Downtown Adventure!

Not so long ago. A few weeks before classes broke up for Christmas many of us exchange students realised we seemed to have done everything  except go into Downtown Toronto and explore. Thus we started planning a weekend adventure The Saturday was going to consisted of free things, except for a meal in little Italy. The Sunday would then be full of the thing which cost money and that way people could pick and choose what they wanted to do depending on their budget. I decided to go in for the Saturday but then use Sunday to study (I had a lot of exams and essay's to do plus I can do the costly stuff over the next few months). On the predetermined Saturday we: Tanya (our lovely guide, the only one who had previously explored), Monique, Jesse, Lauren, Andrew, Andrew, Preeti, Angel and I (if someone has been forgotten I apologise).  We started by going to look at Casa Loma. A Castle in Toronto. Built in the early 1900's (?) absolutely stunning on the outside. We didn't go inside because it was extortionate but we got many a photo of the outside.  Next we headed to St Lawrence market where we held a competition splitting of into pairs to see who could find and take a picture of the weirdest thing which was a lot of fun. We also picked up a couple of souvenirs and Christmas presents while there. After this we headed to the distillery district, which is the old part of town, and to our surprise (shows how much research we had done) there was a Christmas market on. So we wondered that for a while. Next we headed over to Kensington Market where Monique found the amazing mighty ducks ice hockey jersey and I picked up my secret Santa present for the secret Santa we had set up with residence friends.  At this point there were only two things left on the day's to do list; eat in Little Italy and visit the Bay Christmas videos.  Everyone was hungry so off we went to Little Italy and found a cafe/bar type place to eat at. Then right into the heart of downtown to the Bay videos, which were pretty cool and a sweet classic story. By this time we were all exhausted so we headed back to campus to rest up for the next day, for some ready to head out for more exploring and for the rest so as to get a lot of study done.   

Cavalcade of Lights

Straight after getting our Christmas photo taken we all headed into downtown for another Toronto Christmas must. The Cavalcade of Lights. This is a huge evening for the city, held in Nathan Phillips square they set up stage for live music acts and then there is a fantastic fireworks display (video of which can be found on my facebook). Also they have an outdoor skating rink for which you can either just bring your own skates and hope on and off, or you hire skates at $10 for 2 hours. Which is what Monique, Andrew and I did while listening to the music and watching the fireworks. It took a while to get into the skating since I haven't done it for a couple of years but it was a laugh.  The best bit though had to be right at the beginning when I was still not quite into the skating so looking quite ridiculous all dressed up from the photo barely making it round the rink, when this young girl skated pass me and said "you're pretty". I had a huge smile plastered on my face after that, even when I kept almost falling over. I would recommend the Cavalcade of Lights to anyone in the vicinity at the right time, especially a Brit who may have been upset about the lack of fireworks on Nov 5th.  

Say Rudolph!

One of the things that has been really great about my time so far in Canada has been the people who I've been sharing the experience with. My main group of friends is comprised mainly of exchange students with the odd Canadian thrown in. Living in residence means you all get really close really quickly because you're eating, sleeping (in the same building) and studying together pretty much constantly. Thus, at some point in the semester, we all stopped seeing ourselves as just friends and started viewing ourselves as more of a family, a dysfunctional messed up family but a family nonetheless. This meant that with Christmas fast approaching, and my fellow exchange students time in Canada coming to an end (they are all semester students) we wanted to  get something to remember our little family by and at the same time celebrate Christmas. Thus the idea to have the family Christmas photo was born. We planned ahead to make sure we were all free, and then found a mall close to us that was doing Christmas Santa Photos at that time. On the day we spent the afternoon getting ready, putting our Sunday best on so to speak and then headed to Yorkdale on mass. We queued up behind the young children 'patiently' (some more than others) waiting our turn. Then it was our turn and the elves organised us around Santa and then we had our photos taken, we got several done as we were just sharing the cost of one CD that we could pass around and download the pictures from. Here are a couple:

From the back left to right: Andrew, Andrew, Jessie,
                                                         Me,                            Monique,
                                                          Melinda, Lauren, Santa, Tanya 

Santa Claus is coming to Town!

