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!