Experience report University of Victoria Fall 2012 Florian Wulff wulfff@dhbw-loerrach.de Studiengang Mechatronik Trinational TTR10a August December 2012 Ausbildungsbetrieb DB Schenker Rail Deutschland AG
Acknowledgment I would like to thank everyone involved in the organisation and exchange. Britta Goertz and Stefan Hess at the DHBW Lörrach, International Office Mathias Thomas and Valentina Berisa at the DB Schenker Rail Deutschland AG Karima Ramji and Sherri Williams at the University of Victoria, Co-op Office Motivation I absolutely wanted to spend a term abroad during my studies and experience new cultures, a different student life, and study in English. The University of Victoria was the perfect choice, because I had already been to Canada before, all lectures are in English and it is a relatively inexpensive University, because Exchange Students don t need to pay the really expensive tuition and course fees, which are common in North America. Nevertheless, Vancouver Island and the West Coast is an incredibly beautiful region with a totally amazing landscape, which would even be the perfect holiday destination. Especially the Twinning Program is a unique possibility to get contacts and help at UVIC. Application The application process is quite simple, but took a lot of time and effort. I spent days during the 3 rd and 4 th term organizing every detail. You will need the following documents: Letter of application CV Transcript of Records of the 3 rd and 4 th term in English Certificate of your English knowledge, as offered by the DHBW or DAAD, Toefl etc. Application for scholarships like DAAD or Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, Auslandsbafög Agreement of your company and acceptance for your Twinning partner for an internship After being accepted by the DHBW, I would recommend to already apply for On-Campus housing or homestay. Additionally, you should choose your courses at UVIC, translate your DHBW course curriculum or contents to serve as prerequisites and start organising the flight. Study Permit (Only if you are staying longer than 6 months OR if you intend to work at UVIC) Health Insurance, Haftpflicht, Accident Insurance, Travel Insurance etc. (Especially health insurance in Canada is usually not covered by your regular insurance, extend your insurance; ADAC or STA are offering very good conditions) Credit Card, Bank account or Canadian Dollars (Paying everything by Visa or MasterCard is often more common than cash) Letter of Acceptance from the University of Victoria Book your flights, ESTA for the U.S. and search an accommodation
Leaving Germany My flight left Germany in late August and I arrived at the Victoria International Airport, a very small airport on Vancouver Island, after changing flights in Amsterdam and Seattle. It is also possible to fly to Seattle or Vancouver and take a ferry and buses to Victoria, if flights to those destinations are significantly cheaper. (Transit from Vancouver is $50 and $150 from Seattle for a round trip) Arriving in Victoria The fall term at UVIC begins in September and ends in December. Anyway, it was necessary to arrive in late august to take part of the new student welcome and weeks of welcome. The first week is full of many useful or funny events and excellent to get to know first new friends, Canadian students as well as many international students. Any extra time can be spent on searching a flat or roommates, as many international students were staying in the Ocean Island Inn hostel. I had already organised and rented my room before I left and shared a nice, big flat in a part called Fernwood, which is situated in the middle between Downtown Victoria and the Campus. I shared the flat with a roommate from Australia and another roommate from China and paid $600 a month. If anybody wants to ask my landlord regarding future stays I ll be happy to share his contact. He is really the best and easiest landlord you can find. Compared to the homestay program, which is 800$ a month + 250 $ application fee and food included, this seems less, but food is really, really expensive in Victoria and easily costs more than 200$ a month. Lots of exchange students had chosen homestay and were very happy with their choice. Another option would be On-Campus accommodation; especially Clusters are very popular. Applications for those clusters should be transmitted as early as possible during the first days after the start of the application period in spring. I found out later, that an application is already possible, even when not being registered officially by phoning the housing services and entering a special student number in your application. The first weeks Canadian Rocky Mountains I spent the first day driving to the University Center and getting my student ID, which also includes the bus pass for the whole term. This is really useful and saves a lot of money, which I needed for so many other things. The bus system in Victoria is really good, but stations are numbered and named after the corners of the next street. There is no display in the bus and just a small sign at the street marks a stop, which was the reason why I got lost in town several times when taking the bus. Later Google Maps Transit worked perfectly planning trips and times, after getting a Canadian data and cellular plan. Canada is one of the most expensive countries for mobile plans, but a local number, data and unlimited messaging are really worth it. The welcome week was a whole week with events and introductions, organised and planned by
