Trono!

Doesn´t it sound like "Trono" when North Americans pronounce Toronto?^^

The trip to Toronto was, as the ones before, great! We spend a nice weekend in the capital city of Ontario. We left on Saturday morning around 8ish during a nice snow storm, and therefore arrived quite late in Toronto.

If you are interested in possible locations to visit there, you should definitely check Fatima´s blog (she was in Toronto a few weeks ago). What I did was a bit more different, that´s why I cannot tell you too much about the city centre or the port etc.

After arriving at our Hostel we decided to visit the CN Tower and the Hockey Hall of Fame, which was lots of fun. We´ve seen the shirts of all the famous hockey players, the stanley cup and played some interactive games (see pictures^^).At one point I started to search for the jersey of the Argentinean national team, since all nations that ever played a world cup were represented. The result was that I found my country under "nations which never participated in a world tournament", pretty dissapointing to be honest haha. On top of that there was no shirt of Argentina (what a surprise :D).

The day after we went to see the NBA game between the Raptors and Atlanta Hawks. The first half was very exciting and both teams played a very intense and good game. However, Toronto managed to play a terrible second half and so they lost by 20 points. Still, it was a great event and I cannot wait until I see the next one!

In my last post I was talking about my plans when school is over here. I just came back from an exam and still have two to go on Saturday (don´t even ask me why Canadians have exams on the weekend). My flight back to Europe goes on the 4th of January and I need to leave res on the 23rd which gives me around two weeks to travel.

My old friend Karine, who I havent seen for ages, luckily invited me over for Christmas :) I will spend the Christmas days with her and her family in the near of Montreal. I am pretty excited about celebrating french-canadian (or "quebecois" as she likes to call it) christmas ;)

After Christmas I will travel to New York, to meet up with my old housemate from Tilburg. Michelle is Australian and she was on exchange in Tilburg. It´s incredible how small the world is, she will study next semester at Carleton Uni in Ottawa. After meeting up in New York we will visit Washington and travel back to NYC to celebrate New Year´s Eve together!

I can´t wait for all this! Unfortunately, this also means that I have to say good bye to my fellow exchange students here at Telfer. We had such a great semester and I am lucky to have met so many incredible people over here. This will be our last weekend and we will hopefully have one last blast!

CN Tower:


Being a goalie (pucks came out of the screen :P):



Being a striker (scored twice haha):



The crew with the Stanley Cup (yes the one with the massive hat, that´s me :D):


Air Canada Centre (Toronto Raptors vs Atlanta Hawks):

Academic part reloaded

Good night North America, good morning Europe;

the past weeks have been pretty busy for all of us here at Telfer School. We are 3 weeks away from our final exams and this means that a lot of papers and cases are due (some still have midterms like me yesterday^^).

Today, I had my first of three upcoming presentations. Me and my group had to analyze cross-cultural management issues of the communications industry in India. Giving a presentation here at Ottawa U is definitely different from the ones I had to do so far in Tilburg. We had more meetings to talk about the presentation itself (normally it is related to a term paper) than I am used to have in Tilburg. We don´t just discuss about the topics that will be covered, but we also practice it in front of our team members, and give each other feedback. Though, the biggest difference is that we are supposed to dress up for a presentation.
Even though not all the profs demand a dress code for the presentation, students still dress up. I was honestly surprised when I heard it for he first time because as you all might know, presentations are more casual in Tilburg. However, once you get used to it, it doesn´t seem that wrong. I mean, we are at the university and speaches in class are supposed to prepare us for future presentations etc. Dressing up adds a certain meaning and value to this little in-class presentations and I think that this professional atmosphere is appropriate for 3rd year students.

On the other hand, I start to miss Tilburg because these million assignments here are driving all the exchange students crazy :) The difficuty at the University of Ottawa is not harder than the one in Tilburg. I might even say that due to this high amout of assignments, it is easier to collect enough points to pass a course (this is an impression that other Tilburg students coming to Canada had as well). Studying abroad makes one reflect upon his own education at home, and after these three months here at UOttawa I can confirm that Tilburg prepares its students very well to success in a different learning environment.

