A gallery ~ !

Long day today with 2 classes, HRM and my first Mandarin Chinese class. I am looking forward to these two courses even though I had to drop a good course. The first chinese class was confusing but I will slowly catch up since I've already missed 4 classes and since I've never studied Mandarin Chinese before. Hope to improve soon!

I have bought a big backpack to run around with. Laptops, books and other necessary stuff. I think I walked around with 5kg today and that's not all of the books I need. Only have 30 minutes between HRM and Chinese class. During that time, I have to buy/eat lunch and walk a couple of blocks since all of Concordia's buildings are all over the place ^_^;

The metro train stopped during the way home. Some technical issues so I had to walk a station. I haven't mentioned that I have to use the metro to get to campus, right? It's 5 stations away with one transfer. Takes approximately 30 minutes to get to campus. Earlier if you are lucky with the train. The best and cheapest way to travel is to get an OPUS card. It's half price for students (with a student ID), which lands on $43 per months with unlimited travel. Otherwise it's $3 per fare or $5.50 for two way.

And about the title...
Yes, I've found an template for a gallery. The website is: http://adragonsadventuregallery.blogspot.ca. Still under construction and I will be uploading pictures soon enough. I have to upload one on each post. But there is a gallery!! Enjoy!!

The choices, so many difficult choices

Before I start, I do have to mention a couple of things that I always forget.

The taxes. Yes, the taxes. When you buy things here in Canada, you always have to pay taxes. If you see something for $5.00 then it's 5.00 + taxes. Which is pretty annoying. The taxes now is about 14% of the total price, which is quite high... Not a happy student.

The second thing to mention is for the ones enjoying their nightlife. Tip are always expected. Don't remember how much but it was pretty high. So it's basically drink + tax + tip. But what I see, it's only necessary to tip once?

The third thing is: If you aren't here as an exchange student or special commerce. It's quite expensive to study here but it may be worth it. JMSB (John Molson School of Business) is one of the biggest and best business school in Canada. My chosen courses costs approximately $7000. No joke. It's for one semester.

The last thing should be: Register early for courses. It's one hell of a time to choose courses if you aren't a program student. You have to choose courses which isn't full, doesn't conflict with other classes, you need permission from the departments and the prerequisite (recommended) courses. I've had a very difficult time choosing the courses I want so I decided to take a language course, Introduction to Mandarin Chinese. It's 9 credits but the introduction 2 is for 6 credits, which means 2 classes per week. I need 6 credits to get to 15 credits. So I went to the department and discussed about my background with a not very nice receptionist. If you want to study Mandarin Chinese, you have tell them if you have a background in the language. She told me to do a placement test, which I did. Got 14/20 of the test which classified me the Introduction course 2. "Perfect!", I thought. Then I realized the second class of the week is on the same time as another course, Conflict and Negotiation Resolution. That's a wonderful course and a super lecture (Dr. Oppenheimer). I really didn't want to drop the class but I just had to. Tomorrow is the last day to add and drop courses. But I am STILL at 12 credits. It's considered full-time at Concordia but apparently CSN in Sweden doesn't count that as full-time. You have three semesters here. Winter, Summer and Fall. I can't find other courses and I hope my home institution agrees with this. Well... I will see how this works out.

The courses I am taking now is:

MANA 362 Human Resource Management, 3 credits (Corresponds the course: HRM, rekrytering och kompetensutveckling at my home institution which I need)
MARK 454 Personal Selling, 3 credits (Marketing course. Wierd but cool teacher. Gave us an very fun, wierd yet scary assignment. I will tell you about that one later)
MCHI 206 Introduction to Mandarin Chinese II, 6 credits

Since I still have to add a few more courses when I go back. I rather study things I want to learn here instead.

So many problems, but enough whining! :D

Review of the week: Pretty nice.
Bought 2 tickets for events. First one is an apple picking event at a farm. Cost $20 and arranged by ISO (International Student Office) and the second one is called a Day trip to Laurentians. It seem to be an adventure trip with canoes, camp fire and extreme sports. Sounds really fun and costs $45, arranged by CISA. Let's quote:

"There will be plenty of adventurous activities where you'll have the chance to show your amazing skills. There will be team sports such as soccer and volleyball and EXTREME activities such as kayaking, tarzan rope and rock climbing!

Don't miss out the CAMP FIRE & SUSPENSION BRIDGE!"

 Totally can't miss this out!

Also went to Comiccon Montréal. My first one and just attended for a couple of hours. Quite expensive ($35 Saturday) but got to see how it was. The difference between Comiccon and the anime conventions in Sweden is that the age is higher here. Many nerds who knows their stuff and many passionate ones. Huuuge market and celebrities signing autographs. Lots of lecture for those who are interested. And.... no taxes were charged at the market. What?

