FOB; Fresh off the Boat/Boeing?!

The phrases Fresh off the boat (FOB), Off the boat (OTB), 'Paki' Freshy, or just simply Boat; are terminologies used to describe immigrants that have arrived from a foreign nation and have not yet assimilated into the host nation's culture, language, and behaviour.^[1] "Fresh off the Boeing" (in reference to the Boeing 747 jet) is sometimes used as a variation, especially amongst south and south-east Asian immigrants. Wikipedia

So I have been in Canada for just over a week now, that makes me pretty fresh ;). Now a days FOB is mostly used as a joke, or at least that’s what I have experienced because Asians still don’t like it very much, usually, wonder where that came from.

I’m not a typical FOB, for starters because I’m not Asian, only came from Europe where in essence everybody here came from,  and I do speak the language, duh. But jokingly I am a FOB, Boeing in my case, or was it airbus, can’t remember.

I have had a lot of compliments on my English, people are really surprised when I tell them I’m not a native speaker and only have been in Canada for a week, they say I have a very thin accent which is starting to wear off.

So you can say I’m blending in here pretty well, I have had an awesome first week, and it is hard to imagine it has only been a week since my arrival, I feel I have been here for ages already, I feel right at home honestly.

I have made some great new friends (trough work, roommate etc), I’m so thank full for the people over here, who instantly started to invite me. Yesterday I went on a photo tour , an Instameet (from instagram), with some of my new friends, and I have made some nice pictures. I will post some here the others you can find under the tab pictures or at Facebook.

Work has been good so far, I have learned a lot of new stuff. My first week consisted of safety courses and Canadian bureaucracy, and off course fighting off the jetlag, I’m over it now. During my chemical safety course, which was during the afternoon, I actually fell asleep, oops. But next week I can start in the lab! So exciting.

Next weekend I will go to Whistler, time to ski! It’s been way too long already. And I have a Seattle trip planned for June 8-9 for Sandi’s birthday.

With al this going on I’m probably not a FOB anymore ;)

Arrived in Vancouver

Yesterday night I arrived in Vancouver after a long day of traveling, there were some delays but nothing big.

Thursday afternoon I left my house in Leiden, which at the moment is the home to a very nice family of three! They even brought souvenirs for me.

After a short night, do to some excitement, and a nice morning chilling in the sun, it was time to go to Schiphol airport. Off course all my bags were overweighed, I brought 4 ‘bags’ 2 suitcases, 1 bike bag and 1 ski bag. After some or a lot packing, repacking and weighing the bags 3 bags were under 23 kilograms and the ski bag was 30 kilograms, somehow I didn’t had to pay extra for the overweighed bag.  After that it was time to say goodbye and start my journey. After a short flight I had a stop at London Heathrow before the long flight to Vancouver. At 6.45pm local time I arrived in Vancouver after flying about 8000km and winning 9 hours of extra time, it was a beautiful and warm night.

After arriving in the apartment I settled in a bit and went to bed around 10pm and because of my jetlag I was wide awake at 1.15am, I expected a jetlag but thought that I would sleep a bit longer, although I wake up very early in the Netherlands as well. So I stayed in bed tried to sleep but mostly spent my time whatsapping with friends  and family who off course were awake. At 5.30 I gave up and got out of bed to see the sun rise behind the white mountain peaks, the view here is amazing!

After a shower and a small breakfast, that I had bought the night before in the starbucks, which is how convenient right in my building… J, I started unpacking. I have a small but cute room without windows… but since the living room is very light and nice that’s no problem at all.

 there are some very nice bikeroutes around, like circling the seawall at Stanley parc

I got some groceries after which I went to Granville to get a Canadian cell card a towel and some bedding, just the essentials to start. It was a very nice day, lots of sun and warm temperatures. And I love to see the white peaks everywhere.

After I returned home I was just chilling and enjoyed the sun at the balcony, when my first roommate came home. She is very nice and we are going to have some wine and watch a movie in a bit, to help me stay awake for a while longer J.

Tomorrow will be another nice day with warm weather, I might go to the beach, but the Vancouver marathon is tomorrow as well. Real work starts Monday. I feel settled and at home already!

Paperwork madness

What to do when you have 2,5 weeks, and give or take 800.000 items on your to-do list…. Well order your list and cross them off one by one, keep focus and most importantly don’t stress, oh no, that’s the hard part.

I’m not sure if anyone is going to read this because come on how interesting is it, on the other hand it could be interesting for someone who is planning an internship abroad and off course for myself to read back.

