Faster Than The Speed Of Light

I cannot emphasize often enough how fast the time went by. I have been constantly enjoying my life in Montreal for 4 months now and even the slightest thought of leaving the city in less than 3 weeks makes me sad at the moment...
Anyway :), as I told you before, I left for a weekend in Boston with my exchange student group. The night bus from Montreal to Boston was like a trip from the rain into the sun and we were lucky to have it sunny and relatively warm the whole time.
In my opinion, the most beautiful places were: Beacon Hill, Harvard and Cambridge. Have a look at my favorite pictures below:










Now, it is the first December in my young life where I do not have an Advent Calendar filled with all kinds of chocolate. This feels somehow wrong to me, but it is apparently not common to have it here and getting one from Europe would have been too expensive. I have final exams coming up that have to be written until I will leave for my "goodbye vacation" to a ski resort. Wish me luck! :)

Je vous embrasse!

On the road New York, Niagara Falls, Toronto & Ottawa

After a tiring exam week with 4 exams in a row, I was highly ready to go on my well-deserved vacation.

Therefore, I took the night bus on the 23rd of October to go New York. Going to New York was a highly emotional thing for me, because going there had been one of my childhood dreams. And I must confess that basically everything impressed me during the 4 days I spent there: The Time Square, Central Park during autumn, The view from the Empire State Building, The Skyline of New York, The charm of Lower West Side, the morbid and creative atmosphere of Harlem and Williamsburg, Broadway Hostel, the view on the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry... However, the most impressing thing was that I just dropped by coincidence into a Taylor Swift Concert, being aired on November 25 as part of NBC's thanksgiving session. I did not look well so I hope I will not appear in television at all or just for a very short time. Whatever, at least I saw a concert in a bar and did not pay anything; neither entry nor drinks. I could write pages about New York, but I decided to present you photos below...

After another trip with a night bus, which is cheap because you save hostel nights and time but also a little bit tiring, I arrived in Niagara Falls. Unfortunately the Boat that drives into the falls did not operate anymore. So, I just spent 5 hours to take some pictures and took the bus to Toronto afterwards.

In fact, I was highly curious and in the end I was disappointed of Toronto. Maybe I noticed while being in Toronto how European I am. I love old buildings, coziness and am hardly impressed by skyscrapers. Consequently, I was very shocked when I saw Toronto's downtown. It seems like Toronto decided to sacrifice its identity and history in order to become a "Wannabe Manhattan". There are hardly any old buildings left in the town, the only special new buildings are the enlargement of the Ontario National Museum and the CN Tower and I also have seen much prettier seasides.
Nevertheless, Toronto has also nice places but you have to look for them for a pretty long time, since they are located in the outer areas. Notably, there are Chinatown, Kensington Market, Little Italy, Korea town and the distillery district. Also, Toronto has very nice exhibitions. I visited a press photo exhibition and a modern fair and I liked the hostel very much.

One week after I came back from Toronto, I joined HEChange, our event and welcome week organizers, for a trip to Ottawa. Ottawa is a nice city with an awesome view from the Parliament Hill. You can visit a couple of things there such as the Parliament and enjoy the beautiful view. After a couple of hours spent there, my fellow students went back to Montreal. I did not join them back and visited Braulio, a fellow student of mine who is doing his exchange semester there (Feel free to have a look at his blog http://braulioinottawa.blogspot.com/) It was interesting to see how different the universities are. My university is in a vibrant city and the students live in apartments all over the city whereas Ottawa is rather quiet city but therefore all the students are living one big building on campus.

I spent nice a weekend over there, and I will not stop exploring the world because I am going to go to Boston in 2 days. :)) Until then enjoy some images...

Reasons to love Montreal

I have been here now for three months and besides the fact the time flies so horribly
fast, I can only emphasize again and again how much I love Montreal. I had been waiting waiting to go on exchange for such a long time and now I realize how fast the time in Montreal has passed by. For the general things I would like to refer you to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal ...

I love Montreal, because
1.) It is a vibrant, multicultural city with loads of atmosphere.
2.) It is the perfect environment to practice your language skills. You can learn and practice your French but at the same time the whole population speaks perfectly English here.
3.) It is located on an Island in the Saint-Lawrence River and beautiful hills and ski resorts are located in a close distance. Hence, it is a perfect way to combine silent, untouched nature and vibrant city life.
4.) There is hardly a week without a festival or life concerts of known artists.
5.) It has sustained most of its old "Montreal Style" Buildings which give the city a unique character not only within America but also in the world.
6.) I missed the city when I was in Toronto ;) Honestly, Toronto is the better place to do business but lifewise it cannot keep up with Montreal in any instance.

So, feel free to apply for exchange at HEC Montreal or come over as soon as you can! :)
Take care!

You have reached your destination right now...

and we landed in front of a Tim Horton's, a Canadian Fast Food chain, in a random village in Ontario although we were supposed to land in a National Park. Apparently, a typo in the GPS system led to this kind of surprise. Therefore, always pay attention and never blindly trust a GPS, although it is quite tempting to do so.

