Day Thirteen - A nice night out...

I finally made it! I got through all the exams and assignments and stuff leading up to the final exams, which don't start until the 12th. So, time for some relaxation. That started tonight - I just got back (its now 3:30am) from a night out with many of my exchange friends, to celebrate Elodie's 22nd birthday :)

It was good, we played pool and foosball at the bottom of the Munster residence for a couple of hours, then walked in the rain to Mulligans, as the Lion was dead. I really like Mulligans and would be happy to call it a favourite place for me to go. Pints are just $4, the place is smaller so it feels more full, there is a pool table and dart boards, and the music is decent - it just feels like a good pub. I just got back from walking home in the rain. Sleep in tomorrow, not sure what else, then steak dinner at the Lion!

Till tomorrow night

Jono

Day Twelve - I'm going to New York!!!

So, today I got a text from Beata, a close friend in Brisbane. I hadn't heard from her in ages, and it was exciting to hear what she had been up to and that she had just caught up on reading my blog. Next thing I know, she tells me she's coming to New York! In less than a week! And because the only time I can visit her is before exams (between the 7th and 11th), I'm doing just that!

How to get there? It didn't take long to narrow it down to two options; I will likely be going down by myself (but hoping to find someone to come along), so hiring a car isn't cost-effective, especially when trying to find parking in Manhattan. And a plane is way too expensive. So its bus vs. train. And even though its 11 hour journey is about 2-3 hours longer than that of a bus, I have decided I will board the 'Adirondack' train as my method of transportation. Its almost exactly the same price as the bus ($130 return), but has much more luxurious/bigger seats with better recline, a desk to work/study at, a powerpoint for the laptop, great scenery (it is in the National Geographic's top 10 railways in the world), and I can stretch my legs and walk up and down the train.

I'll be in NYC for around 3 days where I can catch up with my friend, explore the city, and chillout before final exams :D If I get bored on the train I might even consider studying... But the trip is going to be great - I can't wait!

Yep, a decision made on the spur of the moment. Damn I love Canada.

Day Eleven - Working hard...

I swear I'll make this short. For two reasons:

1) I'm working my ass off still trying to get all this work done. I was up till 4.30am this morning, and it is now 12.30am the next day and I've still got lots to do. French exam at 4pm that I've got to study for, but more bloody marketing before then... Lookin forward to the end of Wednesday when everything is over except for the three finals.
2) My blog challenger (can you call her that?) Marci did one post the other day that was garbage haha. She just stole two of my statuses about the snow in Canada, put some words in between, and hey presto, copyright infringement! So I think I deserve to take a break :P Check out her blog at www.spreadingsouthafricancharm.blogspot.com
(although after having finished typing this now, it is still a decent-lengthed post)

So, today I applied for a job at Doolittles, the on-campus convenience store for all your very basic food, drink, hygiene, lolly and ice-cream needs. There were apparently about 100 people who took application forms, so I've tried to stand out by highlighting my friendly and fun Aussie nature. I don't think half of everyone would actually hand in the resume anyway... But yeah, the job would seriously be a great way to meet new people and experience working in a Canadian environment, and would also help to slow down (and even possibly recover?) all the money I've been spending since I've been here. Remember, I've still got another semester and a roadtrip left! Plus I want to buy a new MacBook while i'm here...

But the best news of all was that I received a care package from my lovely family back home... In it was all I needed: Starburst lollies!!! Four packets of them. I've almost finished one, in half a day. I live on the stuff back home, and had missed it so so much... So, quick shout out to Mum, Dad and Andrew: Thankyou heaps!!!!!

Finally, I did my Marketing Communications final exam this evening. Only 2.5hrs of study, and I was in and out within an hour... I reckon I'll get at least 80%. I don't know how I keep getting away with it.

Alright, I'm gonna stop procrastinating... time to do more work for my other marketing subject. I'm so sick of it.

Take care,

Jono

Day Ten - Dave the Preacher

So it appears that I'm finding it easier to do a blog every second day. This will be a problem when I have to make up for lost days by wearing shorts and thongs as part of my bet with Marci..

My discussion for today is about a friendly man I met in Lennoxville today when I was out buying some essentials. I was busy going between the three stores in town to work out which was cheapest (will save money in the future!), and this guy walking on the path a distance in front of me saw me and stopped to have a chat. He introduced himself as Dave, and like (almost) all Canadians, he had terrible trouble understanding my name 'Jono'. They all think I've said either 'Jonaa', 'Jonah', 'Jonee', or something of the sort... it isn't till I spell it out that they understand.

