Orientation week

Thompson Rivers University is obviously quite a big university. This week, international student orientation started (and is still in progress) and there are about 1400 students (Just international ones!! The Canadians follow next week). So what exactly is this student orientation thing?
Basically, it's a really well planned week of events like information sessions, get togethers and things like this. So, while we hear a lot about Kamloops and Canada and the risks and opportunities of studying abroad, we also have to organise stuff like getting our schedules ready, getting the student ID, and buying our books (I still have to do that, I'm hoping to find cheap ones on the internet as the two books I need cost 100 bucks each at the bookstore and I'm not super-rich). Besides that we got free lunch every day and we're meeting a lot of other students.

How do you peel a banana? - Experiment

There are a lot of exchange students from all different countries which is quite interesting. Something I didn't expect at all it the fact that there are so many Austrians. It is normal to meet Germans abroad but I hardly ever met Austrians and we've got a lot of us here. It is interesting to meet so many people from different cultures and experience differences between the behaviour and things like this.

Germany, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Austria, the Netherlands, France, ...

The university created an organisation called ISAP that organises a lot of events for international students. For example this week we went to the cinema once and yesterday we went to a concert at riverside park. There's a huge river going through Kamloops, called the Thompson River and next to it there is a park where they host free concerts every day in summer. It's open air so you just go there and sit down in the grass and listen to nice music. It was still warm in the evening so it was really nice to sit together and have some fun. Tomorrow we will go to Sun Peaks, which is the local skiing hill to see another concert up there. I've heard that the mountain is really nice so I'm really looking forward to going there. During the whole semester, there will be a lot more events by ISAP like a Halloween party, a wine-tasting tour and different excursions.

Thompson River

Paul Filek @ Riverside Park

Today we had an international gathering, which was kind of the final event of our students orientation week. A lot of people were wearing their national dresses and we had international food. We talked to each other and there were some speeches of the president of TRU and some other people. One girl from Easter Islands performed a traditional dance which was quite impressive and at the end we just danced around with our flags to international music.

"I am from Austria!!"

Welcome to Kamloops

Kamloops is the third-biggest city of British Clumbia. Being here you would never believe this. I guess now that I left the big city and moved to the countryside I get to know the real Canada. The Canada you hear jokes about, from the next supermarket being 80km away and highways that don't have gas stations for 500 km. Jokes that in fact are not jokes. Well, I've got 4 huge supermarkets and 3 gasstations right next to my residence, so no worries here. I guess, Kamloops really is a big city then =)
But I'll start from the start. After flying in a very very small plane along the amazing coast of Western Canada, I arrived at Kamloops Airport which has a total of 2 (!!) gates!! I was kind of surprised by the scenery that welcomed me. While around Vancouver everything is green and the mountains are high around here everything is dry and brown. It's not flat either but the mountains are rather hills than mountains.

The City of Kamloops

So, after taxing a taxi to my new home (they don't do public transport to the airport here) I arrived at the residence. As it was a Saturday, however I had to wait for security to come at 8 P.M. to let me in. Clever as I am I didn't think of that and scheduled my arrival for around 3 P.M. Anyways, the residence has a very nice garden, and after hours of waiting I finally got to my room and met my two lovely japanese roommates. As the room is equipped with nothing (no sheets, blanket, pillow and stuff) I just dropped off by bags and went to the store to buy some basic stuff to be able to sleep. Together with three guys from Bavaria who checked in with me I went to explore the Real Canadian Superstore. And by explore, I mean explore and by super, the mean super. This store is huge. You could spend one week in there and still not see everything. And they do have everything you might need. We spent almost two hours trying to get all the stuff we need and trying to buy the right things (my English is quite good but when it comes to special terms about bedsheets and blankets my range of vocabulary comes to an end). After that, I went home, unpacked my bags and went to bed. Luckily, my roommate does already have a wifi-connection so I can just use hers and pay part of it. Luckily, my roommates also bought frying pans and things like this which I can also use. That really is quite convenient as I would otherwise have to buy everything and trow it away after four months.
So, today I went to explore the surroundings and the university. In fact, there's not much to explore, tough. There are just shops and nothing else. In short walking distance from my home are 4 big grocery stores, 2 dollar stores, at least 6 different fast food restaurants and several other smaller stores like a used-bookstore. I wonder who they are selling their stuff to because you hardly see any people around. The campus is huge and has several builing as well as a library and gymnasium and a bar (that was closed) and cafeteria (closed) and Starbucks (closed). I just have to cross a street to get there which is very convenient.
As there was not much to do outside, i went to buy some more little things for my room and went to leave my personal mark on the place. A little side note to shopping here: The Canadian Super Store is not only huge itself, the package sizes are too. It's hard to shop for one person only, because I just don't need 5 litres of milk or 2 litres of shampoo. Plus: grocery shopping really is expensive here! The only cheap things I found so far are noodles and apples. I guess that's going to be my diet for the next months. Beside that, you can find prizes like 5$ for 160g of cheese (that's the cheapest) or 7$ for a frozen pizza.
Tomorrow the rest of the students should arrive and on Tuesday, the orientation weeks begins. I hope that by then there will be more people around. I still haven't been to the "city center" yet, as the university is a bit outside of town, on a hill. Let's see, maybe that's where the real life happens in Kamloops.

