Exchange Tips, bro.

Hello again dear readers. It’s been a while since the Cuba rant, miss us? Probably not.

For the past month, we've been trying to come up with subjects to talk about and every-single-time, we have hit a wall (talk about a rookie-wall). So, I’m now resorting to the oldest trick in the book, and one of the most obvious ones: This blog post is going to be a sort of a miserable try of a sequel to the misconceptions of Exchange mentioned in one of our posts, A.K.A a “coming to exchange” tips post, A.K.A complete bullshit.

Honestly, I’m losing track of the things we've already been ranting on about. I hope this sequel doesn't spoil the broth as so many sequels before it (Anybody know there was a sequel for JAWS?)

Let the heads-a-roll….

Tips

1. Rent an apartment after arriving

Now to be honest, this is highly dependent on where you are going on exchange, but please people, at least try to gather as much information about different intermediary companies / or renters before going in all “YOLO” and renting something that would make the homeless cringe. Now, in the end if you find yourself paying $700/month for something that’s worth less than half, you might say you got screwed harder than an Ikea shelf, or you know, whatever…

At this point, some people might already be saying, “What if I don’t want to risk it?”. Well, that’s what you pay the dumb-ass-premium for isn't it? Just cold, in your face, asymmetric information. 

2. Make some sort of a budget…..then double it

Ok, so those of you, who enjoy budgeting, please go back to doing your taxes.

If you followed my advice in part 1, you don’t need to take notes of this one. Just pay attention.

Whatever you’re thinking you’re going to spend, is not even a ballpark figure, it’s not even a reliable estimation. You have no idea how much groceries cost, you do not know what initial investments you will have to go through, and as far as I know, you might end up having to buy a new toilet for the house you’re renting, IF you’re in South Europe, or someplace as irrelevant.

I plowed through my initial thoughts of a budget in 2 months, and no, I was not buying Dom Perignon Champagne and pouring it into the ground (OH yeah, that’s a thing). I was merely trying to buy cheese, but obviously Canadian cheese is made out of fairies and orphan tears, since 100 grams of cheese costs more than a cheap six-pack of beer. Honestly, I’m not even exaggerating that much.

So, if you have a job, or you know, not a job at all (Applies to Finland) you might want to think about saving a bit before coming to exchange.

Added comment: There is definitely a chance for arbitrage somewhere there 

3. Travel, preferably with friends

Please do this. Don’t be someone from eastern Finland and live in a sandbox your entire life (Helsinki attitude and quite proud). Also, bring those friends with you, even the new ones, whatever. Friends always push you forward to new experiences you might never acquire yourself [insert all kinds of other self-help bullshit]. Friends might also annoy the shit out of you, but hey there’s always a trade-off.  As for me, I’ve been to Cuba, Boston, New York, Toronto, Quebec City and planning to go to Washington as well, a lot of stuff. Worth it, every single trip, EVEN THE CUBA ONE.

4. Try to widen your view of the world

Most of you probably could not see this one coming from me, especially after the cynicism-loaded blog posts about how I basically know everything and you do not. Well, here it is.

Conversations I've had with people from different backgrounds have allowed me to learn so many things, be it religion or the educational systems of other countries. I’m not going to dissect the valuable lessons I've learned, because I simply don’t care about sharing them. Get your own experiences. Geez.

5. Do not stress studies

There is so much to see, so many people to meet, so many places to discover. Exchange is the time of your life where you are almost as free as a person can be without being homeless, unless you’re going on exchange to North-Korea, which I can imagine to be an otherwise enriching experience. 

6. Work with people who are not from your home uni.

Sure, it has been convenient as all hell and easy to work with Niko (we have probably done 30 cases, presentations or other thingamajiggies together throughout business school so yeah, we know how to work together) and other Finns on group projects, but this is a great chance to test what it’s like to work with people from other cultures. Yes, I know, you have heard this beyond comfort zones and multicultural teams pitch a million times, but hell, it’s repeated everywhere for a reason. It’s amusing to see the stereotypes in action, ranging from German efficiency to Swedish overblown democratic teamwork procedures, where participants’ happiness goes before getting results. Sure, there will be times when you’ll wonder how you have the patience to deal with varying notions of “being on time” and you’ll struggle to understand the thick accent of others. It is equally interesting to see when people go against their national stereotypes, you’ll see that too. You have a chance to expand your view of the world, take it.

