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