Why go the easy way when you can go with the most complicated way, that’s just me.

Well for starters arranging an internship abroad is never easy, it always takes a lot more work than you would or could expect beforehand. But in my case I didn’t choose an internship abroad offered by my university because I wanted to go to Vancouver and no place else. So this whole project started last summer, I was talking about it before but last summer the first contacts were made. I had sent about a dozen emails when I got a reply, oh yes positive as I was I thought this one was in the pocket. Well I couldn’t be more wrong. Yes off course they want an enthusiastic young student as an unpaid intern. Well after about 50 more emails I had a project and was set up with the HR person for the technicalities. And that people is when the real work starts. I found a supervisor in my home hospital,  had a good and interesting meeting with him. Just when I was actually sure this was going to happen we hit another bump. This was the moment I realized that it takes a lot more when you set up all the contacts yourself, because my university and hospital didn’t had an agreement with the Vancouver hospital. Well this little problem occurred late last week with only 3 weeks to go… I hadn’t thought of it upfront, should I? Yes but I didn’t know… I just went with the flow. The agreement was sent to my hospital and as it turned yesterday the hospital could only sign 7 of the 8 pages of the agreement, they couldn’t sign for the malpractice liability; “However our University has no possibility to insure students visiting other Universities with whom there is no formal established exchange contract. The procedure to formalize such exchange may take a bit longer, and has to go through the Dean’s office.” So the paperwork is off to the Dean’s office, well it keeps me busy.

Luckily off course there is a plan B, one should always have a plan B, I can go as an unpaid volunteer if this doesn’t work out. But we hope it works out because that means that it would be easier for other students of Leiden University/LUMC to go to Vancouver for an internship, or maybe just maybe for me to go again for a clinical internship? Who knows.

Well this issue keeps me occupied but it isn’t the only point on my to-do list because I also have to make a few exams, get my new drivers license, visit the bank, get my insurances all sorted out, pack my bags, pack my apartment….. the list goes on. btw My apartment is rented!

In the meantime I still try to spend as much time as possible with my friends.

Yesterday I actually spoke to the Whistler mountain ski club so the ski training is all sorted out now. Well I’ll probably relax when I’m in the plane. 

5 weeks to go

Hi, welcome on my Vancouver blog! I made a new blog especially for my Vancouver experience so I had more space left for pictures and it’s a whole new adventure. I will probably also update my ski blog every now and then but that will be more about my training in Vancouver and Whistler.

As of today I have 5 weeks left before I go to Vancouver.

A lot of things have been taken care of all ready, I have a place to live, a really nice apartment on the UBC campus. I have booked my flight yesterday, my flight is Friday May 3rth on at 2.55 PM from Schiphol I'll fly with Britisch airways to Heatrow and transfer there to my flight to Vancouver I’ll arrive in Vancouver on May 3rth at 6.20pm. I will fly home on September 1^st and arrive at Schiphol on September 2^nd somewhere around 6pm.

My internship in which I’ll study certain aspects of grow factors in Neuroblastoma, a very aggressive pediatric tumor, is official. I still have to read a lot on that subject but it’s all very interesting.

I had sent my passport to the HR person of the hospital to see if I needed a permit or visa, yesterday I got the respons that as a citizen of Germany….. I didn’t need a permit or visa since my internship is unpaid and I’ll leave within six months, luckily the same rules applies for citizens of the Netherlands, but it is really funny that those mistakes keep on happening and made me think of this video.

So more on my room I’ll live at 5755 Dalhousie Rd, Vancouver BC V6T 2J2. I saw pictures of the apartment and it looks amazing.

I had replied to some craiglist adds and got some replies back, but the hard part was how to choose when you can’t meet your roommates or the people renting the room. So I struggled a bit with that. Meanwhile I tried to sublet my own apartment, I was screening a facebook page for international students in Leiden, when I saw a post of a Canadian girl, curious as I was I checked here profile and it said she was from UBC, what a  coincidence. So I decided to message her to see if I could get some tips. The next day we met and she helped me out great, all my questions answered she wrote a lot of stuff down that will help me start up. And she also had a room, it looked good and felt good especially since we could meet in person. So that’s all taken care of. The whole internship is really happening! After 7 months of planning and emailing.

For the next 5 weeks there still is a lot to do, I need to sublet my own awesome apartment

http://www.pararius.nl/Studio-te-huur/Leiden/Papengracht/864834/

I need to pack and mostly decide what not to take with me ;)

And I still have a few exams. That’s it for now I’ll check back when I have more news to share.