Anyway, after having been excited to work out I was Australian and subsequently try out the accent, I had a bit of a conversation with him, and he was very good to talk to. When I told him I needed to cross the road for the shop, he casually asked me if I were Catholic. He was not intimidating about it, and I had no problem in saying I was but hadn't been to Church in a long time. All he did then was assure me that it was OK and all would be fine in Jesus' second coming. A break in the traffic allowed me to cross, and I was surprised to see him still standing there watching me as I entered the shop, calling 'Jono!' and waving...

A retelling of this to some local Bishops students resulted in them exclaiming, "oh, its Dave the Preacher!". Apparently he has a bit of a reputation (not bad) of being the friendly chap in town who will talk to anyone. As I said, I never felt uncomfortable around him, and as long as he can maintain a non-religious conversation I would not try to avoid him...

In other news, I can't wait till this Wednesday (December 2nd), when I'll be finished the bulk of my work, except for 3 final exams starting on the 12th. That means 10 days of freedom, where I'll hopefully be able to hit up the slopes as often as possible, and enjoy the last time I have with all the exchange students who will be leaving...

I may or may not do an update tomorrow. Its not like its cold yet.

Bonne nuit!!!

Day Eight - It snows!

Hello Everyone!

I apologise sincerely for my recent absence. I had planned to have a special post up on Day 7 - a video, which as well as having me in it, would also include a 'show and tell' of my photos and videos from my trip to Toronto. I started doing that at like 12am that day, and by 3am my computer was struggling so much and the editing was more difficult than expected, so I didn't get to finish it, and I've put it off since. Also, I was actually stressed for the first time ever on Thursday - I have an exam on both Monday and Tuesday, and group presentations on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. So yeah, I've actually been studying....

So its 2am here as I type this, and its late because I just spent the last 2 or so hours on the phone to my grandparents - it was the first time i've spoken to them since I left, as they do not have a computer to follow what I've been up to! They were trying to hurry up the phone call, and were utterly amazed when I told them Skype only cost 3c/minute from the other side of the world :D

Oh, and here is some news for non-Bishops students: It started snowing this evening!!!! While its snowed on a few other occasions like over 2 weeks ago, it never settled.. tonight, we'll have between 5 and 10cm of the white stuff! While it doesn't sound like much, it is so exciting to know that Winter is finally here, and the campus looks so much more beautiful now. I've already been out in it (see photos), acting like an immature little Australian that hasn't seen snow before (hang on a minute, I am one of those).

(written on my 3rd floor bedroom window - its harder to do than it looks!)


(the gang at the Christmas tree in the university Quad)

(me with the tree! and yes, I am only wearing shorts and a jacket...)


(a crazy guy wearing only underpants :S)

(umbrellas have a new use!)

(let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!)

(yep, lying on the ground in shorts)

(Hallelujah! its snowing!!!)

Anyway, I'll be off for now, but expect a double post in the next few days when I've got on top of my university work. Hope you are all well!!!!!

Much love

Jono

Day Six - What does the future hold?

Hey again. So today I'm going to do more of a reflection:

Ever since school when I started about what I wanted to do for a career, I have always told myself (and which all teachers drummed into me) that I'd do something I'd enjoy. I take the idea quite seriously. For example, I am excellent at accounting and have passed all school and university courses with over 90%, but I could not imagine waking up every day to be working through numbers at a desk.

Since starting university, and having done international business and realising how different and exciting the cultures of the world are, I have always loved the idea of being able to travel as part of my career (or at least part of it). Originally I was unsure what job I wanted to do exactly, until I realised that I could combine it with my love of marketing and cars. And so I came up with the idea of working in the in-house marketing department of a major car maker (preferably a premium one such as Audi), where I would have to conduct market research and build relations with different countries to decide what car models and their specifications should be sent where. A simple example is that the Japanese don't need big v8 four-wheel-drives, while the same thing would be perfect in America. I don't even know if such a job exists, but I'm sure it does.

So today I went to a seminar called 'Global Career Skills', and the bloke spoke about all the things to do with increasing your international IQ, getting international experience, searching for an international job, etc. It made me think about what I want to do to reach my goal. There are so many things I want to do before settling down into a day-to-day job: I want to backpack around the world, I want to master French and learn even more languages (Spanish and an Asian language would be great), and I want to do internships that lead me on the path to my career. This seminar got me thinking about all the possible options I could take, and consequently left me in confusion of just not knowing what I should do, and when.

I think I will return for another year at QUT and do my honours degree before any of this. It gives me time to save up more money, learn more about what I am interested in, have a decent qualification on my resume, and get a little bit older before venturing out too far into the world (yes, I know I'm already in Canada). But then what?

