Capilano University Students Blogging Abroad

Well before I started university, I knew that I wanted to study abroad and I was certain that it had to be in Germany. Now here I am, living in Berlin, Germany over 4 years after I first made that promise to myself. I arrived in Berlin after 28+ hours of travelling (thanks to a 10 hour delay in Stockholm), however I arrived with a sense of excitement of what was to come. Although, I must admit I was nervous as well since I had yet to find permanent accommodation for my entire stay in Berlin and over the next days I set up meetings to find roommates to live with. This process was by far the most nerve-racking part of my study abroad experience thus far, since there are many students in Berlin and only so many apartments available. Armed with my grasp of the German language and my [charming] people skills, I found an apartment 5 days after my arrival.   However before I could legally call Berlin home, I had to register myself at the local foreigners office; which is lo...

  So it’s been about a month since I arrived in Aberdeen and everything is starting to feel familiar now.   When we first arrived, Addy and I noticed a lot of differences between Aberdeen and Vancouver.   The first difference we encountered was at the Aberdeen airport.   There is a revolving door that leads outside of the airport that revolves in the opposite direction!   One of the more obvious differences of course is that the cars drive on the opposite side of the street.   The majority of things here seem to work in the opposite way that they do at home!   Another example of this is the crosswalks.   Here you wait for about five minutes and then everyone crosses at once! You could cross the street diagonally if you wanted to.     So far, Addy and I have been to Inverness (where the Loch Ness monster is) and visited Urquhart Castle.   We’ve also been to Stonehaven and visited Dunnottar Castle.   Both castles...

After waiting for what seemed like forever, I have finally arrived in England! It was hard saying goodbye to all my friends and family back home, but I just had to remind myself that there were going to be so many new friends to get to know and people to meet once I start this experience. The University of Hertfordshire is a lot different from Capilano U so far. For starters, it is significantly bigger! It is divided up into two campuses: College Lane and de Havilland. All of my classes are on de Hav, but I live on College Lane. I kind of like the way that ended up working out, because all of the social stuff like the campus club and pub are near where I live, and my classes are only a 10 minute bus ride via the free shuttle or a 20 minute walk away.   I think my biggest form of culture shock thus far was the trip to the grocery store on campus, called ASDA. I first had to get used to seeing the pound sign in front of prices instead of the dollar sign. In the beginning ...

I was very prepared for culture shock; however, it has been a month and I have yet to really feel any major shock! The only real, perhaps awkward, moments surround greetings. In Canada, as I’m sure most of you know, we hug. That is, if we know the person well enough.   If they’re an acquaintance, we may shake hands, if that. Sometimes just a nod is enough. But here, it’s customary to do a “kiss” on each cheek, first on the right, then on the left.   I say “kiss” in quotes because you are kissing the air next to their cheek, while your cheeks are pressed up against each other. But then there are Mexican exchange students, and for them, it’s customary to kiss just once on the cheek. Further, certain French people also only do one kiss! Or, in other regions of France, they do two kisses on each cheek, alternating!   To sum it up, you end up in a weird limbo every time you meet someone, not sure if you should go for the two kisses, one, or just nod and stay aw...

A lot can happen in one year. Within that year, you can’t help but imagine or be curious of how your life is going to be like in Europe. Is it going to be great or is it going to be depressing? Are you going to complain about how things are different or are you going to embrace the change? Did you pack enough? Did you pack the right things? Did you do enough research? All of that is an absolute must but don’t forget to bring two things with you… and that is the gravity of imagination and curiosity.   We all perceive the world differently. Our thoughts and imagination keeps us unique. The concept of imagination can be viewed as unreal but the fact is it's more real than you think. They take us to places we’ve never been before. Imagination is what guides us to build skyscrapers and computers. Curiosity inspires and challenges us to reach our goals. Despite the differences, they are a common link that touches humanity in all of us. They are the templates that archite...

A little less than 2 months ago, I was as scared, excited, hopeful, and nervous as I've ever been in my entire life. Travel is something I've always longed for, but I never pictured myself actually being abroad, let alone living abroad.     Well let me tell you that it is 100% without a doubt the best decision anyone could ever make for themselves. The entire process is about seeing the world, exploring, meeting new people, and learning something you wouldn't have learned back home. However, I will say that most of the things you learn while studying abroad you do not learn from school. Sorry, not sorry. On my very first day in the UK, I was kind of nervous that I wouldn't make friends, and I'd also heard that the British are more reserved than Canadians (fact of experience: this is NOT true; it is most certainly the other way around).   I couldn't have gotten through my first day/weekend without my fellow Capilano buddies to lean on, but making f...

It was 5:30pm when I received my baggage and headed towards International Arrivals. I could see the face of the friend who was picking me up from the airport. Great, I am not alone! I could not help but notice that there are a lot of Chinese people in China…I was now part of a visual minority. This was something I had yet to experience. As we stepped out of the airport, my body was struck with three sensations. The first was the smell, it cannot be described. The second was the thickness of the air. The third took a different form. It was the hands of many local taxi drivers who insisted they could get me to my destination in the cheapest and fastest way possible. They were aggressive and were grabbing at my clothes and bags. The Canadian in me decided to be polite and say, “No. Thank you.” But I was told being polite to strangers in China would get you nowhere. This has been confirmed. We ended up taking a bus to Jinan University. It took 40 minutes and cost $3.50CAD. Welc...