Classical Chinese tea ceremony, which is called “Gong Fu Cha”. Translated it means the skill of brewing tea with discipline and skill. After you got to experience the tea ceremony, you cold go to a tarot card reader, to show your future by fortune telling. At another room, it was possible to write your name in Chinese and get a portrait from you. Surrounded by that awesome atmosphere there was a chinese musician playing a traditional instrument, the Ghuzeng. If you were hungry, you could have had a try on traditional mooncakes. To conclude it was an amazing event with lots of stuff to do! Hope to see you on the INTERNeX Event this weekend!

See you on the weekend!

Cheers,

Tino 🙂

INTERNeX Canada: Casual Friday

Hallo y’all

Today’s Casual Friday post is going to be about two people. Germans and Canadians. You wonder how I thought of this? Well, me being a German staying in Canada right now, well what do you think? Ok, no seriously… Being in Vancouver for about three weeks now, I met a few new people already. And guess what, at the moment most of our participants are German. Surprise surprise… Every time I go abroad, I feel like at least every second person I meet is from Germany as well. You kind of get the feeling that Germany itself must be somewhat deserted by now… or as I like to say, you cannot escape us 🙂

With a lot of us travelling, our customs travel as well. You all know, that the most frequent assumptions about Germans are that we are basically all Bavarians, that we love love love our beer and that we eat a lot of Bratwurst. Thinking about all this, I actually found out a few funny things: If you really want to eat a Bratwurst in Vancouver, you do not need a rustic traditional German restaurant. No, you can just go to Chinatown and eat at Bestie’s!  It has, as advertised, ‘Chinatowns finest Currywurst’!!! And if you thought we love our beer, well – think again. Because obviously some Canadians love it even more. You wonder how I figure this? Well, they even brew a special beer for their dogs! Check out this article I found and you’ll see that Germans have to kick it up a nudge to keep up with this.

So what about us trying to be a little more like Canadians for a change? I saw this YouTube video the other day and found that actually quite fitting. So take this as an instruction to blend a bit more in with the natives 🙂

I would say: Challenge accepted!  I expect to see a few more Canadians at the next PuB NiGHT.

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: About Spain and Spanish stereotypes.

Hey guys !

I know the weekend is almost over (yes…not funny), but I hope you had tons of fun!

Today I would like you to talk about a few Spanish stereotypes. Sometimes for me it’s kind of funny when people tell me things such as “but do you know how to dance flamenco?” or this kind of things.

When foreigners think about Spain they just think about “paella”, “siesta”, “bullfighting”, “fiesta” and “flamenco”. Right, isn’t it ??

But no my friends, Spain is not just this !! To understand better what I’m gonna explain to you, you have to know that in Spain we are divided into 17 Autonomous communities ( + 2 autonomous cities), and each community is just totally different to the next one.

Comunidades autonomasWe are a diverse country integrated by different contrasting regions that show varying social structures, as well as different languages (we have catalonian, basque and galician as official languages in their corresponding region). Furthermore we have different historical, political and cultural traditions.

So now that you know this, you will be able to understand that Flamenco is just a regional dance of the Andalucian Community for example. As I said before, each region has its own traditions and cultures, so all of them have different food, tradicional dances and clothes and so on.

About bullfighting, normally is more popular in the Southern part of the country. So if you go to the North, don’t expect to watch this kind of shows.

I want to keep a few things for the next time. So get ready because next week  I’m gonna talk about interesting things such as “fiesta”, the “latin lover stereotype (Banderas and Penelope Cruz..hahaha)”, “lazy and untidy people” and more interesting topics.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, and I hope to see you soon.

Best,

Mercedes

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: Casual Friday!

1657_10151370372966850_287530237_nOne thing I will miss working as a PR intern is being able to make friends with people from all different places in the world. Actually not only that but also being able to learn about their culture, right at home, instead of going to a different country.

I’ve learned so much from everyone that I have met during my internship! For example, the most delicious dutch chocolate sprinkles is called Hagelslag, and you sprinkle it on bread. It can be found in a local Dutch grocery store here! I am just in LOVE with this stuff -so tasty! Another thing I have learned is that there are so many different traditions for birthdays and holidays! For example in Denmark, you have to bring breakfast/food for your coworkers on the morning of your own birthday! Like what is that? Really? I think it should be the other way around, you should be pampered on your own birthday!

Of course you can find out these kind of information by searching on Google and reading up on it. But it’s just so much better when you can sit and have a conversation with a person from that country and learn through them.

I can’t believe my internship is coming to an end in just a few days! Join us tonight at our pub and club night, it will be held at Morrissey Pub and then partying it up at VENUE! Click here for more information (remember to bring your PASSPORTS!)

Cheers,

Flora

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

International Vancouver: Aboriginal Peoples

The Aboriginal peoples have been living in British Columbia for about 10,000-12,000 years before the European settlers discovered the West Coast.

Today, there are approximately 200,000 Aboriginal people in British Columbia and over 1 million in Canada.

Thus,the First Nation’s histories and traditions are very much integral to that of Canada`s. While they are often known as a specific group of people, they have very diverse identities within the group.

There are 198 distinct First Nations in BC including the First Nations, Inuit, Métis and children of First Nations and European settlers, speaking more than 30 different languages.

The sensitive relationship between the European settlers and the Aboriginal peoples has clashed at various times because of the different philosophies, political and economic beliefs and systems. While for many years the government did not recognize their rights, the BC government and the First Nations Leadership Council signed the Transformative Change Accord in 2005 as a commitment to each other based on respect. For more information, please visit AboriginalBC.com.

However, the tension between the two governments continues to be an issue as seen by the Idle No More protest movement occurring at the moment. This peaceful protest, originated by the Aboriginal peoples in Canada, is against the new Bill C-45 of parts that demises indigenous treaty rights by the federal government.

This two month rally has gained significant attention through rallies, teach-ins and social media. Join the Idle No More Facebook page for current updates!

Cheers,

Queenie

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