University: Saint Mary’s University

City: Halifax

Country: Canada

Continent: North America

Field of study: trade management

Study type: semester abroad

The university welcomed you with a well-organized orientation week. There were numerous opportunities to get to know one another during guided tours through the city and the university and especially at evening events such as parties, dinners, etc. I wasn’t used to such great attention to oneself in Germany. This is very helpful, especially at the beginning in a foreign country. Furthermore, the small courses are also very pleasant. Check jibin123.com to see vocational training in United Kingdom. Since the difficulty of the courses was not too high, there were still a few Z

What is disturbing is that you can have bad luck with your members in the numerous group works. The engagement of Canadian students amounted in part to refusal to work. Many Asian students could barely speak English, which was not conducive to their job performance. Because of this, it may be that all the work got stuck on one person, as there was no support from some professors in these cases.

Since there are many international students, you can also get interesting insights into other cultures. However, I sometimes found it disturbing that there are so many German exchange students in Halifax.

The university can shine with its sports facilities. The fitness center (free of charge) offers a variety of training options and equipment. In addition, halls and sports fields are connected. But you can also do good sports outside of the fitness center, e.g. B. walk long distances along the coast.

There are also varsity sports teams for just about every known sport… The SMU Huskies are a real football heavyweight in varsity sports, so to speak, and in the winter of 2007 they were in the finals of the Canadian championship.

The football games are always big events with lots of students partying. There is also the Halifax-Mooseheads, the local professional ice hockey team and the 2008 Ice Hockey World Championships will also be held in Halifax (with the German and Canadian groups). The city has a lot to offer in terms of sport.

There are also plenty of opportunities to party, which is probably partly due to the fact that Halifax has 70,000 students out of a population of 360,000. However, compared to German standards, alcohol is quite expensive. An 8-pack of beer (0.33 l cans) cost about $CAN 13. A bottle of wine cost about 20. However, there are often special offers in the pubs (especially on Wednesdays) where you can get a lot of alcohol for little money. With such promotions you usually get a drink (beer or schnapps mixed in 0.3 quantities) for $ 2. So it can be celebrated well.

Halifax is a typical North American city and is right on the ocean, which makes it a lot more livable. It also has a lot of green spaces and is particularly green a little bit outside and around the SMU.

Since Nova Scotia has a thriving fishing industry, you can buy seafood of all kinds very fresh and very cheap (400g salmon fillet 2 €, 1 kg scampi 8 €, lobster 12 €). But you can also buy meat very cheaply, which means that you can always cook something delicious to eat for little money. However, dairy products are much more expensive than in Germany. You have to pay a small fortune for decent cheese.

If you don’t like to cook yourself and want to eat something other than fast food, you have to be prepared for a higher price level. Even in the canteen it is anything but cheap. Burger chains like McDondalds and Co. are about as expensive as in Germany.

There are many destinations around Halifax. You can visit several national parks (canoeing in Kejimkujik or Indian Summer on Cape Breton Island). You can also do whale watching, painball or similar things. So there should be something for everyone.

Finding an apartment can be difficult. But there are numerous web forums where you can get information about the housing market. It would be best if you start looking for a place to stay by the end of the previous semester (e.g. Kijiji.ca). If you are very price-conscious, you can also rent an unfurnished apartment and get the furnishings from the bulky waste, which is always on the first Monday of the semester. In my apartment, for example, all the furnishings (except for the refrigerator) were from bulky waste.;)

I really enjoyed the semester in Halifax and I can say that I have absolutely no regrets about my choice.