Every year Toronto has a Christmas Parade and since this year I was in the vicinity I decided to go and check it out. If I'm to be honest, I was a little disappointed with the actual Parade. I thought it would be really festive and Christmassy but instead it was overly commercialised with the majority of the Parade having very little to do with Christmas. That's not to say I didn't have fun. In fact I had a great time it just wasn't really because of an amazing Parade. What was amazing was being out in the city with friends and having a break from studying, oh and getting our photo taken with an actual Mountie!! The best thing though was before the Parade (it was running very late do there was a lot of, before the Parade) when we sitting on the curb of the road guarding our great spot from which to view the Parade and watching all the children get excited about the parade. Now, normally when things are running late children get tired of waiting and become fidgety and start complaining. But not here. No here they were running around in the street playing games with each other. Many of the children had brought  chalk and were drawing and writing in the road. We saw many a wish list for Santa to read as he passed. It got the point where Tanya and I couldn't take it anymore, as children still at heart we wanted to draw on the road in chalk so we asked a girl if we could borrow her chalk (she kindly allowed us to) and drew our own message on a street in downtown Toronto.

Here are a selection on photos from the Parade:   

When In Canada!

Obviously it wouldn't be a trip to Canada if there wasn't some ice hockey involved. So one Friday (it may have been a Thursday) not to long ago we headed out to support York's varsity team in their game against Brock. It was a lot of fun. Obviously it wasn't as intense as a professional game would be but it was a lot of fun to watch. There were a couple of fights and one guy had to be escorted off the ice after he'd been slammed into.

The best bit though had to be the half time game. At York the half time game is always played by members of the audience and is a challenge of sorts. For the Ice Hockey game Lauren (my fellow exchange student from Keele) and I agreed to take part in the challenge. What we had to do was line up 10 pucks and see how many we could shoot into the goal, whoever got the most in won. Out of the first 10 both Lauren and I got three in to the goal so we went to sudden death and the first to get on in won. Sadly Lauren got one into the goal before me so she won. But it was ok because we both got a prize. Our prize was a pair of York Lion Boxers. We have both used them as pj bottoms. Overall the game was a lot of fun, and it was great to spend time with my friends who also went to watch, even if York did lose.

One Sunday afternoon of procrastination

A little while ago Jessie and Andrew went away for the weekend to Boston (mine an Monique's amazing stories made them jealous :P ). I had a friend coming for the night on Friday and Andrew kindly lent my his bedding  but in doing so left us with his key for the weekend. After having used the key to retrieve the bedding I gave the key to Monique (his neighbour) for her to look after until his return. I thought nothing more of it till Sunday morning when Monique  was telling me that she had decided late Saturday night that we couldn't let this opportunity escape us. I agreed (it was do something to Andrew's room or spend the day studying) so we got to brainstorming what to do. The plan we arrived at? We were going to cover his entire room in newspaper. And that is what we spent the next nine or so hours doing with lunch and dinner breaks. If I say so myself it turned out pretty amazing. In the surprised Andrew agreed it looked good and was a great idea.  Here are some of the pictures of what it ended up looking like after we were done.

Just another Sunday afternoon of procrastination when on exchange :)

An excuse to do fancy dress

I'm not a big one for halloween. We didn't celebrate it in anyway when I was a child and as I grew older I felt no need to dress up in various scary/ scant costumes and go party on a particular day of the year. In fact I am a huge fan of fancy dress just not so agreeable to the idea of Halloween. However this year I feel like I may have made up for a lifetimes worth of Halloween partying. Which is exactly what all my Aussie friends wanted (they don't do Halloween at all over there) so I guess we can say it was a success. How we made up lost time was by making the decision to attend three different Halloween parties over the course of 5 day's. Thursday we attended a local club which has a free shuttle to and from our uni. I was dressed as a bat:

We took Friday to recover and then Saturday night went out again. This time to an amazing pub in downtown Toronto which consists of 2 old house each four stories. Thus, this pub has many a room and many a bar. For this night I was a fairy:

After taking Sunday to rest up once more and after a day of classes on Monday we were once again ready to head out to party. This time it was actual Halloween and so we headed back into downtown Toronto to a club called Cobra. This time I was an Angel:

But the best costume of the night has to go to Jesse, guess how long that took to do?

Overall it was a fun time, I partied with friends and got to dress up. Oh, and the porters station and security guard for our building even had bowls of 'candy' for us as we went past so it was like mini trick or treating. 

