New ‘Kids’ on the blog

We have many new people joining us, yay!! I will introduce them here so you’ll all get to know them.

Name: Franziska

Age: 22 years old

From: Austria

What are you doing in Canada? Gaining international work experience within business improvement association.

What are you doing back home? Studying at university in Austria.

Why Canada? First time in Canada. I would love to go to the Rockies, nature, hikes.

First impression It’s really nice city, I explored most of my neighbourhood where I’m staying so far, since I arrived few days ago.

Bucket list? Visit Victoria Island, Lynn Canyon and to see more of Vancouver city.

Plans after this? Go back to Austria and continue studies at university in the beginning of October.

Hobbies? Travel, cooking, play music- guitar and piano. Hiking, play volleyball, hang out with friends.

Favourite food? Italian food.

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Name: Selina

Age: 19

Where are you from: Austria

What are you doing in Canada? Practicum in law.

Why Canada? I always wanted to go here. Nature and the landscape and I do hope to see whales.

First impression: Beautiful city and so different from back home. Even more beautiful with the skyscrapers which is a bit overwhelming in a good way. It’s so beautiful.

Bucket list: Whale sightseeing. Go to the Rockies. Museum of anthropology at UBC. 

Plans after: I want to travel the world and I want to be active within organizations like Greenpeace.

Hobbies: Read books, write, being with friends, listening to music – I also played the flute when I was younger. 

Favourite food?: Ramen – Japanese noodle food. 

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Name: Emily

Age? 18.

Where are you from? Germany.

What are you doing in Canada? Volunteer at an animal shelter.

What are you doing back home? Just graduated high school.

Why Canada? Mostly because of the nature. I want something different from back home in Germany.

First impression? Big city with cool skyscrapers.

Bucket list? To visit the Rocky Mountains.

Plans after Canada? Study veterinarian medicine back home.

Hobbies? I am a gymnast. I do also like to hang out with my friends.

Favourite food? Pasta with spinach, love it! 

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Name: Julian

Age? 18

Where are you from? Germany.

What are you doing in Canada? I’m staying here for 2 months. I’m a volunteer, working in Stanley Park.

What are you doing back home in your home country? I am going to start my Air traffic controller training. 

Hobbies? In my free time I play football and hang out with my friends.

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Name: Karolin

Age? 18 years

Where are you from? Berlin, Germany

What are you doing in Canada? Volunteering at a wildlife sanctuary.

What are you doing back in your home country? I just graduated high school

Why Canada? Because of the beautiful nature, the nice people and because it’s an english speaking country

First impression of Vancouver? I really like that Vancouver combines the sea, mountains and the big city. Many different people live here and there is a lot of diversity.

Anything on your bucket list while you are here? I would love to see some whales and fly with a seaplane.

Plans after this? I will start my studies at university.

Hobbies? Playing the violin and the piano, travelling, playing table tennis and badminton 

Favourite food? Every kind of noodles.

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Name: Maja

Age? 18 

Where are you from? Düsseldorf in Germany

What are you doing in Canada? A practicum at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

What are you doing back in your home country? I graduated this year from school and I’ve worked in a bar.

Why Canada? Because of the nature, something different than USA or Australia.

First impression of Vancouver? Big city with beautiful nature around the city.

Anything on your bucket list while you are here? To visit Vancouver Island

Plans after this? Study at University 

Hobbies? Playing tennis, meeting friends, watching soccer

Favourite food? Pasta

Cheers

Ida

One of the three new members of INTERNeX

It says all good things come in threes, so here is the last introduction of one of the new PR-Members: My name is Karina, I’m 21 years old and I’m from Germany, lower Bavaria. Me and my fellow students will be joining the PR-Team until the middle of July. We will be helping Jasmin and Megan to organize the PuB NiGHTS and the weekly and monthly events. Yesterday I already had the chance to meet some of you guys at the Pub Night in the Yale Saloon, which was really great. Especially the bull riding was a lot of fun.

Maybe I should tell you a bit more about myself, so you know who you’re going to meet at the next events of INTERNeX. I study Guidance for Education, Career and Employment in Mannheim, which is a dual course of study. Our University, called HdBA is a Corporate University of the Federal Employment Agency. Due to my studies I had the opportunity to do a practicum abroad and it was no question at all where I want to spend it. Vancouver includes everything the heart wishes for: Beautiful landscapes, a big city and nice beaches. By the way, do you know that Vancouver is one of the cities with the highest quality of living in the world? So I think we all made no bad decision coming here and I am so glad that I have the opportunity to do a practicum in Vancouver.