Normally, Indian Summer is during the first two weeks of October. If you decide to come here you should definitely take a day off to discover the, according to many Canadiens, most beautiful time of the year. During this time almost all forests are colored in a range from green to pink and this combination of vibrant colors is simply amazing. Ideal spots to do that are the national parks, such as the Frontenac Provincial Park, which we unfortunately failed to find. However, we still found some pretty spots to make pictures.

Let's Call It The Obligatory Academic Part

You might wonder about the university and the courses that I take. This why I devote this post to the obligatory academic part.

In contrast to the courses I am used to have in Tilburg, the courses at HEC Montreal are much more practical. This means that you basically have to do assignments in every subject. The assignments vary from a representation of a small company on a fair up to an evaluation of a human resources strategy of a well-known firm.

HEC Montreal has two buildings, a pretty and rather ugly one. You can take courses in English, French and Spanish. Since we are used to have classes in English, I would recommend you to take courses in English unless you are not in save in either Spanish and/or French or if a course that really interests you is not offered in English. I can talk from my own experience because have really problems to understand the lectures of International Trade Law, although I studied French for 8 years and understand the literature. But I will my give my best to pass this course.

I am going to add some more photos for you pretty soon!
Je vous embrasse

The Salsa Community says "Left, Right, Left, Right, Scream!"

Against all odds and forecasts, I managed to get to the airport in time. Ironically, I was even taking advantage of the fact that my neighbour in the plane missed the flight and enjoyed extra space. The journey was safe and pleasant, thanks to



my car rental with legendary parodies of important German persons.



my airline

The flight went by much faster than expected and at around 12am I arrived in Montreal. I took a Taxi to see my studio for the first time. Luckily, I like everything.

After one night, I took the bus to Quebec City to meet up with my cousin, who I had not seen for more than a year until then. It has been a lucky coincidence that my first week in Canada was her last week. Consequently, we decided to discover the shore of Quebec together.

Quebec City is an amazingly beautiful city. Especially the old town is amazing; there are numerous beautiful ancient buildings and an amazing view over the St. Lawrence River. We did one day of sightseeing and the other day we went into the Parque National de la Jacques Quartier to go Canoeing.
During that day I found out what I love the most about Canada: Its amazing contrast between vibrant cities and pure, silent nature.

On August 15, my cousin, a Canadian friend and I drove to Rimouski by car. Rimouski, is not a very nice place but the riverview was amazing and I tried out typical Canadian barbeque for the first in time. You have to know that it is typical for Canadian to grill in their front yards during summer.

The next day, we went to Ste Anne-des-Monts to stay in an alternative hostel. It consisted of tents and blockhouses, located directly on a beach. It is both an awesome location as well as an awesome hostel. Macaronis were used as straws for the drinks, the shoes had to be taken of everywhere and they offered canyoning, an amazing activity, which I did there.
Canyoning involves climbing up and down creeks, jumping from 4m high ledges into the streaming water, crawling through waterfalls... To keep it short, it is an activity that I will do again for sure. In the evening, everyone was at the bar to drink, chat etc. and we were all waiting for the Salsa community to dance Salsa. However, what was supposed to be Salsa turned into a wild dance orgy with everybody running around in circles and imitating animal moves on the stage. I could not resist that temptation had to participate. If anyone of you ever finds pictures of mine doing that dance and thinks that I look embarrassing, keep it for yourself because I do not regret anything! :))) ...
The next day, I took the bus to Gaspé and back to Montréal and enjoyed seeing the beautiful coast. Enjoy the most beautiful moments down here.

Tik tok tik tok... 24 hours to go

As much as I am looking forward to going to Canada tomorrow, it somehow feels unreal to me at the moment. Too much excitement and too many uncertain issues or "internal conflicts".

How much stuff shall I take with me? My laziness says "If you simply press everything you have in your bag, nothing will be forgotten and everything goes faster!" but my mind says "If you do this, your bag will be either too heavy and/or break on the way!"
What shall I take with me and what does the term necessity mean in this case? My heart says "You love playing tennis so do not forget your racket, there is a great ski resort close to Montreal so do not forget your skiing equipment, you like all your shoes and of course this jacket that has not been worn for more than year..." But will I use them often enough to justify putting them in my bag?
Last but not least, will I be able to arrive at Frankfurt Airport in time. My closest friends say "No"; I have got to admit that it is my fault since I kept them waiting for too long too often. Still, I am optimistic to prove the opposite.

Whether and how I managed to get my flight, pack my bags in a smart way etc. will be made available soon. Also, I will announce the places which I am gonna visit and I want to announce right now how much I am looking forward to family reunion of a special kind.

Until then, Take care :)

Welcome to my blog/ Bienvenue à mon blogue

My flight is booked, my accommodation is arranged, my courses are registered and most important my French skills got refreshed. Therefore, in order to match with my bilingual host country, I am happy to start my blog with a

"Bonjour tout le monde, j'espère que vous jouirez de lire mon blogue au sujet de ma vie à Montréal.
Je vous embrasse! :)))"

" Hey everyone, I hope you will enjoy reading my blog about my life in Montreal. All the best! :)))"