I could have sworn my syllabus said travelling week!

So, in the middle of October York University gave all us students (and the professors to I suppose) a week off. Why you ask, well York officially  calls it co-curricular week where students are supposed to sign up to clubs, the professors call it reading week and they say we are supposed to get a head start on all our reading and assignments that will pile up from when we start classes again, and to exchange students it's considered a week to go travelling.

Thus since the beginning of term discussions had been taking place about where we were going to go and what we were going to do. After much discussion and an awful lot of internet searching Monique and I set our hearts on Philadelphia, Boston and Salem. Then the heard part started: booking it! When we had originally started our search we could get cheap hostel accommodation in both Philly and Boston (Salem is but a train away from Boston and we were planning a day trip). However, by the time we got around to actually booking the places this wasn't the case. In Philly we ended up in a cheap travel lodge which considering they gave us breakfast every morning was a great deal and in a hostel outside of the city in Boston. For awhile we thought we may be able to stay in Salem for a few days and travel to Boston from there if we couldn't find anything closer for a good price in Boston. Then the reality that it was only a couple of weeks before Halloween hit and thus Salem had absolutely no accommodation, anywhere, let alone cheap, it was just lucky that we found the hostel when we did, otherwise I fear Monique might have had a minor temper tantrum as she had definitely set her heart on seeing both Boston and Salem.

For travel we booked the good ole megabus from Toronto to Philadelphia, and Philadelphia to Boston. Sadly, although turns out not so (their wifi was much better!) we had to use the much more expensive greyhound buses to get us back from Boston to Toronto again. I would not recommend undertaking a 10+ hour bus trip without serious thought. If you are easily annoyed by other people, then don't do it! Or if faulty wifi grates on your nerves, it's probably not for you and if you find it difficult to sleep on a bus at the very least be prepared to be sleep deprived at new levels. Monique and I came extremely close  to thinking horrible thoughts about the adorable baby in front of us who wouldn't stop crying unless I was looking at it, which when trying to read my comparative foreign policy book was not what I needed.  Luckily we can both cope without wifi for small times when we have other things to amuse us, and we are both very adept at coping with little to no sleep (see previous posts :P ).

Philadelphia:

We had three days in Philadelphia.

Day one:

Saw us going backwards and forwards like mad women. First we went to the area where all the independence sites are located and booked our time slot for the independence hall tour. Then, we went to the other side of the city to visit the Eastern State penitentiary. It was a really interesting experience as we learnt all about how the prisoners were kept in isolation for their entire  sentence and the idea was that this would give them time to think on what they had done and repent of it to God. In there cells they even had a slit in the ceiling which allowed a slither of light into the room and was called the eye of God. Later this model of prison was dropped and replaced and then the prison became a much more diverse place. Other cool things from the prison where Al Capone's cell and (well I don't know if you can call this cool) death row. After the prison we went back to the independence area and had our tour of independence hall and learnt all about the signing of the declaration of independence and the swearing in of several presidents. We also went to visit the tomb of the unknown solider. After having a quick rest back at the travel lodge we had dinner in china town before heading back to the prison for the haunted house they put on around Halloween. It was student night so the queue was huge but we finally got in and it was scary! Both Monique and I screamed quite a lot. After this we headed back to the Travelodge to get some sleep  ready for the next day's adventures.

Day Two:

We set of for the west side of the city. We were heading towards the Rocky steps and a few other sites in that direct. On the way we passed some lovely architecture , and a fountain. We reached the Rocky steps and did the obligatory run, taking turns to video it for each other. Then we went behind the museum (for which the Rocky Steps exist) and there are the water works and a lot of statues and a garden area. Photos of which can all be seen in exhaustive detail on facebook. We then walked all the way back to the other side (East) of town and went to the graveyard where Benjamin Franklin is buried. We chilled in the park at the independence area for a bit before heading south to south street which is the really artsy area of the city.  This is where we found the diner we ended back at for dinner that evening. It was a really cool place, so much so that we ended the night dancing in the aisles.

