Trip Downtown

This morning was easy, I get off only at 10 o'clock. I had some phone calls and tried to make my internet access working.

At 4 o'clock p.m. I met 2 students from university for a trip downtown. So we were at the forks and went to St. Boniface. I was really surprised, in St. Boniface they speak french. So we were at a Pizzeria there and we must give our orders in french :) There are new pictures about our trip in the picture gallery.

It looks like I'm to tired to write more, sorry, but tomorrow I have to get off at 4:45 a.m. - so I'm going to bed now (it's now 11:26 p.m.) ...

I've got internet access ...

I have now an internet access in my own bedroom - so you will see me more often online. Cu on Skype!!!

My first washing ...

I slept well last night, my new accommodation is very quiet too. But early at morning I heard falling down water drops to a metal bar, it was a little bit exciting. So today I had my first own made breakfast: 2 slices of toast with winnipeg honey (I received from my inmate), milk with Nesquik and one of these shining and well cleaned apples :)

Then it was time for washing, I learnt how to use this "special" washing machines ;) I heard a lot of this machines and I was a little bit frightened ... but finally it wasn't a problem (my clothes are still looking good). If you don't know of what kind of washing machines I'm talking about, you will see below a picture of washing machine of the same type - but this washing machine on the picture is a very old one and works perhaps only with cold water.



At afternoon I had to go to university for a presentation on different general topics. Most of the exchange students are from Asia especially from China. The walk to university takes me about one hour, so I will see for other solutions: Bycicle, bus or even an own car ...

For souper I made a tasty steak and some noodles with a sauce (don't believe I made the sauce myself) - but don't worry, I will not tell you all day what I'm eating.

After souper I was again at grocery (a 10 min. walk) and bought some things I even missed. Finally this day looks like a normal day in the life of a student ...

Some more pics will follow in the next days, also the story from the newspaper about the confusion on swiss and swedish people ...

My new castle :)

Today I left my welcome family to join my permanent residence. It’s a nice house which was built in 1996. It is fairly modern and well equipped, I’m really happy to find this place. My fellow occupants (=Mitbewohner) seem to be nice (1 woman and 2 men). So tonight we were doing some shopping – for my first time I was at a shopping mall and at a grocery store in Canada.

It was really helpful, that I became a ride to put my stuff to the new accomodation and to do some shopping. Food is really different from home, so it’s not so easy to make the right choice. Fruits look shining (=glänzend), it was explained to me that the producer put something like wax on the fruits (sounds really strange). Milk is usually fatfree – but I found some with 3.5% fat – my fellow occupants looked strange that I like that. The same for yoghurt. There is only a small selection of cheese, but I found some german swiss cheese which is produced in Germany (Why swiss? Perhaps because it looks like Emmentaler J ). Meet is really cheap here, I think it’s about a third of our prices in Switzerland. The same for Coke, a 2 litre bottle costs only 99 cents (~ 1 CHF) … so just have a Coke.

I even bought a small mp3 player (256 MB), it would be usefull for my walk to university (~ 5 km from where I’m staying) or for longer bus rides downtown (I wasn’t there by bus, but I think it will take me about 40 minutes).

This morning I visited the University of Manitoba (that’s were I will study). The area of the university is gigantic, there are about 60 buildings belonging to the university. At university centre (main building) you could find a lot of stores: bookstore, pharmacy, restaurants, a small grocery store, hairdresser, dentist and lots more … the employees of the international student office and the student coordinator are really friendly and very helpful. So I became my timetable today, I have only school on Tuesday and Thursday – but this two days are very charged (even I’m sure I will like it).

At this moment a pussy is looking me lovely … no no it is not what you’re thinking about … there is little cat on the table and is watching me writing this lines …

Sunday Gym

Today I've spent my morning with the welcome family in a leisure area from YMCA (http://www.ymcaywca.mb.ca). A little bit of fat burning on a bycicle and a refreshment in the indoor swimming pool - that make me feel happy.

Later I tried to solve some small problems on the computer of my welcome family. We had a lot of fun with a tool of Google --> Google Earth (http://earth.google.com). There you can see satellite images of the whole world, some city pictures are in such a high resolution that you can recognize cars on the street.