It seem to be more exciting events in the near future. There is a run called Color Me Rad, which a cute and beautiful lady mentioned to me. Will tell you more about this run later on! :D

One post per week is not okey. Sawri. Will try to not be so lazy. Harr, harr, harrr ~ !

~( x_x )~

Kiyfang signing out ~ !

The First Class

I will get better at updating!

Starting from the last update.

Tuesday September 4th: Québec Election
The classes was suppose to start the 4th but it seem to be an selection today so all classes is canceled. Taking it easy. Reached level 80 at Guild Wars 2. No more pressure. The goal is reached!

Wednesday September 5th First Class and Health Insurance Card
I went to get my health insurance card today, which I thought would be free but it cost ~ 350$ per semester. I do have an Health Insurance Card from University of Skövde so I need to speak with them to see if I don't need the Concordia one. The line there is soooo long though.
Also got my Concordia Student ID. Now I am officially a student of Concordia. Woho!

My first class was today. All my classes are held so late... Most of them end like 20:15. Anyhow, the first class was Conflict and Negotiation Resolution. The doctor was very good. I like him so far. The course seem promising.

Thursday September 6th Second class
Class for today was Workplace and Staffing (In Canada......) Yes, it is apparently focused on the staffing in North America and the professor is very... strict. Telling us she has been teaching this class to ages and know everything. Not sure if I want to drop that class or not but most likely, I will. I mean, maybe a new teacher should try to teach?

Monkey Island

A&W. Cheap Mama, Papa, Teen, Oncle Burgers and alot of drink.

Friday September 7th No class, just strolling around
No class today. Tried to accomplished different matters like to register to one more course etc but still full. Then I went to one of the orientation BBQ event at Campus Loyola. Just watched for a while and then left.

SUMO BBQ at Campus Loyola.

Went out to explore the Lacine Canal in the evening. Only Karli showed up so we walked around the canal and back to Downtown. Downtown is basically where all the high buildings, shops and events are. There is also a "red district" and gay village.

Saturday September 8th CISA orientation
Orientation with the other association for international students today. It was pretty nice actually. I won a phone (3 of 100 or something...) but that was actually a Public phone which I spoke about in my last post. The phone can only be used in Montreal (?) or Canada so I don't really need it. But hey, it's worth 19$. Many associations showed up and told us about them self as well as playing some games with them. So many prizes and giveaways, haha. There were also a martial arts school there which I joined their "challenge". 6 people. 3 girls and 3 boys. Received a pretty cool t-shirt from them! Ching!

After the introduction, we got paired into groups to play some games around the university and ended with a BBQ. It was nice and then the rain come pouring down... but it was still nice. People dancing in that heavy rain, haha!

 

Since I don't party much, I didn't join for the afterparty... Still in need to find some more nerdy friends or friends who likes adventures!

Aaaannnd for today...
... was actually my first kung fu class ever. Shaolin Wing Chun kung fu. It's a traditional kung fu school with philosophy as such. I liked the feeling but I will search for other schools before I decide to join.

Then I went for a picnic with JIC (JMSB International Committee) at the Parc de Mont-Royal (Metro: Mont-Royal). Very big park. Apparently it was the same person who designed central park in U.S. who designed this as well. Lots of different activities around the park. People with different hobbies. It also next to a mountain. It takes 40 minutes walk uphill, someone told me. The view is suppose to be great up there so I plan to have a nice walk/run up and see for myself!
Met my Buddy there. It was difficult to get in the groups it seems... I don't know. Didn't get a good feeling. Maybe it will get better later on...

Parc de Mont-Royal

This guy...

LARPING, like "Lajv" in Sweden

So... Should sleep soon to get up and go to school early. Have to try and get into the course. Hope someone as dropped them... xD

Also... I totally need to change my eating habits right now. It's... not very good... xD

Exploration and new friends

It seems that I am really bad at posting. Guess I am too lazy and been gaming. Trying to hit 80 (max level) at Guild Wars 2 before classes starts. Have 9 more levels to go so I should manage.

I am now registered to 4 courses but after meeting with another Swedish student and other Europeans, they said that I have to register for at least 5 courses (15 credits) for CSN to count me as an full-time student. Since Concordia have 3 terms, it does sound very likely that I need 5 courses. I have to look into that. Today, I was thinking about to get my Health Insurance Card and Concordia Student ID but it seems the doors at the university was closed everywhere. It's election tomorrow for Québec so classes will start September 5th instead of tomorrow.