Day Three:

For our final day in the city we started with a walk over the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. We put the music from Monique's iPhone on and partied our way across with many stops for photos. We had planned to get off on the other side but after some friendly advice from a passer by and then having confirmed the safety of getting off with a policeman we decided not to and instead once we reached the end we just turned back and walked straight back the way we had came.  After this we went to check out the town hall, which due to the occupy protesters was incredibly busy. What was probably cooler that the town hall (which, and yes i know I'm a nerd, was pretty cool) was the court yard of an office just across from it.  Where a bunch of large sized games pieces had been set up. You could sit in the monopoly barrel, climb a top a rook from chess, lean against a giant domino. We got some pretty great pictures of these.  By now we had done most of the things on our list to do except two main things: eat philli in philli and get a philly cheese steak. So we headed to a store and bought some crackers and Philadelphia and then went to sit once more in the park and eat. We chilled for a bit longer then went to get our philli cheese steaks. I am sad to say both of us we a little ( a lot) disappointed. So as not to be rude let's just say they weren't are thing. After this we went back to the diner of the previous night where we met up with some other friends who had spent the day in Philly on there way between New York and Washington.  After some more dancing in the aisles  and making friends with our waiter and the boss we headed out once more this time to get our bags from the Travelodge and head to the bus station to get our bus to Boston.

Boston:

Day one:

We arrived early in the morning and got a train and then a bus towards the outskirts of the city where our hostel was. After checking in we quietly as possible  entered the shared dorm we were in and sorted out our stuff so as to have showers before setting out for the day. By the time we had done that the other girls in our room had awoken and we decided to all hang out together for the day. We got the free shuttle to the train station from there we headed to the Common.  After a quick breakfast stop we picked up the freedom trail heading towards Bunker Hill where there is a monument  similar to the one in Washington.  There we climbed the 294 steps to the top of the monument to get amazing views of the city.  Then we went to the museum that it was attached to and learnt all about the fight that had happened there during the revolution. After finishing up there we went and checked out an old navy ship, which was a lot of fun as we got to walk around on it while hearing all about its history. Then we went to Quincy market to grab some food before heading over to check out MIT and then Harvard. We finished our day with hot chocolate in the cutest chocolate shop in the city (you could smell the chocolate a mile away it was that rich).

Day Two:

We were still hanging out with one of our new friends (Sophie) from the hostel the other had had to leave for home. So, Monique, Sophie and I headed into the city to go to the Aquarium where we spent several hours stroking sting rays, watching penguins and trying to spot giant turtles amongst many other things. Next we headed over to the oldest baseball park in the US, Fenway. There we had a great tour of the stadium learning lots about the stadium and baseball. After we walked some more of the freedom trail before heading to little Italy for dinner.  After this we went to the gardens in the common where we walked around and talked for an hour or two.

Salem

On our third day in Boston we took a train out of the city and into Salem (yes the witch trials Salem). It was a great day to visit this creepy town as it was incredibly foggy. It was such a beautiful city we spent most of the day walking around the old streets and grave yards. We also went to the witch trial memorial. Other things we did include dressing up like seamen at a museum, walking out to a light house and having a brilliant meal at the red roof inn. The last thing we did in Salem was a night time ghost tour which was a laugh. Despite the fact that it had rained all afternoon and we had ruined our shoes both Monique and I had a great time.  After heading back to Boston we had one final night in the hostel before we headed back to Toronto the next morning.

Overall the travels were a lot of fun and worth every penny spent and every minute not studying.    

Tourist Time

This post picks up directly where the last left of. The morning of the 1st of October. Andrew, Lauren, Monique and I are queuing to get on buses to head off to Niagara after staying up all night watching the AFL grand final.

Sadly we were split up onto different buses, Andrew and I on our own and Lauren and Monique together. Now the bus would have been a great place to get a couple of hours rest and I believe my fellow sleepy friends did manage at least small naps. I on the other hand had been placed on what was obviously the not so sleepy bus. This meant that instead of pleasant dreams of various things I was subjected to the lovely (I'm being polite here as the people might read this, originally I was going to call it the dying cat bus :P ) singing of about 3 or 4 girls who seemed to be having a who can go higher and louder contest. Eventually, we arrived at the hotel in Niagara which was to be our home for the night. We were given our keys and went to drop our bags in the room.

Later we meet up with the rest of MAC as this was a MAC trip, in the lobby and walked together to the first view point of the falls. They were amazing. Here we did the shuffle, a popular dance move currently, for a segment in the lipdub that York is producing. After this everyone was allowed to do whatever they wanted until we had to be on the bus again at 7pm the next day. Me and my three fellow tourists decided to walk along the wall that surrounds the Canadian side of the falls so ass to get it from as many views as possible the further along you got the more amazing they became. There is many a picture on facebook for you to admire but here are one or two for now:

 This one is currently the back drop on my laptop.