Let me switch to some other non-academic topics:
The big cold is about to come :( The past couple of days it has been around -5° and it is supposed to get colder. I am pretty sure I wouldn´t survive the months of January and February when it is constantly about -20° to -30° haha.Yesterday, it was surprisingly warm compared to the last days and this was exactly what I told to a friend of mine when we walked out of residence: "It is surprisingly WARM COMPARED to the last days". When getting into the library, two girls where about to leave the building and as soon as they stepped outside I heard one of them saying: "Oh my god, it is soooooo incredibly hot today". She was definitely a real Canadian :D

Assuming that it is already Thursday: I leave for Toronto in 2 days :) A couple of guys and me (basically the same of the road trip +1) are going for some site-seeing and to watch a NBA game. I can´t wait since I am a huge basketball fan! My friends from Tilburg actually made the gift for my birthday and are "sponsoring" my entrance. If one of you guys is reading: THANKS AGAIN! ;) The game we picked is Toronto Raptors vs. Atlanta Hawks, and I really wish that we get to see an amazing game!!

On top of that, I finally decided what I am going to do after finishing my semester (I won´t spend Christmas and NYE at home), but I think....I will tell you more about this when I am back from Toronto ;)

I will end this post with a picture of the Air Canada Center, home of the Raptors! Talk to you soon.

Some impressions

Roadtrip!

Last friday we arrived from our roadtrip to Boston, Cap Cod and Quebec City. It was a great experience and we spend six amazing days.
The trip started on Sunday when we rented our Chevy Impala. We left around noon and arrived in Boston in the evening. Our hostel was located in a suburb and looked more like a haunted house than a residence, but surprisingly we were pretty satisfied. On the same day we went out to explore this part of the city and ended up in a bar which had more than 12 pages of different beers in their menu. Some of our guys tried extravagant brands, including a 13% Goose Island Bourbon County beer, which didn´t really taste like a beer but hard liquour. I think I took the right decision ordering my boring Bud Light :)
The first thing on our list for Monday was visiting Harvard university. After a 20 minute bus drive we were standing outside the doors of one of the most recognized universities in the world and we were defintely not the only tourists walking over campus, you could see cameras and guided groups everywhere. Besides that, we got to know Boston downtown, the harbor, Quincy market, China town and the financial district. One must say that Bean town differs very much from for example Chicago, since Boston has a big pedestrian area in the middle of the city and its Irish pubs create a European ambience.
Our target for Tuesday was Provincetown, the last city of the Cape Cod bay. It was a bit more of a two hour drive but it was definitely worth it. The weather was beautiful so that we could fully enjoy our view on the Atlantic Ocean. Sitting on the beach, watching whales and seals was a great experience.
The same day the NBA season started with the opening game Boston Celtics vs. Miami Heat. Since I am a big fan, I convinced the other guys to go out and watch it in a bar (in which even the toilets were in green/white style^^) full of Celtics fans. It was a fun game with a deserved outcome of 88:80 for the Celtics which made the crowd going crazy!
The day after we headed back to Canada, more precisely Quebec City which is considered one of the most European-like cities in North America. Compared to Boston, the hostel was actually in the centre of the city. Right on the first night we managed to lock ourselves out of the room, making a fun night without sleep possible. I recommend you the club "Chez Dagobert", there is not too much more during the week. We explored the city on Thursday which was actually our last day of the roadtrip. Especially the old part of Quebec is very nice!!

Unfortunately, the real life started again meaning books, exams and little free time^^ Luckily, I can say that the trips didn´t ruin my academic career until now, since I passed all my exams, papers and case studies so far :) This week is pretty stressy: one exam, 3 case studies and 2 term papers due. I kind of miss Tilburg and its reasonable amount of papers and group works, I have the feeling that I am not doing anything else these days! haha

However, I am pretty sure that fun times will come sooner than later. I have fridays off so the weekend nearly began...