By the way, for all you people who want to send me love letters and presents, here's my address:
Susanne Guidassoni
401B-704 McGill Road
Kamloops, British Columbia
Canada V2C 6N7
So, write me maybe!

My room, part 1

My room, part 2 (also known as the messy part)

The kitchen I'm sharing with my 2 roommates

And the bathroom

Up to Grouse Mountain

Vancouver is one of these rare cities of the world that have the best of everything. It's a town of a quite remarkable size (2 million inhabitants) however the central part of the city is not too big, so you can get around easily. Then the city is right on the coast which means that there are a lot of beaches (and the harbour of course). And last but not least Vancouver is surrounded by mountains, some of which are pretty close which is perfect for hiking - and skiing. One of those mountains, Grouse Mointain, is just 20 minutes from the city center. This is where I went today.
After taking the gondola up and a chairlift up to the mountain top you can enjoy a wonderful view of the city. That is, if there's a clear view, which did not really happen today. Nevertheless it was an amazing experience. Just the feeling of being on top of the mountain is great (and quite cold). Plus they do have two grizzly bears living up there and a hillarious lumberjack show. So, if you ever come to Vancouver and have a spare day - go to Grouse Mountain!

Chairlift up to the peak

Kind of good picture of the view

Meet Coola and Grinder

So called "Beaver's Tail" and Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows

The world famous lumberack show

Tomorrow I'm leaving Vancouver. That means I'll have to pack my bag once again, get to the airport once again und take a flight once again. Then I'm moving into my flat, meeting my roommates and finally next week getting to know my university. I really don't know what's expecting me in Kamloops and I'm really thrilled to find out! I will keep you updated as soon as I have access to internet!

The City of Vancouver, Stanley Park and Granville Island

Let me tell you folks (as they say here) Canada is just amazing!!
But let's start at the beginning. After sleeping another few hours in the first night I went to get my free muffin breakfast and headed to the city. I decided to have a look around and get a feeling of the city before starting the hardcore-sightseeing. So I strolled off and headed downtown. I walked trough the shopping street until I arrived at the end of the city, at the entrance to Stanley Park (which was not that far, actually). Then I walked back along the Seawall Walk along the harbour and back to Canada Place. I had an amazing salmon-cheese-toast at some Dutch restaurant and then took the glass elevator up to The Lookout, a skyskraper with a panorama-platform on top. Unfortunately, this was not as nice as I expected. The builing is quite small so you are kind of in the middle of all the other tall buldings and you don't get that "On top of the city"-feeling. In the evening I walked around Gastown and went to the first house of Vancouver to keep myself from going to bed early.
Today I made my way to Stanley Park, one of Vancouver's main attractions and  the biggest city park of all Canada. Inside the park you can walk, hike, bike or drive around, see gardens, the Vancouver Aquarium, different beaches (the park is surrounded by water) and some remaindants of the native people. Afterwards, I took the bus along false creek and headed to Granville Island in a small ferryboat. This island shows a wide range of markets, where you can buy almost everything.
So, these were my first days in Canada. I really like the country, the people and just the whole feeling you get here. Honestly, I think I never met a people that is so proud of it's nationality. It seems like every single Canadian is pround to say: "I'm Canadian and Canada is the greatest country on earth." But the awesome thing is, they are proud, not bragging. They are still so nice and interested in where you are from and everything. What a great example of national pride.
A fact I still have to get used to is that the prices shown on price tags are always without tax. It's not a major problem, I just keep forgetting it.
As for keeping contact, a big, big thank you to the creators of free wifi and whatsapp/facebook/email. In every public place or restaurant you have wifi. The only thing that keeps me from being able to get in touch with people at home is the fact that most people in Europe sleep when I'm awake. haha. But whatever, that's a minor problem. 
So, enough talking, here are some pictures for you (click on them to see them properly):

