Last week in Seattle

Hi there!

A lot of Christmas things are already going on in Seattle. You can see lights and decorated houses everywhere, ‘Santa-cabins’: to have the opportunity to make pictures with Santa, and the Christmas-shopping started with amazing discounts. Moreover, there is a Christmas tree on the Space Needle. Last week I went to the Christmas Caroling Competition, a big event in Seattle downtown. For this event, groups of people (f.e. employees of the Starbucks or students of the UW) can subscribe. These groups raise money for charity and compete with each other by dressing up in Christmas-costumes and singing Christmas-songs on this event.

The Christmas-atmosphere officially starts after Thanksgiving with the Tree Lightening Ceremony. Thanksgiving is an American tradition with a lot of food involved. We had two extra days off before the weekend and most of the students fly home to celebrate this tradition with their families. I also had the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, cranberries, beans, and pumpkin pie and apple pie for dessert.

In the mean while, there is only one week left for me in Seattle. Yesterday I had my last lecture and my first final exam. Next week, I have my two other final exams and I will fly home on December 17. I really look forward to see my family and friends in the Netherlands; on the other hand I don’t like to leave the beautiful UW campus with its traditions and the country with so many possibilities and friendly people.

For now, I’m going to enjoy my last week in Seattle! Bye!!

San Francisco and more

Hi!!

Tomorrow it is Thanksgiving, this means two days off and some time to write my blog. Just want to tell you some things I did in the last two weeks.

First, I went to the Safeco-stadium in Seattle downtown. This Safeco-stadium is an American Football stadium and it is the home of the Seattle Mariners. This trip was organized by the Woman in Business club, and we got a tour guided by the head of marketing of the Safeco-stadium. It was really interesting and we got a lot of resume-tips (which are more focused on leadership in the US). Besides, the last weeks I spent more time in a big building on campus, called the IMA. It is a huge sports building, you can do every sport you want and there is also a sauna. Students at the UW are really fanatic in doing sports; they go to the IMA every day. I also went shopping, which is nice to do here! The University Village (close to the UW) offers a broad range of shops, Seattle downtown even more and if you want to spend the entire day you can go to a shopping mall. Furthermore I went a couple of times to the College Inn, this is a bar close to the university and a lot of international students go there on Wednesday Night. Another thing that is organized for international students is the Wednesday Lunch, it is a free lunch at the university and it is a good opportunity to chat with everyone.

Safeco Stadium:

Campus at night:

Last: a little bit about the trip I made last weekend: I went to San Francisco, an amazing city! If you ever go there, I highly recommend a cycling trip to the Golden Gate Bridge J!

San Francisco:

Halloween and American Way of Life

Hi everyone!

Last Monday (October 31) was the day of Halloween! All the houses in the city were covered with pumpkins, ghosts, gravestones, skeletons etc. Some people even built a ‘Haunted House’ in front of their own house, which they use on the evening of Halloween. During my Halloween-dinner, the doorbell was ringing all the time. Children dressed up in very sweet costumes (one boy was dressed up as Obama!) asked me ‘Trick or Treat?’ and I gave them candy haha! For the Halloween-dinner we prepared filled pumpkin. The preparation of the pumpkin starts in the morning with getting out the content of the pumpkin and then filling it with vegetables, meat and potatoes. The filled pumpkin has to bake in the oven for the entire day. Furthermore, the student-Halloween parties found place the weekend before Halloween. Everyone wears a (scary) costume and it is quite similar to Carnaval in the Netherlands.

Crazy study, great life!

Can’t believe already one month past since my last post. Almost every day I told myself I should write something, but it just ended in doing tons of assignments. I even started to think of myself as Queen’s students instead of an exchanger. Exchange life should be much easier, right?

I do think I should spend a little time talking about study life here. I admit, that Queens’ students are being “intense”, especially commerce students. I’ve heard about this tense study atmosphere in the North America for a long time, but the fact is that, when I see by myself, I was still shocked. I went to Stauffer Library, the largest one on campus (4 floors) on SUNDAY (it’s Sunday! Not even Saturday) to get some of my stuff back from my friend. Well, as what I had experienced in Tilburg, library on Sunday is almost empty, though there might still be some hard-working students. But what I saw here is that, it’s not simply that there are students, the whole library is FULL!!! You can not even find a place to sit! 

