Nanaimo and VIU
Repost by Viktoria d.K.
This is where I study now!
I live in Nanaimo since August 30th 2013. I moved into one of the apartments on VIU Campus. I have 3 roomies from different countries (China, Nigeria and of course Germany… Where else?!) and I had a lot of fun living there.
Nanaimo isn’t a really big city and if I could get the chance again I would rather buy me a car instead of a bus semester ticket. The semester ticket costs 180CAD and if I would have invested 300$ more, I easily could have gotten a car. Without a car it I rather difficult in Nanaimo, because the public transport system is not the best. The busses have their own timetable, sometimes they come way too late and you can’t catch your transfer because of it; sometimes the buses are coming way too early and you have to wait another 30 minutes; or they just don’t come at all…
The best thing in Nanaimo is the Woodgrove Mall and The Old City Pub. I usually go shopping in the Woodgrove Mall, both, clothes and groceries, or I go watch a movie in the theatre over there. Oh and they also have a Starbucks there, so you can drink (good) coffee, too :)
Partytime in Nanaimo
For partying on the weekends, we usually go to the Old City Pub. It’s not like in Germany, where you go to a bar first for having some drinks before you go to a club. Here you go to a bar, have a drink or two, eat something and then go home again, because the pubs and clubs are closing at 2 am on the island. It’s different in Vancouver; there clubs are open until 3 am and (as I heard) in Alberta clubs are actually open until 4 am. If we wanted to go dancing, we usually went to “Level Two”. It’s a really small club right next to The Old City Pub and it’s one of the most popular ones. Well Nanaimo only has 3 or 4 nightclubs but it’s still the busiest one in Nanaimo.
Beauty of Nanaimo
After living here for four months now, I know, that Nanaimo isn’t the city, where I would like to live forever. It’s perfect for studying, because there is not much going on during the week, so you can study. But I have to say, that Nanaimo is trying hard to please the youth, it’s just hard without a car. Grocery shopping is really exhausting, because you have to bring your stuff home by bus and the transport system (as mentioned before) is not providing a lot of different routes…
VIU itself is a really nice university with a big campus. I really like the campus and the library, from where I can see the whole city and mountains from the emerged land. And of course the sea! The green-ish, grey-ish and blue-ish sea.
Vancouver Island University
The Vancouver Island University also has a good equipped gym, where the students can workout for free. If you’re lucky you can workout and watch a basketball game at the same time, because the gym is open and is facing the basketball court directly.
Next to VIU you also have the possibility to go ice-skating and go swimming in the indoor pool and indoor ice skating centre. It’s only a 5-minute walk from the Residences. The sports programs are endless in Nanaimo!
Baseball, Basketball, Football, and Soccer fields are everywhere in the city.
Also you can eat sushi in the Cafeteria, and I just looooove sushi! So basically I eat sushi every day for lunch :) Of course, the Cafeteria provides a lot of different other food choices too. They even have country weeks, where you can try typical dishes from other countries. Also the VIU culinary students prepare everything, which is served. And oh boy, they can cook :)!
