A new haircut

I was thinking it was time to cut my hair - but first I had to see the term for "Bürstenschnitt" in the dictionary - crew cut - ok even I could explain it to the hairdresser without using the english word. Well prepared with all the words I need to know I went out looking for a hairdresser and I found one in a shopping mall (http://www.stvitalcentre.com) near I live.

When the hairdresser finished cutting my hairs she told me, that I should take some colour in my hairs - and one minute later she already started preparing my hairs giving them some colour. Usually I'm hard to convince for such ideas - but that time I was thinking: I'm in another country, nearly nobody knows me, just try! But don't scare - only some of my strands of hair ("Haarsträhnen") got some blonde colour! And I think it looks nice - up to now everybody likes it! Perhaps I will do that again from time to time ... sometimes variation can be nice ...

My (our) first cake - mmmhhh!!!

On Monday after my trip to the park, I went to the grocery store and I bought some ingredients for baking. On Tuesday I had my first "Writing Essay" Class, I hope I can improve my writing skills that way!

After my classes we decided (together with one of my roommates) to make a cake (for the birthday of another roommate), so I took my cookbook - the famous "Tiptopf"(a swiss cookbook that everybody in Switzerland knows from school), and we decided to bake a chocolate cake. Together with my assistant *smile* we studied the bake recipe (I had to translate it in English) and after about 1 hour we had done a great cake - it tastes super! I'm haughty ("stolz"), FINE SWISS BAKING ARTS in CANADA ;) Next time I will try a carrot cake, unfortunately I can't find hazelnuts so I have to improvise.

Fall is coming - Part 2

Yeah fall is nice her, the trees have now beautiful colours (there are some pictures in the gallery). In the mornings it's beginning to be really cold, so to wear a pullover and a t-shirt isn't enough for Europeans. Canadians they have less cold, I felt bad without jacket and on the same time I saw the mailman wearing only a t-shirt and shorts.

Now I have more and more homework to do, it looks like the term will be rigorous. That's the reason why I'm sometimes to tired to write a new blog entry late at night. But I still enjoy my time here ... and I have a lot of fun ...

Fall is coming - Part 1

Because I went early to bed on Saturday nite (01:00 a.m.) I was playing badminton on Sunday! The weather was very nice and it was a nice time to be outside, so in the afternoon I met some friends in St. Vital Park. This park is very beautiful and is located near to my residence, so I should go there more often! You can see some pics of our meeting on Sunday - thanks to Mark for the pictures!

Today I was again in that park and took some more pictures of the trees and the falling leaves - the pictures will be updated soon ... it's a bit late (it's nearly one o'clock) ... so I should go to bed! Good night!

My Canadian Roommate

Yeah that's one of my Canadian Roommates ...

Less visitors & boring stuff

Hi - tonight I was looking again my statistics of my blog and I saw that the number of visitors was fast decreasing - from 15-20 a day to less than 5. I know, the reason is because my blog is not updated every day and perhaps the news I told you are a bit boring. Finally perhaps you will asking yourself why I'm looking at these statistics - it is because I'm missing a feedback (feel free to write more comments) and finally it's not the idea to write posts only for my own amusement. So I will try to do a better job and hope you will like my blog soon!

The weather here begin to be colder and the leaves are changing their colour. Even two weeks ago we had over 28° Celsius, now sometimes it starts to be below 15° C. But that does not change the mind of the canadians, they even wear t-shirts and flip flops! Temperature doesn't matter :)

For my accounting book I was looking for a solution manual because I don't have a printer and it's exhausting to correct all my exercises in front of my computer. I was thinking that I could find the solution book in the library, but they do not have it! So I was asking in the bookshop for the solution manual, but at this time they cannot order it. So finally I went to the library again and print out every page of the online solutions I need! Why I'm writing that, is that I think they have not the solution manual to not violate the copyright laws and to prevent students of not buying the books (even if they are not available). Also on the copy machines there is a big label that we should not violate the copyright laws (I've never seen that in Switzerland). But as I read on a website, it looks like downloading of MP3 (but not of movies!) is legal for private purposes.

In the last days we followed the news regarding the hurricane Rita in Florida. At CNN you could see long cutouts of representatives talking to the population - it looks like they try hard to do it better that after hurricane Katrina (amazing - someone wrote a long entry to Katrina in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina). A rummy news contribution on this topic: On Monday and Tuesday there are no school buses running at all! Why? The States are trying to save fuel/gasoline! (shown on CNN)

Yesterday after playing Badminton we had again a party in a residence room (you will read that many times soon!) of one of my friends. After chinese noodles and pizza, some played poker and also "Ar***löchle" - the french know this game too! Some of the international students are from Minnesota and they decided to study in Winnipeg because it's cheaper than in Minneapolis (also I had to pay the tuition fee myself if I would stay in Minneapolis for my exchange year) . Perhaps another reason - some students are saying that in Winter there is nothing better to do than to study (naturally I don't hope so!). At two o'clock in the morning I decided to go home - it was raining and on my bycicle I get wet - but it was worth the trouble (I also saved money for the taxi :)).

