Capilano University Students Blogging Abroad

Writing about myself has always been something I've struggled with. I sit here staring at my computer screen trying to form coherent sentences that really explain how I feel. It's all about perception. How we want others to see us. Knowing that people are going to read this makes it even harder to articulate the things I feel are so important. I want to say how grateful I am for this opportunity and how lucky we are to have the chance to be immersed in all these new cultures and places. Okay, here goes nothing... What are my strengths and weaknesses? Sheesh, already a question I'm afraid to answer. I know my weaknesses. Those are the things that we as humans notice most about ourselves, (and hopefully least about others). We fixate so much on our flaws that we forget that we have so many things that make us great. My flaws are easy to name: I'm impatient, I fixate on things (as you will probably be able to tell from this blog entry), I get stressed out, and I...

  Before heading off to the UK, I created a mental list of everything I wanted to gain from this trip. Mainly, it included different attributes that I wanted to acquire such as independence, courage, adaptability, and resourcefulness. From that list, I most importantly wanted to get out of my shell and become more of an extrovert. From my childhood and even till a lesser of an extent now, I have always been quiet and kept to myself. For that matter, I felt as if studying abroad was the perfect opportunity to help me branch out and to become more of a social person.   Throughout my time in the UK, especially during the beginning of my trip, I felt as if my main goal was becoming true. I was meeting amazing people from around the world and the local area, attending different events around campus such as flat parties, club nights, and different gatherings, and occasionally visiting London with friends. However, there was a huge part of me that just felt completely exhau...

Moving from Vancouver to Berlin was a pretty big deal for me; I'm 25, I was working an amazing career job that paid good money and worked around my night school. Leaving that behind was really friggin scary. The last few months in Vancouver were chaotic beyond belief, getting the financials setup to come over here, subletting our apartment, training my temporary replacement, planning what I needed to bring, and all the while skiing up at WB in every spare moment I could find :) I've already had some fun working holidays in Canada so this was my (maybe my last?) big chance to put my life on hold and go off on a big adventure. Landing in Berlin, I immediately went to a hostel in Mitte and slept off my jet lag and slowly wandered around in larger circles through the area. Culture Shock hit me pretty bad, not that i wanted to go home but more that I was really disoriented and didn't know how to do anything. Couple awesome things about Berlin that I picked up rig...

7:00 a.m. Wake up. 7:30 a.m. Pound back a bowl of oatmeal. 8:00 a.m. Pack onto the U-Bahn with hundreds of other commuters while I try to decipher their German conversations. 8:30 a.m. Arrive at school without swearing at a single driver or stressfully searching for parking. Studying abroad in Vienna, Austria has lead me to experience new transportation methods, infrastructure, and city design. Many students go abroad and are intrigued by the change in culture, language, or sense of independence. I have become consumed with how one moves from place to place in European cities.   Vienna may not be Denmark's Copenhagen or The Netherland's Amsterdam where bike lanes and public transport outnumber cars. Yet, Vienna is the first time that I have lived without depending on decomposed dinosaurs to transport myself from place to place. The bicycle culture here is alive, and making friends who are as passionate about two wheels as I am is motivating.  ...