the University and students itself, the Student Union. Especially the Engineering Students are having a crazy week with competitions, special outfits and parties. The international office organises a photo rally downtown and an incredible whale-watching trip. The first weeks should also be used to register for university sports and informing or subscribing about all the student clubs, offering all kind of sports from outdoor trips, surfing, scuba diving, winter sports, caving, hockey, squash, tennis, football, rafting During the first weeks of the term, while it was still kind of warm I made a scuba diving license with the university sports in 5 degree Celsius cold water, wearing a dry suit. It was quite expensive but a really amazing experience. Later I went on a trip with the caving club, climbing and unfortunately also swimming in a flooded old gold mine. I only regret, not taking part in more clubs and trips because many of those things won t be possible in Germany. View of Victoria from Mt. Finlayson Living in Victoria and UVIC People in Victoria are riding bikes a lot and having a bike is very handy. www.usedvictoria.com is the best options for buying one and I even succeeded to sell the bike after my 4 months for twice the price. Another great option is the Spokes Program at UVIC. This university group is situated in the parking lot below the University Center and loans bicycles for one or two terms for free. Because it s based on a First come, first served principle, I dropped the application on the very first day at UVIC and got lucky. The rest of the term, I usually went by bike to UVIC, biking at least 15km a day and could lend my second bike to friends. The weather in Victoria is better than imagined. In August and September, I enjoyed a lot of sun, some days above 25 degree and the possibility to study outside on campus. It s not even close to the cold and snowy winter I suspected. In fact, it basically never snows or freezes in Victoria, but rains a lot after it starts raining in October really a lot and it basically never ends. It was one of the best ideas to spend some money on a raincoat and an umbrella. Food was very expensive in Canada. Not everything, but normal supermarkets are and meat and cheese especially. Because Canada is still a lot like the U.S., everything has to be big and fast. Big cars and SUVs, huge wholesale supermarkets like Costco and McDonalds are everywhere, which is even cheaper than cooking. The UVIC Campus is big, but not too big to get lost completely. You ll find everything on campus: food markets, cafes, labs, the library, a bookstore, a pub, a haircutter, a cinema, a
swimming hall, a bus hub and herds of deer. I learned how to get from one end to the other in 5 minutes, as well as easily spending 4 hours waiting between lectures. I felt a lot more like a student than in Germany. At UVIC, pizza and coffee are offered everywhere. There are free pizza lunches or free burgers from time to time, which are amazing because buying food is so expensive and you ll get a discount for coffee if you bring your own mug. The best event is the student church dinner every week. A small church is cooking for students and giving away bread for the week for free. This is the best place to meet other students and friends, as there are nearly 300 students each time. (www.studentdinner.ca) Another great and cheap event is Burger and Beer in the Graduate House on Campus once a week. Art on campus made by the First People There are lot of students Downtown in Victoria and on Campus, that s the reason why you ll always find lots of student parties in clubs, pubscrawls or home parties every weekend. UVIC is known as the party-university in British Columbia. All in all UVIC has a very active student life and community. Beer is very popular, but incredibly expensive compared to Germany. The only place to buy alcohol are official liquor stores, where you are paying at least $10 for a 6-pack of cans. That s why you ll always need to bring your own drinks to all the home parties. Additionally drinking is forbidden in public and Campus Security always shuts down parties at clusters, while clubs are always closing at 2am by law. Studying at UVIC After the first lectures started, I concentrated on my studies for some time. It s necessary to take at least 4 courses to be registered as a full time student. A single course is way more workload than one in Germany, but all in all it s still less lectures and less time at University than at home at the DHBW. I was lucky not having a single lecture before 11:30am and nothing at all on Fridays. It was an easy and relaxed term, but I would still recommend choosing and registering in at least 6 or more courses in the beginning. After visiting a couple of lectures it s always possible to drop courses, if you respect the deadlines. Only keep 4 courses till the end. This allows you to drop the boring or hard ones. Many lectures had couple hundred students, which was a completely new experience. Depending on the professor, courses are based on lectures and final exams or on team work results, projects and mid-term exam. Luckily, I only had one single final exam (COM220), but 3 projects (CanAssist, ENGR280 and CSC375) and up to 3 mid-term exams in ENGR280 (2 in CSC 375, 1 in COM220). This had the incredible advantage to have my grades based on several, less complex exams and group results achieved together with Canadian Students. All in all, the grades were very good. Some weekends and weeks during fall meant a lot of work and learning, but on the other hand, it was possible to relax during the Final Exam period in December and spent most of the time travelling.
