This past month, we featured stories from UBC students who had recent Study Abroad experiences every week as our Campus Celebrities. Take a look back through this section for travelling advice, personal stories and helpful insight into what having an exchange experience is all about! Go Global deadlines to apply for exchange next year are November 28th, 2013 and January 17th, 2014. We hope we’ll help you make a decision if you’re considering going on exchange!
Daniela König is a third-year Environmental Sciences Major from ETH Zurich. She is here for a semester on exchange at UBC!
Over the past month, our Campus Celebrities have offered us an inside look at their exchange experiences in Wales, Sweden and Spain in the hopes that their insight can help our readers to decide where in the world they would like to go on their own exchanges. To wrap up this months’ Exchange Edition, I thought it would be nice to shake things up a bit by looking at university exchange from the other side, so I sat down with Daniela König and asked about her experience as a visiting student here at UBC!
What made you pick Canada – and UBC- as the location for your exchange?
Well, there’s obviously more than one reason. I only had a few choices because there are agreements between my school and other schools… I could’ve gone to Toronto, some schools in the US…nothing in South America (which is weird!). But we have quite a lot of partner universities in Australia and Asia – in Japan there’s quite a lot – or Hong Kong.
I could’ve done in it Europe, but I thought, because I got the possibility to go worldwide and I’ve never been outside Europe in my life so far, I was like, let’s go a bit further away. I wanted to go to a country that has about the same culture as we have, so it’s not that much of a shock. The problem with other countries – like if I went to Hong Kong or Singapore – is just that most of the courses aren’t in English and you don’t have much to choose from. The range of choice here is great, because the university’s really big. And Vancouver’s at the coast, so that was nice. I didn’t check the climate but so far it’s not raining and it’s pretty much the same as back home, really.
This is the main building at ETH Zurich, where Daniela goes. Photo credit here.
What’s your favourite part of going to school in Vancouver?
Um…going to school? I really like the campus. And I really like that everything is really close and I don’t have to get up at 6am, because I live on campus. It’s different. I have way less lectures than at home, but much more assignments and online stuff. So I wouldn’t say it’s better, it’s just different and it’s nice to have it change a bit. And it’s a bit easier than back home, so that’s a plus.
How do you find getting around out here compares to back home?
I think it’s…well I’ve seen worse [transit systems] but compared to Zurich, public transport [here] isn’t perfect. I mean, if I were here for two terms I would’ve bought a bike, which is better, but I don’t like buses in general. At home I use trams when I can use trams instead of buses, or just take a train or something. But it’s fine, there are lots of busses. It’s just not as fast as at home!
Daniela loves such trams way better than buses becasue they’re faster! Credit here.
What cultural differences have you noticed? Is there anything Canadians or UBC students do that you think is great or weird?
Honestly, I knew there was the cliché about Canadians being nice and everything, but literally compared to home it’s like, wow, it’s so different! For example, in the bus, no one at home would speak to me in a bus, that would never happen, and here it’s all the time like, “Oh, I heard you talking about that, blah blah, blah…” and that’s so nice! Back home it’s like, mind your own business, don’t look at people, don’t talk to people. But in general I’ve never been homesick or anything. I think the other way around – going on exchange from Vancouver to Zurich – would be so much harder. I mean it’s not like people are generally unfriendly, they’re just less open…like strangers, you wouldn’t talk to strangers usually unless they’re like very old people in a train and stuff.
How do academics here compare with back home?
Well, my university back home is quite hard compared to other universities in Switzerland, so here… I think you don’t get as much material covered in the same time. Like here you actually talk about what you do and [in Zurich] it’s like okay there’s that and that and that, and you go back home and have to get it. Here, [profs] are like, you know it’s because of that…and they explain, there’s explanations, not just the facts thrown at you. So it’s nice, it’s nice that it’s a bit less. It’s good, not everything is easy [compared to home], but some things are.
She’s loving some of the classic UBC spots, such as the cliffs above Wreck Beach at sunset!
What do you want to do in Canada the most before you leave, and what’s been your favourite thing in Canada so far?
The problem is I don’t have that much time! I’m going to Montreal later on, so that’s another part of Canada. I don’t know, I like all the small things. I mean, I went to the sunshine coast with the exchange club, that was great. I really want to go to Whistler, as well and we’re going to Kelowna. I’m looking forward to Kelowna. That’s the bad thing about here, wine is too expensive; everything else is fine but the wine! I really miss my wine (laughing). But yeah, I’m looking forward to the wine tasting!