Tonight I met two canadians, for dinner we had burgers and hot dogs - the hot dog was amazing (I've never seen a so big hot dog before). Afterwards we went to a pub and I tried two other beer brands - the Keiths (famous here) and the Sleeman, I like them more than the beers I had last time, whether the Sleeman is a bit a darker beer.

Now I'm really interested what's going on in Switzerland - I mean if people are voting for or against the "Personenfreizügigkeit" (I try to translate it in English: extension of the personal freedom of movement of european and swiss citizien - or just see that page in english http://www.nzz.ch/2005/09/25/eng/article6097741.html), I will see the results when I get off! Good vote!

My new bycicle

Last Sunday one of my roommates gave me the advice to buy a bycicle and gave me the newspaper of last Saturday in which private ads were published. So with my roommate I was looking for a cheap bycicle ... I found one for $ 100 which looks quite good and I decided to visit the seller on Monday.

After visiting some of my roommates shops (he has four dollar-shops in Winnipeg, lots of cheap stuff can be bought there (gift cards, spices, party materials, decoration and so on)) he gave me a ride to the vendor of the bycicle. We were a bit surprised, the seller was a blue-collar worker with tattoos on both arms and long hairs and had a bit a scruffy ("ungepflegt") appearance. The price of $ 100 was binding, but it was fair because the bicycle was almost new. Afterwards I went buy a lock and some lamps/luminaries and I spent most of the eve "pimping my bicycle" *smile*
Now it will be better because I can move/go out even if there are no buses running ...

Yesterday I had to attend some administrative affairs, among other things I had to pay my fee at university. In fact because of an agreement with my school in Switzerland I have to pay no tuition fee but health insurance is mandatory (included in this fee) even if I'm insured in Switzerland - so I feel bad to pay over $ 400 for nothing ...
Later I was checking my canadian bank account and the bank employee had to give me some explanations about charges (20 transactions (drawings on own bancomats (ABM), payments (even in shops), inpayments ...) are free, every additional transactions costs $ 0.60, for a drawing at another bank they charge me $3 !!!). It seems that Canadians have to pay more charges than we do, instead they have higher interest rates.

Today I had only one lesson, most of my free time I did accounting homework. We are going really fast through the chapters of the book - unbelievable to me - it must be really hard for beginners! Also I heard that 40% will fail the exam. I still hope that's not true for me ...

Oktoberfest, Private Campus Party & much more

I'm sorry, you have to wait longer for my new posts ... but I will try to keep you informed!

At Thursday I went to the Winnipeg Oktoberfest - I was curious to see an Oktoberfest in Canada. But to enter the Oktoberfest was still a problem: I left my passport home and the entrance control didn't accept my Swiss Identity Card (age verfication) - it was really stupid - we had to turn back home to take my passport.

The Oktoberfest was in a big hall downtown, there were different booth ("Feststände") where you could get some food or buy beer. The beer wasn't german, the Bratwurst was just a Hotdog and I missed the "Festbänke" (no translation for that in Leo). Nevertheless it was amusing and we had another good night in Winnipeg.

On Friday we had BBQ at university, I met again my welcome family. Afterwards we went to campus residence and we met anew the canadian guy, who served us whiskey coke 2 weeks ago! He is so a funny guy - we always have lots of fun. Later we went to another friends residence room and had some taiwanese, chinese and japanese noodles. It was an occasion to learn eating with chopsticks, of course we tried to slurpe ("schlürfen") as loud as possible ... *smile* Because I get lost with my bus schedule (there was no bus at one clock even if I was conviced about that) I had to take a taxi again (fortunately it's not so expensive) ...

Yesterday I should do some homework, but I did everything else. I was looking for a bowling center and that was really hard - so hard that we finally played billiard. It looks like that Bowling is less famous here than in Switzerland, I did 6 phone calls and there was no opportunity to play bowling (unbelievable!). One phone call was especially amusing: I was looking on Google Map for Bowling Lanes and one entry was entitled Asian Bowl - I called them to ask for a free lane but unfortunately it was an Asian restaurant (I took a while to understand it - there is a second meaning of "bowl"). To conclude: Do not always trust GOOGLE!