After this, and this did take a while we headed back into Niagara town where there were various things we could amuse ourselves with. We had been give fun passes  as part of the MAC deal and we spent the next few hours or so doing things from this which included a Ferris wheel type thing with a great view of the falls, a couple of rides, a scary haunted house type thing and a wax museum which was just a little bit awful but this did just add to it in a way.

That night it had been arranged that those of us over 19 (the alcohol age in Ontario) would be able to get into a local club for just the small fee of $5. Thus, we got dressed up and started the party in the rooms. Not long before we were planning to head out Monique and I remembered that the falls get light up at night and thus took a trip back down to them to get some more pictures this time of the water gushing in various colours. Upon our return we headed to the club. A few hours or so we returned and took to rooms to sit and chat with other people on the trip. I made several new friends that night and had a great laugh with them all :D.  It did mean though that I didn't exactly get much sleep, a few hours, before I was up and ready for another day of being a tourist. Monique and I had heard of an Adventure Pass that got you into 4 major Niagara falls attractions for one fee which was better than paying for them all separately. We started our day with a voyage on the maid in the mist. A boat which takes you to the bottom of the falls. It was almost indescribable. Crazy and awesome and so beautiful and powerful. I can't remember what order we did the next two in but they were the Journey Behind the Falls where you can go and stand next to the falls and go in tunnels a little ways behind then and see the water gushing down. The second was Niagara's Fury, an educational, 4D (?) experience in which you learn all about the creation of the falls with a young beaver. It's a lot of fun as you stand on a platform with a screen all around you and they make it snow and rain and the earth move. Our final stop from the adventure pass was the white rapids walk. It is a walkway that follows along the rapids that run further down the river of the Niagara falls. It was a really pretty route and I got some pretty cool pictures which I am having fun editing and messing about with when I get the chance.

We still had a little time to kill after this so Monique and I headed to the arcade to use the free tokens we got with our fun passes. We used them to play ticket games. We our now both the proud owners of a juggling ball with the Canadian emblem (a maple leaf) on it, as well as a few other bits and bobs.  Sadly after this it was time to return to the hotel grab our bags and board the buses. Once again on the bus an exhausted Jo tried to sleep but not even a weekend in Niagara would wear my bus companions out and once again sleep alluded me. Finally we arrived back at Tatham hall about 9 and all collapsed in our beds, finally finished being tourists and ready for bed. 

An all nighter, and no it wasn't for studying!

On Friday the 30th of September it was the grand final of the AFL (Australian football league). Due to the fact that I have become friends with many an Aussie here in Canada I was dragged along to a sports bar in downtown Toronto to watch the game. Now normally this wouldn't be worth a blog by itself but as is evident from the title, the game was not being shown at a civil hour. Due to the time difference between Australia and Canada, a game that started at 2 in the afternoon in Australia didn't start till midnight here in Canada. Thus having  arrived at the bar at about 9pm, we needed good seats, the Aussies take their footy very seriously! We waited around for 3 hours for the game to start, killing the time with good conversations, arcade basketball games and of course a round or to of drinks. The game itself, considering I am not really a sports fan, was pretty interesting to watch. If I had to describe it I would say it is almost a cross between our football and rugby. We had a couple of major supporters of the teams actually in the final but mostly the Aussies picked a team which their own teams disliked the least and cheered  those on. I followed Monique's example, and supported Geelong in their fight against Collingwood. This turned out to be the right decision, not only because they won, but also because I later found out that when my grandparents and uncle lived in Australia they had supported the same team as Monique does now, the Hawks!

The game finished about 4 am and it took us until about half 5 to get back to residence at York having taken a while to exit the bar and get everyone into either a bus or taxi. At this point you are probably wondering why we didn't just collapse in our beds, yes not going have loads of sleep but we could avoid the dreaded all nighter. Well, that couldn't happen because at 9am we needed to be down in the lobby ready to get on buses to go to Niagara. Now you're thinking well you could still get about 3 hours sleep get up get ready and go. Well no you see none of us had packed and so sleepy and a few rounds later none of us were in a state to pack alone and not forget something. Thus Lauren, Monique and myself spent the next few hours helping each other to pack our stuff for Niagara and then we finally got ready and headed down stairs to grab coffee and join the cue for the buses. Creating an all nighter that shall not be forgotten any time soon.