I've also got myself a phone number. Checked with 2 operators, Public and Fido. Public does not sell SIM cards. Only phones with plans. The cheapest phone is 19$ and cheapest plan each month is 20$ with only calls and texts. Fido did sell only the SIM card and they had prepaid cards (Like Swedish kontantkort) which I decided to get. The lady helping seems to have recharged wrong card (changed from SIM card to micro SIM) so I didn't get my credit for my number. Went there today to get a new one but closed...

I've also been on one orientation event and one event to gather students who wanted to explore Montréal. Met some new friends. We went to see the Old Part of Montréal. Very much like Europe, Sweden Stockholm's Gamla Stan and Paris structures. Took alot of pictures. Will be a problem uploading it here I guess. Let me find a solution, like creating a gallery or something.

For now, enjoy these pictures ~ !

 

Part of the Old Port

We are actually in a fully working clock tower!
Jack, Aya and Leanne in the picture!

The course registration and missing event

I went to seek out Guylaine, the academic advisor, which is responsible for me on Tuesday. She helped me register to 3 of 4 courses because the other courses were full. All the most interesting courses were full so I have to look for another course to add or wait until September 7th to see if she can get me in. I plan to choose a course now and ask her if I can drop one later if she manage to get me in. It is impossible to reach her by mail. Either go to her office or call her. I still haven't found a phonecard to use here yet so I guess I will have to seek her out again. The good thing is that I am registered to the university. The bad thing is that I need the last course to get my Student ID card and Health Insurance Card.

JMSB student area(?)

I am currently registered to following courses:
MANA 362 Human Resource Management (3 credits)
MANA 446 Workplace Planning and Staffing (3 credits)
MANA 466 Management of Multinational Corporations (3 credits)

I want to take:
MANA 443 Compensation and Benefits Management (3 credits)
MANA 444 Training and Development (3 credits)
MANA 447 Leadership and Motivation (3 credits)

Around the SGW campus

Alot of Asian restaurants

Yesterday, I went to the orientation for some information to the new students and went to seek out an event called Scavenger Hunt. The information we received was to be at that location at 5 pm and earlier to form teams. I was there 40 min earlier and stayed to 5:10 pm. No one showed up so I left. When I got back home, someone posted 5:30 pm... >_> But I will attend another event instead. Not very excited. I can't get excited anymore? So bored.

Tried a panorama photo. This is behind the campus with art museum.

Stuffed after eating like 70% of it. Getting old?

While waiting for the Scavenger Hunt

I made a video. Not a very good one but it shows my apartment. Noticed that I shouldn't have filmed it that way but hey, you learn by each day. Can not upload the video now it seems. Will try again later!

The first week

The first week in Montréal has been okey. I am currently living in a basement with my own entrance and such. Everything except laundry is included with the rent of 450$ (CAD, All $ will stand as Canadian Dollar). They even got maid service once a week. I will post pictures or even make a video to show you my apartment later!

I have been looking around my neighborhood as well as visiting the nearby campus which belongs to my university. I've found the supermarkets and necessary stores, which is awesome but I have yet to find the place to do my laundry.
This is called Campus Loyola. Looks beautiful. When I first saw it, I thought: "Wow, I am going to die.". Pressure to the max.

 Main entrance at Campus Loyola

The gym and baseball statdium

Then this doesn't seem to be the campus I will be at.

I've also been around China Town (Metro Place d'Armes). A lot of small trading centres with varies of useful and less useful goods. Also so many stores with Bubble Tea so I bought one of my own and a candy called "Dragon's Beard Candy" which was only served to emperors in ancient China. Tasted quite good actually. It was chewy but it didn't look very chewy.

Entrance to China Town

Large Melon Bubble Tea (4.50$

Dragon's Beard candy

Two days later, it went to visit the other campus (SGW) and the main campus for Concordia University where all the offices are. I went to the office for International Students. They scanned my ID and verified my letter but they couldn't do more before I register to any courses. I tried to register for courses later that day but I couldn't register for the courses I wanted to so I had to contact the person in charge at JMBS (John Molson School of Business) but mailing is so slow and I am still waiting for an reply... I hope I can get a hold of her(?), Guylaine, soon.

There are so many Asian (mostly sushi) around the campus. Lots of tall buildings and after looking at the buildings for my university (see photos), I thought, now I am really going to die. Looking at them put me even more pressure. Guess I am not used to these kind of buildings and very high classed ones... ( ^__^; )

Wow, I guess I have to see if I can find a better solution to upload these many pictures. Looks wierd. I will try to upload more photos and make this blog a little more interesting. It has a slow startup at the moment.

