"The most exciting weeks of my life!"
Letter from ... Canada! Robert Brundage traded his small, modest geo-campus in Lankwitz for a large campus in Edmonton.
Oct 02, 2015
Robert Brundage next to the original NBA trophy, which was on display one day on the campus in Edmonton.
Image Credit: Robert Brundage
Every Canadian goes to Tim Hortons. The line in front of the most popular coffee shop chain in Canada is always this long between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m...
Image Credit: Robert Brundage
The Housing Unit Building on campus has restaurants, cafes, and reasonably priced dorm rooms. The open windows belong to student rooms.
Image Credit: Robert Brundage
The idyllic home of a Canadian couple, where Robert Brundage lives, seems to be a true contrast to the urban campus of the University of Alberta. From here, Robert Brundage rides his bike every morning to class.
Image Credit: Robert Brundage
The last few weeks have been among the most exciting of my young life. The whole process of arriving, moving in, and getting ready for the semester has simply flown by. It has now been more than a month since I said goodbye to my home, family, and friends. Before now, I was only familiar with Canada – or, more specifically, Edmonton, Alberta – as a vacation destination: I had visited my relatives here five times before. But now everything is different...
I am experiencing Edmonton not as a vacation destination, but as one where I am continuing my education. I have chosen four classes: one in forestry, a second class focusing on the social, cultural, and economic aspects of food, an economics course, and one on climate change. All of them build more or less on what I have already learned in my studies to date. The forestry and climate change courses are geared heavily toward physical geography, while the food and economics courses focus more on human geography.
The Campus – A World Apart
I see the North Campus of the University of Alberta as a whole different world compared with my small, modest geo-campus in Lankwitz. There are shopping centers here, restaurants, cafés, bars, banks, hairdressers, post offices, fitness centers, and students as far as the eye can see!
I live about two kilometers away from the campus, in a small room in the home of a very nice Canadian married couple. I ride my bike to campus every day. All in all, I have settled in well and am looking forward to what lies ahead of me. In my next letter, I will report on a volunteer project for an environmental protection organization during which I got to work in a fantastically beautiful landscape...
Further Information
In our campus.leben series "Letters from ..." six students, two doctoral candidates, and an apprentice are reporting on their experiences abroad. Here we introduced the nine travelers.