My English was more than good enough to understand every lecture, doing all the assignments and passing all exams. Most professors were very helpful, greeting me with my first name every time and paying attention to me as an exchange student. My best experience was my work with CanAssist, a group of engineers connected with the University, who are developing and creating tools and gadgets for handicapped people regarding their special requirements. I worked together with a friend from the DHBW Lörrach on a project to redesign a switch and create a model in Solid Works, before coding and milling our creation on the CNC. The Twinning Program The Twinning Program is a unique program in cooperation between the University of Victoria, the University of Waterloo and Universities in Germany and Austria. I made new friends and contacts with exchange students and Canadian students. We had lectures together, travelled together and helped each other with problems and organising. Unfortunately, UVIC only found a twin towards the very end of the term who will be doing an internship in my company. Nevertheless the twinning program is usually a very good help to organise the exchange and help you to get to know and studying at UVIC. The CanAssist Team The CANEU Exchange Group Traveling During the first weeks, I did a lot of bike trips to the ocean, on the Island and on old railway path, exploring the amazing and incredible nature and landscape. I would recommend to everyone to do the Galloping Goose Trail, around 80km and passes by beautiful lakes, rivers, potholes and nature parks or to go swimming and cliff jumping at Lake Thetis near Victoria. During the first warm weekends a trip to Tofino is a very good idea. Tofino is the best known surfer spot on Vancouver Island. We rented a big, but very cheap SUV as our car, booked hostels and drove to Port Alberni, Ucluelet, Tofino and Long Beach. Long Beach had some good waves, but we all needed a 7mm wetsuit, gloves and hoodies to resist the cold ocean. The island also has some of the oldest and most beautiful trees and rainforest, as well as lonely lakes, waterfalls and mountains. We saw a lot of salmons, a bear and eagles. It s just a different world. During the following weekends, I did a lot of trips, whenever I had time. Seattle, Vancouver and everything on the Island are really good weekend trips. There is a high-speed ferry to Seattle
from Downtown Victoria, as well as expensive seaplanes to Vancouver or a slow ferry and bus connection. Towards the end of the term, UVIC is having a Reading break, which means 3 free days in November, which were intentionally introduced for students to catch up and learn for the final exams in December. Anyway every international student is travelling, most of us were flying to Hawaii, while I was doing a trip along the West Coast, visiting Las Vegas, L.A., Hollywood, Santa Monica and San Francisco in 5 days. Flights with Allegiant Air from Bellingham Washington and Greyhound buses between cities are incredibly cheap. Depending on how many final exams are scheduled in December, you ll find some spare time to go skiing and snowboarding. The closest ski resort is Mt. Washington on the Island, while I have spent about 3 weeks in Whistler Blackcomb. Already having 300cm of powder before Christmas is incredible and lifts in Whistler and the Hostel offer amazing discounts on season passes for students, compared to the regular price, but about $500 is still expensive. All in all it was the best ending I Vancouver, Vegas, SanFrancisco, Whistler could have imagined for the amazing time I had in Canada. Conclusion I would recommend going abroad to everyone. It s a once-in-a-lifetime chance! You won t miss too much at home, all your worries about grades and money will somehow disappear, but you ll learn a lot about different cultures, get to know new people from all over the world, drastically improved your English and make unforgettable experiences for your life.