PS: To my amusement, one of the guys here asked me why I included an academic part into one of my last posts and proposed that I should focus just on parties :D I suppose that my academic advisors in Tilburg wouldn´t be that pleased haha
Alright, it´s 3am and I have a class in 5 hours so I better get some rest. I hope the roadtrip part was fun to read! The next trip might be a weekend to Toronto, I will let you know if this works out ;) Good night!

ROADTRIP

Hey guys,

this is just a short post to keep you updated!

The NHL game was nice, unfortunately the SENS lost 2:1. The stadium is kind of far away from the city, so we had to take the bus for 45 mins. The difference to for example European football is that north American just cheer whereas you sing in European stadium. This makes it sometimes difficult to create to good atmosphere. Nevertheless, it was a great experience and I would definitely recommend it.

Chicago was great, it is a beautiful city! We spend an awesome weekend in the Windy City. After 15 hours in the bus we were really happy when the bus dropped us at Navy Pier. We used Friday to discover the city and visit the Willis Tower (former Sears tower). An impressive building and especially the observation box (its just made out of glass) at over 200 meters height makes you feel scared haha! Furthermore, we visited Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs (Baseball), and Millenium Park on Saturday. Not to forget clubbing on Saturday night ;)

Actually, I am in a hurry right now since we have to go and pick up our rental car. We (3 friends and me) are about to leave for a roadtrip since we have one week off. Destinations are Boston, Cape Cod and Quebec City so far. We will see were we actually end up in the end :D

I keep you posted! Take care

Hola chicos!

"Imagine you are sitting in the food court of the shopping mall, downtown. You just finished eating and now you start looking at the people around you. Right in front of your table sits a middle-aged Canadian mother with her sons. She might have Eurpean roots, as so many other Canadians do. Next to her you see three teenies with Latin background, one wearing a "Sens"-shirt. You turn around and hear 2 afro-american girls talking about their jobs. At the same time you see a couple of Asian senior citizens who are playing cards, a few of them holding a "Tim Hortons" cup."
If someone would ask me to describe Canada in one word, my answer would be "multi-cultural". I have never seen a place where so many different ethnic groups live together and I must say that I am really enjoying it. I am having the time of my life over here!

One month past since my last post and this gave me enough time to gain experiences that I can share with you.
After one week I moved out of my hostel which means that I am living in "residence" for three weeks now. Residence is a complex of three buildings hosting all the exchange and first-year students. I am in the 5th of 15 floors that have 20 rooms each, consisting of both single and double rooms. Each floor has own bathrooms but the kitchen is shared by two floors. The exchangies are spread out through the whole building.

UOttawa is big, bigger than Tilburg. If you have to walk over campus, it might take you a while. The buildings are connected through a tunnel system which gives students the possibility to stay inside during the heavy winter. Luckily, I didnt have to make use of it until now :p
My lectures started September 8th and this means that studying started again. Class sizes are about the same as in Tilburg but the length of a lecture is different. Each course lasts one and a half hour (even though we always finish 10 minutes earlier to make sure we get to the next class since there is no break in between courses) and has NO break. This makes lectures pretty long and after one hour you notice how you start thinking about tonight´s plans instead of focusing on "the legal system in Canada". Furthermore, attendance is required more often, some courses have no slides and we have much more assignments and papers to do than in Tilburg. But the most ridiculous thing is the price of text books: if I would buy all the materials for my 5 courses, it would cost me around 500€!!!
Sports is pretty big here in Canada, the university offers much more activities. You can use the fitness rooms for free, but if you want to sign up for courses or tournaments (and there are really a lot!) you need to pay.

The welcome days were really nice. I got to know lots of people (we are around 40 business exchange students) and our mentors organised many activities for us. One of them was a hiking trip through the Gatineau hills.

