It's over ... at least for a month!

Hello everyone,

oh my gosh.. I don't know where to start. Okay, I will start with the school. All my exams are over now and the last project of my first term finished on December 4th!! 

The last project in which we had to come up with a proper business plan was quite tough. Me and four other lovely ladies ... 

... have decided to develop a business plan for a clothing store for men called wood (if you're interested where the name comes from, then please ask me individually per email ;). Besides producing our own collection, our store would have offered free styling advice to men. 

It was quite interesting to develop the entire business plan, which included for example market research such as an online survey and interviews with men to get some information regarding their shopping habbits. After conducting our market research, it really looks as if there is a lack in the industry and as if this business would be quite successful. During our exams, we did not really have enough time to work on this project, which led to lots of last minute work before the deadline. We worked all night before the deadline at 8am in morning. We have not received our grade yet... If the grade is good, we might really think about opening this store in future.. Of course only if we find some people that are crazy enough to invest in us ;)

After all that stress we had an amazing 'Core no more'-Party in Downtown, which included lots of alcohol and fun... The party was followed by many and many hours of sleep that I had missed in the last three months..

Last weekend, Franzi visited me in Vancouver. We spent two days in Whistler and rocked the slopes. There was not much snow, but still we had lots of fun. Daniel joined us for the first day.

Here are some impressions...

Tomorrow, we are picking up Tanja from the airport already :-)  And that means we are going up the mountains again!!! Tanja and me going to be in Whistler for 5 days! I cannot wait to be there again. It supposed to snow all weekend, so let's keep fingers crossed that it comes true..

Merry X-Mas!!!

Yours

Alena

Next exams...

Hey guys,

here is a short update to what happend in the last two weeks (sorry Kerstin that I'm so lazy ;)

First of all, I have totally forgot to tell you that I'm the captain of the dodgeball team now !!! I hope you all know what dodgeball is?? It's the best sport ever (right after snowboarding of course) Watch this to get an impression what Dodgeball is about: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEsgiUBGlLc&feature=related

And here are two of my action pictures:

 My teams rocks...

 Some air action

At the moment we are number three in the league! The aim is definitely to become number one.. we are quite optimistic ;)

An less exciting issue are my exams. Today I have again two of them: Finance and Organizational Behaviour. I should be fine with Finance, because it is not really new for me. Let's see how it works. Again: Don't forget to keep fingers crossed! 

Miss you all!!

Cheers

Alena

P.s. the last two exams went pretty well... :-) 

Exams start

Hey guys,

Sorry that I did not have time to update my blog, but I had lots of work to do in the last few weeks. Today I'm writing my first two exams (Accounting and Supply Chain Management) so please keep your fingers crossed for me okay? These are the two first exams out of eleven..

I will upload some pictures during this weeks, so you can see that I'm actually having also fun besides all the studying ;)

Kiss,

alena

Daniel arrives today !!!!!

Hey guys,

just wanted to tell you that I'm really happy that Daniel finally arrives today :)  I can't wait to see him!

MBA Class 2010 - Sauder School of Business

Hey there,

I just wanted to share shortly with you my MBA class!

(they forced us to dress up ;) )

Please comment!

Scarlet fever??? what's that?

Hey my friends,

This is my third week of the MBA core program. And I know you won't believe me, but some of us compare it with hell ;) For all of you that think I'm here on holidays... forget about that! 

After the first week of (let's call it...) 'hell', I became sick. After paying $100 to see the doctor for 2 minutes, the doctor told me that I have scarlet fever. For those of you, who have not heard of it, let's try to ask wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlet_fever. 

The reaction of my Mexican friend was: 'Oh I like Scarlet. But more the movie than the book!'. So I showed her wikipedia ;) Although I had to take antibiothics, I could not stay at home, because we had to write assignments almost every day. In the meantime, I am fit again :-)

Here are some impressions what I did in the last few weeks. Have fun!

Waiting for the skytrain coming home from a soccer game. 

Gala dinner with our dean!

High ropes course - I love heights!

I'm still alive

Hey there,

It has been a while since I have published my last post on my blog. The last weeks were quite exciting and busy though. 

After the ISP (International Students Program), we have started with the Pre-core moduls, which were on a voluntary basis. These pre-core moduls, that comprised Economics, Quantitative Methods, Accounting etc., was supposed to help us to start the MBA Program all on the same level. Although these topics were not new for me, it was quite challenging to hear that stuff in English! The good thing was, that during Pre-core I could finally meet all my fellow students. All in all, we are 115 students in the MBA Program now. I still have not managed to learn all the names ;)

After two weeks of Pre-Core, we have started orientation weeks, that are quite relaxed.We are doing a lot of team-building exercises. Nevertheless, we are told at least once a day, that the next three to four months are going to be like 'hell'. I hope these guys are exaggerating... 