Classes, reading and mid-terms: what are they?

I feel like apologising for the lateness of these posts will become a habit of mine. I do apologise for how long this has taken but I expect to be posting several in quick succession which will catch you all up on what I've been doing and maybe go a little ways as to explain what exactly I've been so busy doing that I haven't posted.

Classes:

Classes here are very different from those I experience last year at Keele. Here I am taking four classes (first difference, they call them classes not modules) and instead of being an hour lecture and an hour tutorial for each like I'm used to, instead I have a 3 hour seminar for each. Basically, a seminar is like a cross between a lecture and a tutorial. The professor, there's a another difference: they are all professors and TA's here, stands at the front and lectures but then every so often he'll stop and it will go into tutorial mode and we the students will be asked various questions linking to the readings and such. All my classes, despite the 3 hour mind bogalingness are incredibly interesting and challenging on different levels.

Readings:

I never knew books could cost so much money. I know appreciate Keele's use of many an online journal so much more than I did before. Here they still love their books and something called a course kit. A course kit is a bunch of articles from different source all put together for our reading pleasure. This would all be ok if it didn't cost so much more than it does in the UK. Also, the amount of reading they do here for most subjects is about double that of what I had last year, even for required readings. All I can say is it's a good thing I love to read!

Mid-terms:

These are things we have vaguely heard about in popular culture but had never had the joy of experience. I was lucky enough not to have any mid-terms just an essay due in but many of my friends have been hit with weeks of studying for exams based on a few weeks of material. It just seems incredibly odd to all of us to be tested on part of the course now and then the rest in a few more weeks. Good news though, most people are coming out of them happy and pleased with their performance. Now, everyone is waiting to get their marks back and just hoping that marking isn't incredibly harsh here. These will be everyone's first assessments so we just don't know what to expect.

As exchange students we have the very difficult job of fitting these things in around experiencing all that this other country and culture has to offer. So far so good, we have managed to attend class, read and sit exams/write papers while have a blast. Here's hoping we keep it up! 

MAC, MAC, MAC, MAC!!!!!

Hello once again,

I apologise for how long thins has taken for me to do but perhaps the next few blogs will help you understand just how busy life has been here.

As promised this is the FROSH blog. Frosh is York's version of Freshers week, but except for being the first week of university it's pretty different. You partake in frosh with your college and events run pretty much all day every day. Some with other colleges some not. Here's the schedule for Mclaughlin College (also know as mac):

So here I was trying to upload a picture of the schedule but it didn't like it so here's the link instead, http://macfrosh2011.com/files/Schedule.pdf

Some things I didn't do because I was chilling with friends I'd already made, or was at walmart and ikea getting some of the other exchange people kitted out with sheets ect.

One thing I did partake in was the cheering. Due to the college system here there is a bit of a rivalry between all the colleges. One of the ways they deal with this is each of the colleges learns a set of cheers which we do to each other when we meet up during frosh. Or if you're mac, that you spend pretty much all day everyday doing whether there are other colleges about or not. I would write them all down here but some of them ( well actually most) are not very PG and I'm not sure who is reading this so I will just put a couple of the cleaner ones up and if you want to know the rest ask me when you see me :) 

Cheer One (used when walking to an event) : Bosses (Leaders) "Onwards Forwards!"

                                                                     Frosh : "MAC ORANGE SOILDERS"

Honestly I'm struggling to think of a another clean one :S or at least clean and innuendo free. 

One of the really cool things during frosh was the York Lions Football Game. All the mascots for the colleges and then the uni came out and we had the cheers going. Despite the horrible defeat of our uni the atmosphere made it a really wonderful day. That and the fabulous weather that we had for pretty much all of frosh.

The day after the football was another fantastic day! Despite the exchange meeting I had to attend in the morning. Why was this day so great you ask?!? Well, it was the day I started hanging out with Monique another exchange student, but from Australia rather than England. It was also the day I went into Down town Toronto and to a blue jays game. Here are some pictures of these things:

For the three day's after this (Wednesday-Friday) we had classes as well as frosh so the day time was spent in learning all about our course vis introductory lectures while we had evening activities and the almost compulsory night time parties. 

