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 ~ !