Oh, I nearly forgot, I've received my trunk (the second one) yesterday morning. So I have now all the clothes etc. I've taken with me, even the three bottles of wine were in :)

Finally, first pictures of my departure are now online (visit the photo gallery) ...

My first 24 hours in Winnipeg

I was a little bit frustrated yesterday night, because I haven't found an available room. But the good news will follow - a lot of things happened today.

First I slept really well, it seems I have no problems with the time lag. I got a nice breakfast: pancakes with blue berrys - and I had a little bit of maple syrup (=Ahornsirup). Then we made a small tour with the family by bycicle and visited different garage sales. People are selling their things they don't need just in front of their houses. Canadian people a really nice and very open - more open than swiss people, people there are speaking together even if they are big friends.

Later we visited a shop named "Best Buy", I compared there the prices of MP3 players and digital cameras - there are no great differences.

Back at home I decided to try again to find an available room. I phoned to the following ad:
Room in a 3BR house single detached
Rent: 400 fixed, lease is monthly
Included: heat/power/water/cable/phone/high-speed internet
...
5 km from University of Manitoba. Large bedroom. Cleaning service included
...

I phoned with a friendly man, first it looks like the other calls that the room was given out in the meantime. But then he asked me a lot of questions and finally he proposed to give me a ride to visit his house. My welcome family helped me to pursuade him that I'm the right person for his offer. Then he showed me his house, a big and moderne one. The bedroom is large and the house offer every conceivable comfort - as example I have my own fridge. The house is located near from shopping malls and not to far away from school. So I'm very happy to find a nice habitation in my first 24 hours in Winnipeg. I will move in on monday afternoon.

At afternoon one child of the welcome family had its birthday party - it was nice to participate on their family activities. After some interessant discussions with the welcome family I think it's time to go to bed ... good night again :)

Hello Winnipeg

Hi, I'm in Canada - unbelievable. The flight to Toronto was a little bit boring, my chair neighbour prefered sleeping or listening music than talking to me. The flight arrived delayed in Toronto, so I was be stressed out to catch the connection flight. The immigration bureau caused no problems, now I've all the papers to stay one year in Canada.

The flight to Winnipeg was shorter and better. I got to know my chair neighbours, a family from Winnipeg. They were very likable - they gave me their phone number if I should have a problem.

During the travel I read the Toronto Star (newspaper) and what have I seen there: The habitants of Sweden are Swiss and eat cheese!!! You don't believe? I will give you the proof as soon as I can connect the internet with my own laptop.

Arrived in Winnipeg one bagage was lost - not so important because this bagage contains the winter clothes, but all the gifts for the welcome family are in there ...

Another interessant thing was, that I'm only allowed to import 1.5 litre of wine!?! I`ve imported 3 bottles ... nothing happened still now ... even if I had declared that (ok, I haven't received the luggage containing the wine bottles)!

About my welcome family, they are really nice. A family with two children - they are doing everything for me.

This afternoon I phoned around because of an available room ... without success ... perhaps I'm to shy on the phone ... tomorrow I will try again!

So now I'm going to sleep, I'm up for nearly 24 hours - I wish a good night from Winnipeg!!!

Last Preparations

My last day in Switzerland ... the preparations are going on ...

Further details to my travel to Canada (departure)

The plane takes off at 11:40 from Zurich (on 26 August 2005), reaching Toronto 14:35 (20:35 swiss time), then again it takes off 16:30 (22:30 swiss time) from Toronto and gets to Winnipeg at 18:00 (01:00 swiss time). The flight is operated by Air Canada.



The first three to five days I will spend with a canadian welcome family, I hope pictures will follow soon ...

So I have my last two days to spend in Switzerland, a lot of work (preparation) must be done. My sentiments are really strange - I'm happy to discover a new country and sad to leave my familiar surroundings.

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My last weekend in Switzerland

I'm just coming home from the Openair Gampel (music festival, http://www.openairgampel.ch) - I've spent there my last weekend in Switzerland. Unfortunately the weather was really dirty, anyway we had a funny time ...