As one of my favourite things to do is hiking, I really hope that I have the chance to see a lot of the beautiful canadian mountains. In case you are looking for somebody to go for a hike, you should definitely ask me. But I also enjoy chilling at the beach or going out for dinner.

However, I am looking forward to meeting the rest of you guys, maybe this sunday at the Queen Elizabeth Park for Disc Golf? 🙂 I hope that we are all going to have an awesome time here in Canada.

-Karina

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

Candidate Exposé – Andreas Bächler

 

My name is Andreas. I’m 21 years old and I’m from Denmark. I came to Canada in May 2016 and I am going home now one year later. At the moment I’m not studying anything but I plan to do so after the summer. Which education, I’m not sure about yet. The reason I came to Canada is that I went to Toronto to visit some family in 2009. Back then I fell in love with the country and decided then I would return one day.

Before I knew about INTERNeX I was in contact with a Danish travel agency, Travel Alott, who helped people like me – people who want to explore the world – to reach our dreams. They directed me to INTERNeX, who I was told operated in Canada and therefore would be able to help me out with my dream, which was to go abroad and work for a year in Canada.

I participated in the Work and Travel program, because I wanted to earn some money as well during my stay so I was able to go on small trips around Canada and the US without being worried about money. I liked it, even though I worked a lot I got to see everything I wanted to see when I came. Even a bit extra that I didn’t expect to do before I came. It was indeed a good mix of “Work” and “Travel” during my stay in Canada.

I was placed at a coffeeshop in North Vancouver. I was a barista and made delicious drinks for the customers. I liked the work a lot. Even though I had to spend an hour and a half in the bus to get there, it was worth it. The beautiful location was just amazing. From the counter we had a great view over the ocean and the mountains in the horizon. It was, more or less, always busy and the customers were so nice and polite and were always interested in knowing where you were from. I had the best colleagues and a good relationship with my boss. If I wanted some days off for a trip to wherever, my boss always did everything he could to make it possible. So to sum up, I couldn’t’ t have imagined a better place to have worked at.

To work at a coffeeshop you need to be good with people, have some good communication skills and be able to work under stress. Sometimes there were cues to the door and you might had 5 drinks lined up, so you should be able to keep yourself calm and still be able to work fast. Cooperation is an important skill as well, because you might work with two or three persons and you needed to be sure who did what and when, so you still would be able to make drinks for the customers but also do the different chores that need to be done, such as cleaning.

If you wanted to, you could also try out latte-art, which is a creative way to make the drinks better. You taste with your eyes as well and therefore a heart or nice flower in your latte will make the drink better for most people. It took a bit more effort than making a regular drink, but people always were so happy when they got it, which made it worth it.

During my stay I lived with a host family arranged by INTERNeX in East Vancouver and I absolutely loved it. I felt welcome from the first day till the last. My first impression of Vancouver was, how friendly and open its people were. I had chats with people everywhere I went, in the bus, on the streets etc. It was really cool, made me feel welcome to their city.

I still have the impression now that Vancouver has a really open-minded population. Its big diversity of people makes everybody feel like home, no matter where you are from. Besides that I just fell in love with the city after a while. If not for the people, then just for the beautiful location Vancouver has. Close to the ocean and the mountains and only one hour away from the US. It couldn’t’ t be any better.

I tried to participate in as many INTERNeX events as possible. Pub nights, trips, everything. I enjoyed them a lot. I thought it was a great place to meet people. And putting the pub nights on a Wednesday was the best idea ever, since putting pineapple on pizza. The PR-team was always good to help out new people and make them feel part of the group.

I went to the Rockies, Portland and Kelowna with INTERNeX. Besides that we went hiking a couple of times, had a Halloween party, saw the Chinese New Year Parade, celebrated Canada day and much more. Besides that I visited Whistler, Bowen Island, Sunshine Coast, Toronto and Victoria.

What I like most about Vancouver is the diversity of people and the beautiful surroundings. Canada in general I would say the people. No matter where I’ve been to in the country, I always met friendly and helpful people.

The only challenge I really had to face here was when it was winter and there was a lot of snow around, it was I’d say challenging to find a bus that drove so I could get to work.

It is really hard to find one really memorable thing so I will just mention a few.

