International Student Office

Study Abroad Experience Christian V. at Vancouver Island University, Canada:

After two really nice weeks and a lot of exciting meetings and classes at VIU, some problems came up with the choice of my courses. My instructor in Germany told me just last week, that he wont’t accept the course “Energy Efficiency” of the Green Building degree, because of the missing financial aspects. He might be right in some ways but in this class and the “Financial Aspects of Energy” of the Green Building degree, I met a lot of very nice people. So i kept the course “Financial Aspects of Energy” and changed the other into “Strategies for Sustainable Development” just today.

It was a little trouble and I have to work a lot now to catch up the others but I was early enough to take part in the group work starting next week and late enough to miss the first two quizzes So everything is fine and I keep on meeting a lot of other nice people. I joined the courses “Financial Aspects of Energy” / “Human Resource Management” / “Marketing Communication”

and “Strategies for Sustainable Development”. For accommodation I keep on staying at the Painted Turtle Hostel. It’s very nice there and not that expensive, because I just rented a bed an a 4-bed mixed dorm. So I have a nice place to stay until the middle of April for 500$/month right Downtown!

Sebastian from Leipzig/Köln stays also in the hostel for this semester and took a single room right next to mine. So two of your students are staying at the Painted Turtle at the moment. The only problem at this hostel is the missing room to learn in a quiet atmosphere and the mainly German staff Just kidding the staff girls are really nice, 3 at the moment and all are German. So I’m sure that it was the right choice to stay here, as I can save some money for traveling and if a word is missing there are enough people around to ask And because they are all so nice and I have my Fridays off(I chose the right courses, yes!) I and 4 more (including Sebastian) people of the hostel rented a car and we went to Mt Washington for skiing/snowboarding. On Sat./Sun. I went with some others to Tofino/Ucluelet and we had a really sunny and nice Saturday and unfortunately a rainy Sunday at the Pacific! Next week I’m going to Victoria for the Victoria Film Festival and two weeks later are Study Days which I will spend in Vancouver for some concerts(Billy Talent and Stereophonics) and visiting friends and to experience the Olympic spirit for sure. In short: Thank you for your assistance to get me here!

Greetings from Nanaimo,

Christian