Breakfast @ The Cambie Bakery

The Canadian Trail at Canada Place

Vancouver Public Library

Float Plane Terminal

View from The Lookout, Stanley Park

Canadian McDonalds

The Skyline of Vancouver

Public Market at Granville Island

Me and some Totem Poles

Gastown Steem Clock

Vancouver Aquarium

Safely arrived

Hello my dear friends. here's just a short update on my arrival here (and by "here" I mean Canada!!). The "real" posts about Vancouver will follow within the next days.
I had a safe but exhausting trip. After 19 hours of taking the bus/train, waiting on airports, queueing, sitting in uncomfortable planes and finally taking the train and looking for my hostel I finally arrived at The Cambie Hostel which will be my home for the next days. Intelligent as I am I managed to lose my keycard within 5 minutes after getting it which was when I decided that I propably should go to sleep. I just had a short walk into town to get some food and have a look around. But, after 24 hours awake, the attention span is not the best so I gave up and went home. Now, at 4:15 local time I've been wide awake for one hour. Haha, I hope I will get over this jet lag before getting to Kamloops =)
So, as I just went around town for 20 minutes I can't really tell you anything about Vancouver yet. But here are my first expressions of Canada: Mountains and Maple Leaves. When landing on Vancouver Airport you feel like you are in the middle of the alps. I knew that there were mountains next to Vancouver but I didn't expect this. Unfortunately I sat in the middle of the plane so I couldn't take a picture, but I'll try to take one from town or when I fly to Kamloops. As for the maple leaves. They are everywhere! Siriously! On Flags, on walls, on pictures, on every building, on every sign, on every piece of paper produced in Canada. I even found a real one in my room. (they do have maple trees here too).
Anyways, I will try to get some sleep now so that I won't fall asleep at 9 P.M. again this evening.

Here's a picture of Canadian Self-Centered Humor:

Additional note: For those of you who read this before, sorry for all the mistakes. Maybe blogging in the middle of the night isn't such a good idea after all.

Additional additional note: I've fixed the comment-section so that you now can comment without signing up anywhere. Just use the "Name/Url" option and go ahead, let me know what you're thinking!

Current status: Ready to go!

How can you pack your whole stuff for 4 months in one suitcase? It is possible, believe it or not.
After finally having started packing my stuff on Thursday I'm now almost finished. All the clothes are washed and packed, all the other little things someone needs are either in the suitcase or on the list to pack tomorrow.
Then I had my last day of work today, I saw my dad, stepmom, sister and brother for the last time and now I'm basically just waiting for the time to go by.
Tomorrow I will meet my cousin and my best friend once again, pack the last things, make sure the house is safely locked up and then my first part of the journey will take me to Vienna, where on Monday I will depart to Frankfurt and then Vancouver.
I'm already over-excited now and I can't wait to finally be in Canada. I will keep you updated - next time from the other side of the world!

Here's some of the stuff I'm taking with me (my clothes are not important enough to be on the picture):
My passport (almost forgot that one when I went to Germany), a postcard (I won't take that one with me, it will stay on the door of my room to entertain visitors), Canadian money (looks like Monopoly-money!!!), a tourist guide about western Canada (with a map of Vancouver!!), my notebook (with all the important stuff inside) and a necklace (It's a two-part necklace, the pendant from my best friend and the coin is a Canadian 10-cents coin, from a good friend of mine).

Saying Goodbye the first

So, the last weeks beginns, which means a lot of last preparations, actual packing and saying goodbye to a bunch of people.
Last friday I had a small party with most of my closest friends to celebrate the fact that I won't be here for 4 months. It was really nice to see eveyone once again before I leave even tough it was a weird feeling saying goodbye for such a long time. Man, I hate goodbyes!!

Today my parents left for vacation in Greece for 3 weeks which means that I won't see them before I leave either.

Good news: I found a way to get to Vienna (yay!) on Sunday =)

So, to make this post a little less sad, here are some pictures of my awesome friends:

Chantal, Carina, Pauli, Clarissa

Reichardt, Nina, DC, Eli

Julia, Markus (with Charly), Sarah

Reichardt, Nina, DC, Eli, Benni

Michi

Thanks a lot to all of my friends, to those in Graz as well as to those all over the world. I will miss all of you a lot but I will keep you updated!!

14 days

Time flies! It seems like yesterday that I came back to Graz for summer vacation with two months ahead of me. Now it's only 2 more weeks and I'll already be in Vancouver.
14 days and I still don't have and insurance, I still have to do so much stuff and I still don't know how to pack stuff for 4 months in one suitcase! (And I still don't know how to get to Vienna for my flight.)
This week I will have a goodbye-party with some friends and say goodbye to my parents who leave on Sunday.
But besides all of the stuff I still have to do: Only 14 days until my journey begins!

Welcome to my blog!

Congratulations, you found my travel blog.
As most of you know I will move to Canada for 4 months for a semester abroad. This blog is for those who want to stay updated on my life and my experiences. I will try to post as much as possible and add pictures!! =)

As for the language: I decided to write the blog in English, as more people can understand it this way. It might however occur that there are some German posts (or Spanish ones.. haha).

So, let's stop wasting time and start with the real posts! I hope you'll enoy =)
(And I'm always happy for comments!!)

By the way, on the side bar you can find a Google-Translate add-on. Just in case someone wants a good laugh =)