7. Make contacts in the other universities as well

As you may or may not know, Montreal is one of the biggest student cities in the world. Home of a number of renowned universities and a plethora of colleges (for Finnish counterpart, think AMK), Montreal offers ample chance to network beyond your own university. We have been lucky enough to meet a number of people from competing universities, who are well connected and open by nature. As a result, we have had the pleasure of being introduced to people beyond our own social circle. We have made friends with not only HEC students, but also with people going to UQAM, McGill, UdeM and I guess Guy-Concordia too. Know more people from more universities, get invited to (read: crash) more parties. Sound advice, coming from two guys who attended more med and law school parties during freshman year than some students of aforementioned schools.   

8. (HEC only) Take the Strategic management course

OK so this course is a shit-ton of work, all for a grade you don’t even need. BUT it is also the most entertaining course I have taken during all of my binnis school studies. Sure, your BS-generator will be running on full steam doing all those BCG, Ansoff and SWOT matrices, but the satisfaction you get from playing the strategy simulation is unparalleled. Though quite simplified in the end, it gives you a nice chance to be a sneaky back-stabbing bastard in a dog-eat-dog simulated business environment. Just remember: if you take this course and play the game, our Finnish readers, it is your God-given mission to beat the Swedes for that intoxicating better-than-intercourse feeling of (6-1) superiority.

Kevin knows what’s up

Montreal Top 5 shitlists

Let’s wrap this horrible blogpost up with a list…

Burgers

Royal Burger located in the Plateau – The shit. Burgers are greasy as hell, but easily worth it.

The fast food chain A&W – The shit. Burgers are real burgers, not some fast food chain bullshit.

Harvey’s – Just shit. The burgers are expensive and they suck. Nuff said.

Places to watch sports

Well, this list will start off with probably the king of sports bars in Canada, Chez Serge.

Chez Serge – The shit. It’s a legendary place among locals. During the canadiens hockey games, the place is packed. I MEAN PACKED. I had to wait 20 to 30 minutes outside just to get in. It is a great bar at a great location that features bartender pole dancing between periods and a booze-roulette, you can’t …. go….wrong.

Cages aux sports – Can’t say really. Located at the heart of hockey, centre bell. It’s a cozy, casual looking bar. Seems more like a diner. Ate there a couple of times, was ok. Moving on.

Station des sports – Ok. We were there once. TV-screens were all over the goddamn place; imagine that you had a studio apartment and 10 TV’s, at some point you have to go; “No”.

Beers

Ok, so I imagine we already covered the beer-portion quite fast in the first blog-posts. But here it is, a list that is a result of intense empirical research and reflection.

Budweiser – Gold.

Bud light – Gold.

Bud light lime – Moving on..

Coors Light – Drinkable, but not really.

Molson Beers – Nope.

Moosehead – Didn’t drink it. Seems legit though.

Sleemans light, or any other brand of sleemans – Ok, but has an odd after taste. If hiding bad smells with cologne could be a drink, it would be Sleemans.

I think those are the most important beers you need to know about. You can also try the Rickards brands, which are quite ok.

Place to drink beer

Anywhere.

‘Hoods to live in

Well, as some of you know, we live in an area that I think has a higher chance of drive by shootings than other downtown areas. What that means, is up to you. But, to be honest, I’ve liked Parc Extension thus far. Yeah it might be a cab ride away from everywhere, but the neighborhood seems to be easygoing and quiet.

Obviously, if you’re a student, or you know.. a drug addict, you might want to consider the Plateau or Mile-end, or whatever. As long as you live close to the things you think you’ll need its fine. At least we have a plethora of fast food restaurants around, so that’s good.

Well, I think that does it for us, seeing as were pretty much sleep deprived from all the hours of hard studying and aiding the community. We might be following up with a couple of more blog posts in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for those.

SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYMORE. Bye.