Toronto: SCHULICH & Travel & Sports & Multiculti

Hey future exchangers,

My original plan was to blog 4 times a month... The fact that this is only the 2nd time that i write a blog signals that time is a very scarce resource here. It's hard to manage a life of a schulich school of business student, travelling exchange student, and sporter. ;-D though.. Its LOTS OF FUN and i really enjoy life here. I would like to inform you shortly about how life is here by pointing out the main things i think would be valuable for you.

Start of Fall Semester

Dear blog-readers,

The Fall Semester started in Seattle: the lectures started, the beautiful UW campus is crowded because of all the students and it is real Seattle-weather: sun, rain and wind at the same time! 

UW Student Orientation

Hi everyone!

The last two weeks the University of Washington (UW) organized the International Student Orientation. This Orientation is for new International Students at the UW and there are lots of them. Only 700 students take part in the Orientation. The students come from more than 100 different countries and their ages vary between 17 and 30. Their studies also vary a lot: mechanic engineering, rhetoric, law, computer science, nursery and I can keep going for a while. This makes the group of students very diverse.

On the first days of the Orientation, the activities were organized to get to know the University. The Campus of the University is very big, there drive a lot of buses on it and it is beautiful! They built the Halls in an old style. The UW is located in a bigger area called University District. This district looks like a small town and almost all the students live in it. There are also lots of restaurants and cafes and places to get coffee or other things. The Orientation started with a campus tour, introduction games and campus activities, which included canoeing on Lake Washington (the Lake next to the UW).

First blog finally!

Hello, everyone:

Finally I got time to write this blog. Sorry for all of you since it’s a little bit late. This week is the Add/drop period, and I was busy enrolling/ changing the courses.

Well, something about myself first. My name is Zhuoying, I’m a 3^rd year IBA student, and I’m now on an exchange in Queens’ University in Canada. I’ve stayed here for about 3 weeks now, and I love it!

Background Info: I arrived in Toronto on 30^th August in the afternoon. Then I took a coach directly to Kingston (where the university is located). Here I have to say, Canada is indeed a country with vast land areas that it took me 4 hours on the way and it’s already 11pm when I got there. I stayed in one of the campus residence hall for the night and on the next day, I met my host for the coming 3 nights, Kristiana Clemens, a music producer in Queens’ Campus Broadcasting Station, who is so kind that she offered me a temporary accommodation for free. Of course, during those 3 days, I have to find another place to stay for the rest of my time here.

First week in the USA

Hi everybody!

It has only been one week ago since I left the Netherlands, however I discovered quite a lot, so it feels like I have been here for a while. Last week I travelled 8000 km by plane, 650 km by car and 40 km by foot.

Last week I arrived in Seattle, USA. I am going to study for a semester at the University of Washington in Seattle. It was a long trip (10 hours flying) and the time difference is 9 hours, so that makes it tiresome. My father travelled with me, to join me in the USA for a week. We rented a car when we arrived in Seattle and it felt immediately like I was in the USA, the big highways, all thefastfood and the big cars and trucks.

Our plan was to make a trip throughout Washington State and finally arrive in Seattle.

Toronto has it all!

HOLA CHICOS&CHICAS!!

3 Weeks ago i took the plane from Brussels-Chicago. I spend a week in Chicago with a good friend Lotte who is studying in Ottawa at the moment. Chicago was amazing, it is a MUSTSEEcity, i think its comparable with NYcity. I wrote a story about Chicago on www.ireneintoronto.waarbenjij.nu if you are interested in this citytrip that i highly recommend to everybody! Its in Dutch;). Besides i will post Dutch blogs on this website for friends and family, a bit more in detail then on this uniblog, which is more informative and useful.

2 Weeks ago i arrived in Toronto and it feels like home already. I think i adapt pretty fast to my new environment and thats nice, it might help that it still feels like holiday at the moment, i enjoy life here a lot and i see/realize/think things that i wouldnt remark in my everydaylife in Tilburg(which i also enjoy of course). But enough talk about me...
What is interesting to know for YOU about an exchange semester at Schulich school of Business, Yorku in Toronto? I would say, TORONTO HAS IT ALL!