Welcome!

Welcome International Green Building Interns to the 2010 IGB Blog! We (Nicole and Larissa) are thrilled to have you in this inaugural group for the IGB Internships. You have been a really fantastic group to work with and we look forward to seeing what you make of this opportunity.

This blog will be where you can find the topics for your blogs as well as the links to the other intern's blogs. We talked about the blogs a bit at the pre-departure orientation and I just want to reiterate why we are doing this. It is one thing to go abroad and have an amazing experience and have your world vision shift. It is another to be able to understand how that shift is happening and be able to articulate the changes that you are experiencing. This is also your space to share what you are learning about green building from your different locations, local and international. You can share resources, seek advice or opinion and draw from each others varied backgrounds and experiences.

The blogs are not meant to be academic but more about your thoughts and reflections. For this reason, there are no right or wrong answers but be prepared to be challenged. The blogs are intended to give you the time and space to pull back from your day to day activities and reflect on a wider landscape about your international experience. It is also an opportunity for all of you to have a conversation while on internship in different corners of the world. Blogs are an electronic conversation and there is naturally a give and take. I ask that when you post, check out the blogs of the other interns and post your comments about what they have to say. That will get the conversation going.

I encourage you to have fun with this and see it as a new challenge if you have never blogged before. Take pride in your writing and push yourself to make it sound good. Don't go for the easy answers or what I like to call the low hanging fruit. The good stuff is when you dig deep and really question yourself and your surroundings.

With that said, here is your first blog topic - set the scene for us. Tell us how you made it to your internship location since we last saw you, what are your first impressions, what has surprised you, what worries you, what are you excited about. If you have met with your supervisor, tell us what you are going to be working on and what you hope to achieve in the next three months. Get us up to speed with where you are now. As we are left to toil in exotic North York, any pictures you can upload will of course be most appreciated.

We will be posting some helpful tips on blogging from our friendly colleagues at the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability. If this is your first time blogging, you might find them useful.

Blog on!

Nicole and Larissa