Later I had my first Mc Donalds burger, it was not really great (the same as in Switzerland) and it's easy to understand why people prefer other burger restaurants. A big difference are the prices, a menu costs you something over 5 bucks (~5 CHF).

Today I walked to university (no buses on sunday morning - sorry, I'm always complaining about public transportation) to do some sport. We played badminton and met some new people. One asian guy was very impressive, his smashs are so fast that you couldn't see the shuttle. Later on I had to do homework - accounting is still repetitive, but there is so much stuff to read (over 100 pages in 2 weeks!). Yeah and now it should be time to go to bed (01:31) and for you it's time to get off, isn't it? However, good night!

My room

I promised that I would post a pic of my room ...

Good luck!

I heard that my swiss schoolmates have to pass their exams right now! So I wish you all the best and hope to get good news soon ...

Over 500 pageloads ...

I'm happy to announce that I had over 500 visitors since my blog is online.

Picture 1: Statistics on Page Loads etc.


Picture 2: Visitors assorted by countries on the base of 100 (greetz to Chantale in the UK and Gianni in Japan *smile*)


I'm hoping you will continue to enjoy my blog!

Uncooked chicken breasts

Last Sunday I spent most time with learning at home. I read the first chapter of the "Financial Accounting" book (around 30 pages), most was repetition but some of the terms are not so common to me. I also did the homework for this course and so I had to do for over 5 hours of work. In the eve I helped my roommate with some troubles on the computer. Nothing special on this Sunday ...

On Monday I had to go to university. The economics lesson was very interesting, the prof talked about the distinction of left, middle and right parties and what they (the parties) think about sociobiology (if the actions of humans are affected by genetic predisposition or by the learning process). Afterwards I went to Walmart (that's the nearest store) to buy a blend (="Storen", costs $3) because I bust the one on my window. It's unbelievable, some stuff is so cheap (I believe now that the author of "Billig" was right, when he said that 80% of the products of Walmart are produced in China). But unfortunately I found no matching blend, they had neither the same width nor the same color.

During the day I was a bit confused, I had the idea to drop one of my four courses (Human Ressource Management, lots of reading and even not my favorite subject) and to take instead an english course. In the eve I had to write a summary for international management - and I worked for a long time on it. So on the very same day I decided that it would be better to drop one course and to look for an english course.

Today I had accounting and international management. In accounting we had an overview over the four statements: Balance Sheet, Statement of Income, Statement of Retained Earnings and Cashflow Statement (as you see we had this stuff in Switzerland, but it's even interesting to get an overview, learn the english terms and to see the ensemble in a more theoretical way). Even it's a prerequisite for courses of next term. In international management we had a class discussion about whether North America would have an advantage if China would be wealthier or not. After classes I went to my coordinator to drop my HRM course and to ask some questions for english courses. Finally I think I will take an course entitled: Writing essays - we should learn writing essays and even repeat the grammatic rules! I hope that's the right thing for me.

After lunch (a canadian hot dog, a turkey sandwich and a banana *smile*) I went again to the shopping mall. I was again watching for blends at another store, but they had no blends - it looks like I should order them on a catalogue. Also I bought some usual stuff like milk and toast. For dinner I was preparing 2 chicken breasts in the oven - i baked them for 25 minutes and they still didn't look fine. My roommate found the reason: We have a digital oven and I set the temperature on 200° thinking that it was Celsius - unfortunately it was Fahrenheit :) But finally I had two nice chicken breasts with noodles - always noodles I know - next time I will see if I will find some rice :) But stop now talking about foods ...

To conclude this post a nice story about bus rides: This morning I went to the bus stop about 45 minutes before lessons started. The first bus didn't stop because he was full, the second after 10 minutes didn't stop again because he was full too, but fortunately after another 5 minutes the third one stopped, there were few places free (it looks like that people on the following bus station had to wait for another bus because also our bus didn't stop there) ... quart an hour, that's ok (that can happen everywhere), but if this happens in Winter - I will freeze .)

Economics, Football & Polar Lights

Yesterday was my second day at university, I had my first economics lesson. And there was a big surprise, almost more than 50% of the students were females - and this in economics! Unbelievable! It looks like Canadian Women like Economics!

In the eve I went playing badminton at the sport facilities of the university. Most of the badminton players are from Asia, badminton is not really established in Canada. Afterwards we went to a party at the university and we had a lot of fun - people were dancing until the party was over.

Today I was watching a Canadian football match (see new pictures). Canadian Football looks to me a little bit boring, because there were to many breaks at all. But the ambiance/spirit is different, Canadian football is like a celebration for the whole family: Meeting and talking to people, drinking beer, eating burgers and hot dogs, free lunch (pizza) and t-shirts for the noisiest supporters ... After the football match many international students found together to play soccer, nobody has been hurt and afterwards everbody was beeing happy!