I must say that I am really lucky with the two mentors I got. They are as old as I am and we are always hanging out or planning further activities. Going out is lots of fun, especially since we are always on a guest list which means that we neither pay entrance fee nor have to wait in line (something that Canadian´s love to do, here are queues everywhere!!).

Two weeks ago I made my first trip with a couple of guys to Montreal, Quebec. We went by bus (it takes around two hours) and luckily I could stay over at Moritz´s place, one of my fellow students from Tilburg (I recommend you to read his blog if you want to know more about Montreal ;) ). I spent a great weekend over there, the city is really beautiful and there is lots to see.

The next adventure is already waiting for us; in 2 weeks we are going with most of the exchange students to Chicago!! I am curious what the "windy city" is going to be like.I will let you know when I am back :P

One last thing: next weekend I am going to watch my first NHL game, the season opener between the Ottawa Senators and the Buffalo Sabres. It´s going to be wild since everyone is waiting for the season to start!!

Four weeks down, 12 to go. Have a nice day and thank you for reading, Brau

Day 1 in Ottawa

First of all, i arrived safely yesterday evening. I had a great flight including an own screen to watch movies, TV or everything else I wanted. I was so happy about that, that I didn't sleep..I had to find out all the different functions^^ The heat here right now is tremendous, it's more than 30 degrees and I am so happy after the long and shitty weeks of rain we had in central Europe. It finally feels like vacation...

Second, I found a hostel and luckily I don't have to sleep under any bridge here. I'm at "The Barefoot Hostel" a small and chilled hostel that has only 4 rooms with 4 beds each. It has a living room, kitchen and garden, it's a kind of relaxed place to stay. If you want you can check it out: http://www.barefoothostel.com/ . There is one big rule in here, it's more important than no smoking, drugs, noise or anything else: Take off your shoes when you get in! Kind of weird but fits to the atmosphere, it's like a big family.
The only reason I have to stay in a hostel is that the uni doesn't allow access to our rooms until the 4th of September. It just doesn't make any sense since they require us to be here from the 1st on. I wished they would have dealt with it differently.

I am surprised by the hospitality and generosity of the people here in Canada. They are so open and the people I met so far always tried to help me.
Today I was in the mall with Fatima, the girl who is here on exchange with me, trying to find an ATM and an exchange bureau. We had no clue where we were, got lost after a while since the map there was pretty crappy. An old guy noticed that we were searching for something, because other people we talked to didn't know the way either, and asked if we would need help. I told him what we were looking for. I didn't expect his answer: "I can tell you where it is but I prefer showing you. I have nothing else to do", and he started smiling. He walked with us through the whole mall to the ATM and back to the other corner on the next floor to the exchange bureau. Something I never experienced in for example Germany or Holland so far. It's just an example of how nice people were so far.

Back to the hostel; here are a lot of French people. One of the few non-French is Sean, an Aussie from Sydney. He is traveling around and couldn't believe my reaction when I told him about the screen in the economy class of the plane. He's like: "Are you serious? I have never flown a plane without personal TV. I actually didn't know that they still have some without". Well, that's an experience most of the economy passengers in Europe might envy.

I guess that's it for today. I hope I didn't bore you too much with these stories, it just showed me other interesting attitudes and ways of life. I promise there will be some more exciting in future. The post got actually pretty long, apparently I didn't have anything else to do ;) cheers

Update

In 10 days I will sit in a plane direction North America. I realised today that it´s really cloooooose and I still don´t have a place to stay for the first 6 nights. No need to freak out yet but would be nice if I can settle things within a few days^^

Besides that not much to tell. You´ll know soon about my failure or (hopefully) success in finding a room. Talk to you later, Brau

Welcome, Bienvenidos, Willkommen, Bienvenue

Hello everybody,

this is just a first short test to see how this thing works. In 3 weeks I will leave to Ottawa, Canada what means that I still have a lot of stuff to plan and organize. I will update you in a few days^^

Take care and talk to you soon!

Brau