• When I went to the Rockies with INTERNeX. We had such a fun time. I saw a lot of beautiful nature and partied with the best folks at night.
• When I hiked Black Tusk. We were with five people and it took us 10 hours from where we left the car till we got back. The view from he top of the mountain was gorgeous and incomparable to everything I’ve seen before.
• All the times I went to Whistler. When I went there with my parents during the summer and hiked on top of the mountains. Also the times I rented a car with friends and made a short road trip out of it.
• And of course all the times I’ve been skiing. I finally learned it, and now I miss it. Cypress Mountain and The Big White it was an awesome time.

INTERNeX really helped me to get started. They advised me about a mobile plan, bank and tax return. And if you ever had questions at all, about anything, they were always happy to help you out. So I would recommend the service of INTERNeX to others.

The first thing I will do when I get back home is just having a descent Danish meal with my parents and brothers. The trip definitely inspired me to travel more. This summer I’m going to travel a bit around Europe to visit people I’ve met in Vancouver.

– Andreas

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

CLIENT TESTIMONIAL – My INTERNeX Experience!

Rasmus, Sweden

So I tried to get this trip going for several years now and it wasn’t until last year I realized this was a possibility due to the fact that I finally had enough money to do it. So I told everyone back home that I decided go to Canada and work and after waiting what felt like forever to get the visa, I finally left Sweden this June.

The trip was crazy from the get go. Arrived June 10 to Vancouver, I went to the INTERNeX office on June 11 where I met the awesome Timothy who had set me up for two job interviews that day and I got both jobs, and then June 12 I started to work as a Barista at one of the many Coffee shops here in Vancouver. I pretty much worked all summer except for going two trips, one to my friend in Seattle and the other one to go to Toronto. After this everything just went by like a blur and I am still working at there.

Now that you have read everything about my amazing life in its short version, it is time for you to know how amazing INTERNeX has been for me and hopefully for many others. I first had an interview with Timothy before I went to Canada and he pretty much told me everything I needed to know. Then my second experience with INTERNeX was day after I arrived and they set me up for my job interview and gave me advice on what I need to live in a city like Vancouver. After that I got to meet Amiel and Natasja who were the PR persons at the time and they put on all kinds of events but I mostly only went to the weekly pub nights which were a really fun time. All these events they put on helped me meet so many new awesome people. I also got to see Richmond night market, do Laser Tag and have barbecues and picnics.

We also went to see Celebration of Light, which is a firework competition that takes place every year.
During China’s firework Amiel had brought the classic red cups that you see in American movies and we got stopped by the police because it was so obvious that people were drinking alcohol in those cups and we got to pour it out. Anyway I was just laughing through the whole situation because I thought it was hilarious and then the police decided to ask Chris who sat next to me about who I was. So apparently if you just sit and laugh then will take notice about you even though I was only drinking mountain dew. That is just one of many experience I have had so far here in Vancouver and I will have so many more because I have just been here 6 months and I still have almost 6 months to go.

This may be one those weird reads for you all because I am writing all this while being hungry and tired and also interrupted by a Skype call from my friend in Florida because it is all in a day of Rasmus. That is probably unneeded information but I will just throw it in there for added personality. #smileyface

So I can’t recommend enough for people to go to Canada to do working holiday or internship because the experience I have had is amazing and I can’t stress enough how much fun you will have with the help of the great INTERNeX.

Much love from the amazing Swede Rasmus.

REVIEW: PUB NiGHT XXL

AMAZING how many people showed up for last night’s PUB NIGHT and turned it into a real XXL PUB NiGHT! Thank you guys.

First of all, back to the beginning: On Monday a bunch of candidates arrived here in Vancouver. Most of them are from Sweden; some are from Norway and Finland. Unfortunately they won’t stay in Vancouver that long (just for a couple of days) because they are heading to several ski resorts where they are starting to work during the winter season.

For that reason we had a XXL PUB NiGHT last night. We went to the Cinema Public House, located on Granville and just a block away from the hostel they stayed. 23 of our interns showed up to give the Scandinavians a warm welcome here in Canada. That means we were around 35 people in total which is truly amazing. We had a lot to talk and funny conversations about so many different topics.

The Cinema Public House provides pretty cool beer specials on Tuesdays so you could get a beer for just $2 dollars and a burger plus a beer for just $16. 

Sadly we had to say goodbye not only to the Scandinavians but also to Tobi. He stayed here for 4 month and now it’s time for him to go back home. As he told me he really enjoyed his stay here and for him Vancouver already started feeling like home.

Thank you all for coming!