Despite all these 'serious' things, we have find of course time to enjoy ourselves in this wonderful city. Last weekend for example, one of our fellow students organized a big party in his house and invited all students of the MBA program. It was a long long night ;) I was lucky that this guy lives two blocks away from my shack ;)

The other weekend we decided to check out the nightlife in Downtown Vancouver, which was really fun... here are some of the pics we took that night: 

Sorry I still cannot get rid of my face ;)

Here are some more pictures of happy MBA students after long, long Pre-core classes:

Besides studying and partying with my fellow students, I really enjoy living at my new place. Kitsilano, which is the area where I live, is such a unique place... I love it! And my roommate Trish is also really cool and easy-going. She helps me a lot in getting to know this city much faster than I normally would without her!

So I wish you all a sunny rest of the week (by the way: it's raining here all the time)!

Don't forget me ;) 

Yours 

Alena

I've found a place to stay..

Hey guys,

I know I was quite lazy in updating this blog. But I have had so many things to do last week... these are only some of the things I've done during the week: finding a place, doing a project with two of my classmates, buying furniture, finding the right cell phone contract, trip to Victoria etc..

But the most important thing was for sure finding a nice place in Kitsilano, that is really close to the campus and to the beach!! Check out the following link which shows my place:

Alena's place

I will live there together with a Canadian girl named Trisha. Her parents are originally from Holland, which gives her the wonderful last name 'Van der Star'!!! What a funky name! And she seems to be really nice. Next sunday I will finally move in. Last saturday I've been to Ikea and spend a bunch of money to buy my bed & stuff. This is how the house looks like:

I'm really looking forward to living there and being so close to the beach!

My MBA Program runs quite well. Yesterday was my last day of the International Student Program. This program was made to familiarize international students with the North American university system and the Canadian economy in general. This program ended with a group presentation. I was supposed to do a Presentation about 'Forest Industry in British Columbia'. Yeah, I know this doesn't sound very exciting, but it ended up to be a really cool project. We were divided into groups of three people. I was really lucky with my team: I worked together with a Mexican girl called Alejandra and a guy from Bahrain called Leo. We worked so hard together, that we became really good friend within a short period of time! Both of them are so cool. And our presentation has gone down well... the profs loved our short movie about the forests in BC ;-)

To celebrate the survived presentation, we all went to a pub on campus and had a couple of drinks! This is how it looks like when people from Bahrain, Mexico, Venezuela, Iran, Taiwan and Czech Republic (or Germany) party together:

Wish you all a wonderful weekend!  Miss you all!

alena

My first day at UBC...I have survived!

Hey everybody,

today was my very first day at University of British Columbia (UBC)!!! I was quite nervous, but it turned out to be a really cool first day. Although we had to prepare and present our first assignment already today, it was more the introduction kind of day. If you compare it to Germany, the professors over here seem to be quite relaxed and easy-going. Let's see, how it will shape up for the rest of the week...

Regarding my search for the 'perfect' shared apartment or house, I wasn't really successful yet... so please continue to keep fingers crossed!

By the way, these are (were) my German roommates. Unfortunately, Juliane left last Sunday to go to Indonesia.

Guess what we did?? Exactly, we went shopping :-)  

Thanks for all your comments! Sorry for being so slow in answering all your eMails... 

Cheers alena

I LOVE this one...

skyline downtown

my new home

I'm so haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapppy!

Just to let you know: Daniel is admitted to Vancouver Film School!!!! His semester starts on 27 October. I couldn't imagine better news :-)

Welcome to Vancouver

Hello everybody,

Today was finally the d-day or let's say better my v-day. After an emotional goodbye with Daniel, Mum, Tanja & Diana at the airport, I flew with LTU from Stuttgart to Vancouver via Duesseldorf. If I hadn't been so sad, the flight would have been quite relaxed. To deepen my sadness, the airline had the wonderful idea to show three of the most romantic movies ever! After the landing in Vancouver and at least one liter of tears later, everything worked perfectly and without problems: I got my visa within two minutes, all of my luggage was there and my taxi brought me for about 20 Dollars to my new (part-time) home... 

The house were I live at the moment is quite comfy and clean. I share it with... yes exactly with two Germans (@Clemens: my German roomie is doing here some research at University to be able to become a PhD in Electrical Engineering - You should join him ;). My forth roomie is a Japense guy, that I haven't met yet. My room is rudimentary equipped, but still nice and unexpectedly large. 

After my first shopping trip with the bus (no clothes - only food), which boosted my jet lag even more, I have decided to go to bed early. My other roomies went to bed anyway...  

Let's see what tomorrow brings :-) Maybe even pictures...

MISS YOU ALL!

Kisses

Alena  

party pics

a party with mixed feelings...

Hey guys, 

after the birthday and farewell party with Diana on Saturday, I have finally realized that my departure to Vancouver is really close! I look back on this evening with mixed feelings: on the one hand I'm really looking forward to staying in Vancouver, on the other hand I'm gonna miss all of you guys!!! A big THANKS goes especially to my friend Tanja, who has organized the most beautiful present that I have ever received. I'll treasure it in Vancouver, that's a promise! By the way, I'll publish some of the party pics on this blog in the next few days. The rest of them can be checked out on studivz soon.

In the next few days, lots of small things still have to be organized for the trip. I had never thought with how much work this trip would be connected... please keep fingers crossed for me that everything will be done in time. 

I'll try to keep you updated about my further preparations. Hope to see or at least hear lots of you guys before I'll leave the country!

Yours Alena