- Do I try and get an internship in France, and stay with a family there or something where I can master the language?
- Do I just study French outside of uni during honours, then backpack around the world afterwards for a year or two and do basic labour while half-learning a variety of local cultures/languages along the way?
- Or do I just aim to find a job straight away that will lead to all the travel I've wanted to do?

And then I wonder: What about refereeing? I've worked so hard at it, progressed really far... When I think about all this other stuff, refereeing slips out of my mind. But it could also be my ticket to travel, if I work hard enough and get to go to different countries to officiate. Then I could move to a marketing career after that. So many options... I think I'm just going to have to take it as it comes.

I'd like to know what you think about all of this :)

Oh, and here are 5 more cultural differences I've noticed (I thought of the first two whilst in the shower haha):

1) Canadian toilets are huge water wasters. They use like 15L per flush (they aren't dual-flush), and they reset so that half the bowl is filled after each flush. Without being too crude, it makes it difficult to avoid a 'splash'...
2) Canadian showers have awesome pressure compared to Australia! Obviously no water restrictions here... and bizarrely, most of them have what appears to be an overflow outlet in the form of a tap, which has water coming out of it even when the shower is running. Haven't figured it out yet. And no, its not to make the shower a bath.
3) Canadian (or at least Quebec) cars do not require numberplates on the front. It took a while to get used to seeing nothing there, and not thinking that every car was unregistered or stolen. It makes me wonder how they do speed cameras from head-on...
4) Donuts are so much cheaper here! Well, at least at Tim Hortons, Canada's favourite coffee shop and the equivalent of Starbucks. One donut here is just $1 while an assorted dozen sets me back $6.50, whereas at Krispy Kreme in Australia they are like $2-2.50 each and $20 for an assorted dozen! As there is a "Timmies" on campus, it makes for a great treat during the night class breaks.
5) There are a lot more homeless people in major Canadian cities compared to those in Australia. Maybe they are just more obvious and are not hidden like in Brisbane, but in Montreal and particularly Toronto there can be homeless people on every corner, in subways, or even holding doors open for the public in the hope of some spare change..

Alright, time for bed. Please don't forget to leave a comment if you read this - it doesn't take much time! And it makes a world of difference for me :)

Day Five - Back to normal...

I apologise. That last post was waaayy too long. Dont get me wrong, I think that it was all worth saying, but I can understand why people wouldn't want to read it all. But I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Today was a return back to the normal Bishops life. We got up ridiculously early in the morning to return the car (note: we did 1275km all up, and the whole trip cost less than $150 for everything inc. food!), and after breakfast I slept until 2.30pm. I then continued to do nothing all day until my 3rd year marketing class, which is my favourite of the week regardless of its 7-10pm timeslot. I have since watched the latest Pixar movie 'Up' with Anton. While it was great, its probably my least favourite so far.

Actually, I also spent $225 today. More money 'down the drain', but not wasted as far as I'm concerned. Why? That money will pay for two separate trips to the snow; one to Jay Peak on the 22-24 of January including transport, breakfasts, drinks and accommodation, and one for another weekend in February to a resort called Mount Snow, apparently voted the 'Best in the East' recently. I am not going to hold back when it comes to opportunities to go skiing - thats why I came here!

In other news, I am in the process of selecting my classes for next semester, and not only should it all work out with getting credit for QUT units back home, but my timetable should thankfully be a lot more reasonable.

OK, here are my next five differences between countries that I've noticed:

1) Mobile phones are very cheap here. I had planned to buy a new SIM card to put in my Australian phone, but it would have cost $30 to activate it, plus whatever amount of credit I wanted to put on it. For the same price I scored a brand new (albeit cheap) Nokia phone with new SIM card and $25 of credit for $55. You do the math.
2) In addition to this, the rates are incredibly cheap. With my company, I pay 30c/day for 10 texts (alternatively you can do them for 15c each, or 50c/day for unlimited), and 20c/minute for calls. To send a text internationally is only 25c!!!
3) Canadians don't like spray deodorant. Almost all of it is the stick or roll-on type, and the spray ones they do have aren't the 'dry' ones that are common in Australia. Its annoying.
4) Speed is not a priority for police to enforce here. On the roadtrip, I only saw one police car for the whole time. I don't know of any fixed cameras either. This is good.
5) In Quebec, there is no such thing as KFC. Instead, they literally call the same thing 'PFK', to ensure that they are 'French'. It stands for Poulet Frit Kentucky, and the direct translation is Chicken Fried Kentucky. How bizarre - so much for everything I've learnt in marketing about 'brand consistency'.

Alright, I'm off to bed. Goodnight!

Jono