Also... Guild Wars 2 has been released. I never told you I was a gamer, but I am. A hardcore one. Hope to play as much as possible while studying!

The trip

I started out my trip early (Saturday, August 18th 2012) morning from Katrineholm in Sweden. Did some last packing before leaving for the train station. All my documents were ready. Since I am a Swedish citizenship, I don't need a visa to travel to Canada. All I needed was the acceptance letter from Concordia University. 

Train left at 9.14. Nothing special. My flight left at 14.10. The destination was Iceland, traveling with Icelandair. I noticed that food wasn't included in this flight so I thought it was just because it was a short flight (3 hours) and then I didn't give much thought about it. The entertainment was decent since it was possible to watch/use the entertainment system mostly 98% of the time, even during takeoff and landing. The only negative with it was the headphones wasn't included. They sold them for 6€ each. Luckily, I had my own with me!

Arrived on Iceland around 13 Iceland time. Bought a pack of candy to satisfy my hunger while waiting for the food on the plane. Waited for the flight for over an hour since it got delayed. The waiting hall was crowded and very few chairs so lot of passengers sat on the floor.  So then it was time for boarding. It was also Icelandair so the routine was the same, which means the food wasn't included but the prices were okey. One baguette costs 5€ and the other meals was around the same. Juice and soft drinks were at 1€. I've got a feeling that Iceland is not a very rich country and that they are trying to make as much money as possible or maybe it's just the airline. This flight lasted 8 hours. Watched 3 movies during that time. I arrived at JFK airport in NYC. Check the time and had 2 hours for my connecting flight. I had plenty of time, it's what I thought. But then I realized that I was wrong. The immigration/customs in U.S. was sooooo long. Not many booth open and there were 3 flights in the customs' hall. Not to mention that I had to claim my luggage after customs. Which made me miss my flight... I should've just asked the officer earlier if I could pass since I had a connecting flight. Who would've thought that they worked so slowly in the U.S... But, they rebooked me and gave me a new ticket for Montréal for tomorrow morning at 9.20. Don't be afraid to speak with the officers next time if you have a connecting flight!

I spent around 12 hours at JFK airport. Didn't sleep much. Slept for like 2 hours + 2 hours. Tried to call my landlady while I was there. Bought 2 phone cards to call since the the PIN-code was so blurry on the first card >_> Most of the time there was dead time. Didn't do much. Just waited and waited... At least they had a lot of old cool arcades! Made me happy to just watch.

One of the arcades at the JFK airport

After all these waiting, I was finally on my way to my destination again! It was 1 and a half hours flight and I slept through most of it. No entertainment. The plane was very, very small. First time seeing it, the American Eagle.

In Montréal, I went through the customs and immigration. Quite smoothly actually but the staff there wasn't very nice... felt like they have been sleeping less than I did. One of them in the immigration booth were very anti against Asian or Chinese people. Very stingy (he was assisting another Chinese man denying his entry and such). Look strangely on me when I stood in line and checked the front of my passport to see which nationality I belonged to. He also gave me a number for the queue and then asked what number he gave me liked he wanted to prolong the current passenger he was helping to skip me (since I was next in line). A lady assisted me there and it went smoothly. Claimed my luggage, got them checked and went to the arrival hall. Remember: You are not allowed to bring meat to Canada, apparently. If you do and don't declare it, they will bill you with the cost of 800 CAD @__@ I had a sandwich with me but the nice officer said it was okey, didn't bill me and threw it away.

At the arrival hall. I went to the booth called Accueil Plus Service which is for all international students. They guided me, gave me some paper and show how I could find my apartment. Very nice and friendly!

 Subway at Lionel-Groux

With the helped of the information the gave me, I rode the shuttle bus and subway to Villa Maria located in Monkland. My apartment was not far away and I was finally there!

Background

Hello,

My name is Fayt. I am 23 years old Swedish-born-Chinese and I'm going to study at Concordia University in Montréal, Québec Canada as an exchange student from University of Skövde in Sweden.

I will be studying courses related to Human Resource Management, Organisation and Leadership for one semester (approximately 6 months). The reason is because I have to choose courses wihch are similiar to the courses I was suppose to study at University of Skövde during this semester. The problem is that I can't find courses which are similiar so that means I have to add a few more courses when I come back to Sweden and prolong my graduation OR graduate with another decree, which I am not very fond with. Tough, but I guess I'd have to deal with it.

So why Canada and Concordia University? 

First, I wanted to study in China. But due the lack of courses in english, I chose Canada as my destination. I had to take this decision within 1 hour.

 

For now, I have to find my will to study again because a Dragon's Adventure begins.