For dinner I tried to cook myself. I did some pasta and tried to broil (= "braten") some meat. First I damaged the pan, second I burnt my finger and third I had no time to eat dinner because I had to catch to bus - it was like a disaster. As you see my life is hard ... :)

Tonight we were out to Osborne Road, that's a street with some bars and pubs. There I met other international students and we had lots of topics to talk about. I tried two different canadian beers, they both were dark and I didn't like them much: Grasshopper Ale and Fort Gary Dark Ale ... Afterwards we took the bus to go home, for my last part of way home I took the taxi (it is cheaper than in Switzerland) because there are no buses on Saturday night on this route. When I arrived home I met my neighbours and we were watching together the polar lights! Another Canadian thing I don't want to miss ...

Buying furniture & my first day at university

Yesterday was my last day of holiday. I get off late, made some lunch (2 pieces of pork with some noodles) and went again to the shopping mall. There I was looking for furniture. In the eve one of my roommates gave me a ride and so I bought different stuff: a bookrack, a desk, a pillow, 2 night lamps, coat-hangers, and so on ... that all for less than 150 dollars. I also went to a superstore buying some food: I found a baguette (I had no time this morning, this eve the baguette goes stale ("anscheinend korrekte Übersetzung für Brot wird hart")), some Emmentaler cheese packaged as Gruyère, hard mozarella (as yet I knew only the soft one), original Lindt chocoloate, salt & vinegar chips, some yoplait yogurts (french brand), some nice italian salami, and so on ... beer and other spirits cannot be bought at superstores, only governmental stores are allowed to sell this stuff. At this stores alcohol should be nearly the same price as in Switzerland, but cheaper on night clubs.

Later we had again hamburgers for dinner (ok, I know I should stop that, but it's only my second burger in Canada ;)), this time I had the double bacon burger ... After dinner I had to assemble the furniture, even if I was a bit slow, everything is done now and I feel pretty comfortable in my room. I think I will post a picture of my room in the next days :)

Today was my first day at university. The day starts with accounting, most of the stuff was repetition. The lecture was followed by approx. 100 students. But the stuff looks more theoretical so there are less exercises to do. Instead I have to read many pages in my accounting book. Next two courses were international management and human ressource management. Both courses were given by an indian professor. Some major differences from marking in Switzerland are that they pay more regard to attendance, oral participation and homework, there is also a midterm test. For some case studies (about 10/term for int. mgmt. and also for hrm) we must write summaries and give them to the teacher, because they will be part of our final grade. I was surprised to see, that these courses are beeing taken by lots of other international students too. To make some new friends in classes looks being hard, because most of the students left the university just after the lesson or have still other courses than I do. I think it takes just more time to do some canadian friends, but I'm really happy to get know some of the international students!

Distrust, Textbooks and some German Words as well ...

Yesterday night when we went home from the movies it suddenly smelled like propane, that looked really bad and so I decided to knock the door of the next house. The housekeeper looked really frightened and sceptical about my own appearance and decided to not open the door but leaving the house by the backdoor to see what I was doing there. I was a bit surprised, it looks like you shouldn't open the door to people you don't know ... (ok, perhaps we are more distrustful in Switzerland too as some years ago, but usually people trust me)

Today I went to university again to look for my economic course, that i would choose instead of the marketing course. Bad news follow - I've now school from monday to friday, but that are only 12 lessons. I also bought the textbooks, these were really expensive, they cost me about 360 dollars (360 CHF). And students told me that I had to read them all until December (size: 3 times mankiw), but I don't know if that's true, I will see and keep you informed.

This eve I met a canadian guy and his colleague, we had dinner together at a nice restaurant (http://www.earls.ca). The waitress were really attractive and the food was pretty good too (I had an Indian Green Curry). Afterwards we went to Tim Hortons (I think that's the most favorite brand of the Canadians) and I met there the father of one of these Canadians. This father had german parents and we spoke in German together (that were my first German words in Canada, except for the phone calls *smile*). It was really funny, we spoke about differences between Canadian and Swiss Citizien: Canadians don't use to iron clothes, use most the wash dryer, use only one clothespin ("Wäscheklammer") for two pieces of clothing, buy bread only once a weak, and so on ...

First Heavy Thunder-Storm, First Canadian Burger, First Visit of the Movies ...

Last night I went to bed earlier. After only one hour a thunder woked me up, outside was a heavy thunder-storm. Perhaps I never saw a heavy thunder-storm like this one before, even the floor vibrated when a lightning struck. But after I slept as an angel and I get off late - it was time for lunch.

In the afternoon I went to the movies. But first we had dinner and I had my first canadian burger with some french fries (perhaps 'some' is the wrong word :)) - the portion was as big that I couldn't eat all. Price: 7 $ (around 7 CHF)

At the movies we saw "The Grimm Brothers", a pretty nice movie even if I don't use often to see that kind of movies. Price for one ticket is 8.75 $ (around 9 CHF), much cheaper than in Switzerland. Put perhaps prices will lower, the "Preisüberwacher" was engaged to do some research about high prices of movie tickets in Switzerland ...

Have a break ...

This morning I woke up at 8'o clock and I had to go home (I was still at the campus).

I was looking for a bus ride, but there were no direct buses on Sunday. So I had only a short bus ride and had therefor a sunday morning hike (see the pictures in the photo gallery). After arriving home I worked a little bit on the blog and prepared a tasty lunch. At the same time I did some washing (I shouldn't do that on Sunday). Afterwards I was sleeping some hours.

In the eve I saw an english movie (without subtitles ;)), it was a good movie (I don't know the name) except that every 10 minutes they broadcast tv ads of about 3 minutes (I've seen some ads for over 10 times - i should know them by heart).

So finally this wasn't a really exciting day, but it was recovering.

Campus Life ;)

Yesterday we went again to the forks, that's one of the places of interest in Winnipeg. Weather was fine, so we couldn't go to a museum that day. The forks of Winnipeg are located where the Assiniboine River and the Red River flow together. On a market hall I had a traditional Korean dish, it was tasty but smell like European food. On the forks we saw a self performer - a crazy guy from the United States ...

Later we went back to university to join one of these university parties. Beer went out when we joined the party, but even one can of beer could be find due to good connections :) A canadian guy invited us afterwards to have some drinks in its own room - so party went on and we had a lot of fun. Because I missed my last direct bus (around 7 p.m. - to early for a party night) and I was not sure about connections of buses downtown I decided to sleep on campus. One student even borrowed me a sleeping bag and another one left me some space to sleep in his residence room! That looks like campus life :)

Easy Friday

I was again at university to change my courses - I've chosen the following courses: Essentials of accounting (I hadn't enough *smile*), Human Ressource Management, International Management, Introduction to Global and Environmental Economic Issues and Policies

I bought an annual membership at the recreation centres of the university - so I can do some sport in my free time (the burgers must be burnt *smile*). Also I want to join a badminton club. It's as well a good way to meet other canadians and to make new friends.

Now I have a canadian mobile phone number, so you can call me on my own number (you will receive the number by mail), but for longer phone calls it's cheaper to call me on Skype.

At friday eve I was invited by my welcome family for bbq. Unfortunately I was to late there, it was a bit crazy to go there by bus - the bus ride took me over one hour. Winnipegs transit system is not very comfortable, most buses drive only every 30 minutes (what's not often for a city). Many bus lines (the less important ones) are not served on Sunday. During summer this isn't a problem, I can just walk a part of the way. But perhaps I will buy a car this winter. Finally bbq was anyway nice, they kept some salads for me - I had a really nice meal.

Something funny at least: If Winnipeg bus drivers get tired or thirsty they just stop their bus anywhere and take a coffee at Tim Hortons (http://www.timhortons.com, much canadians prefer Tim Hortons to Starbucks, greets to Oliver ;))

Swiss = Sweden???

This article was published on 26 August 2005 on Toronto Star (it was my first canadian newspaper I read until then, I was sitting in the plane and had something to smile). Have fun!

Starlake Day

My alarm woke me up at 4:45 p.m. I didn't sleep well, the weather was really windy since yesterday (tonight it's looking better, we can still see the stars). So I often woke up (the wind has done some noise) and hadn't a good sleep. After a short shower I had a glass of orange juice and went to the bus station. As I said before the weather was really bad, windy and rainy. With my map I had to find the bus station early this morning and the weather didn't make it easier to do this. But finally I was at the right time on the bus station.

The bus ride to University took me only about 10 min. So I was for near half an our to early at the place I should stay to take the bus/coach for a trip with other international students to Star Lake. This morning I wasn't to motivated to participate the programme (I was a bit tired), but during the course of the day my behaviour changed. It was impressive to speak to people from so many different countries (there must be students from about 20 countries) and to learn more about their own culture. At sunset we went home by bus ... another day went over and I had made some new colleagues.

Get yourself an impression how it looks like when sun goes down (in Canada) ... it had to be one of my beautifullest sunrises ...