Saturday the major fun started up again with a trip to the beach! But the ocean is so far away from Toronto, how does this work??? Well they have Lake beaches!!! It was so much fun. Perfect weather too.

I haven't uploaded the photo's of the outside yet but the above photo is from the inside of an actual Yello school bus!!!!!! (The foreigners all got very excited)

So as if a day at the beach wasn't enough for one weekend, for the next and final :( , day of frosh they took us  (on yellow buses again!!!!) to Canada's Wonderland. Which for those not in the know is a theme park :D .

This is Funnel cake. A Canadian treat! Needless to say it's as big and as unhealthy as it looks so we shared :)

As well as the normal rides wonderland has something which is called extreme sky flying. Basically you're in a harness and strapped to a bungee cord. You're winched up to, well let's just say it was high, and then dropped. Monique, Andrew (Canadian Andrew, there's an Aussie one too) and I decided we wanted to pay the small extra fee to partake in this. It was a lot of fun! After we got over the height thing :P ! There is a video of us doing this but once again it's not entirely PG but I will be posting it on Facebook at some point when I get it from my friend who took it, so if you want to see it keep an eye out there. 

So in a nutshell, that was frosh. It was an amazing time of fun and friends. Most of which and who I haven't managed to put down here as if I had then I'd be sitting at my laptop for hours and quite frankly I have too much work needing to be done to do that (more on that next time).

So for now, with all the college pride possible: MAC, MAC, MAC, MAC!!!!

Hello Canada!

As you might have guessed from the title of this blog I am now in Canada! Yay! To achieve (yes I do realise that it wasn't particularly an achievement but I like the word so there :P!) this I had to go on a plane for 8 hours. The prospect of this was not an overly enjoyable one, I had a premium economy seat so was look at a good seat and good meal. However, it seems that God was looking out for me as I got upgraded to business class! So had a great seat, great food, brilliant service. This all mean that a flight that could have dragged on, flowed by with relative ease as I was served champagne and wine as I watched two films ate my lovely lunch and then had an (probably alcohol induced) nap. I also managed to spend some time doing things from the goody bag that my mum packed me (thank you!) and read the letters given to me by some friends (thanks)!

Upon arrival I went through customs with relative ease, although needed to collect my study permit did require me going into a separate room for a while (under 10mins :D). I then proceed to baggage reclaim, oh the joys! My baggage took ages to come out and around which for awhile left me praying it hadn't gone somewhere else. It was all ok though and it eventually arrived. Lauren (a fellow study abroader) then went through to the terminal where we meet up with Steph who had been on another flight which had landed a little while before us and we proceeded to get a taxi to the university of York.

There was a little but of um-ing and arr-ing when we arrived at the uni as it wasn't clear where we were meant to go but then we found some very helpful people who help us know exactly what we had to do to get our keys ect. My room is all right. Nothing like hollycross but it's good. lots of storage and my pre-ordered linens where ready and waiting with a complementary gingerbread bear that had sleep tight iced onto his belly. I didn't unpack anything right away though as we had a house meeting and then we went to get frosh packs (like freshers and you'll here about it in the next post) and since then have been busy participating in all things frosh.

This one is probably quite boring, I promise the next one about Frosh will be a lot better as lots of crazy things have been going on. But for now: Hello Canada!

All packed up with somewhere to go.

I was unsure if I'd get the chance to do another post pre-departure but I have some time so have decided to tell you all about the experience of packing for an 8 month trip and the other things I've been up to.

Yesterday (also known as 2 days to go) I had to face the task of packing everything I would need/want for the next 8 months into two suitcases which couldn't exceed 23kg in weight each. I happily inform you that with a lot of help from my wonderful mother and some compromises on my part (some very beloved things are being left behind) it is possible. I just hope I don't get to Canada and suddenly remember that one thing I just couldn't possible live without. 

Another exciting thing that happened yesterday is my wonderful sister used part of her lunch break to go and get the Cath Kidston bag I wanted but was sold out everywhere I had attempted to get one from. Thus I am now the happy owner of a new spotty oil cloth saddle bag which I will be using to hold all my important study tools while I'm abroad. 

Less exciting, but still very much part of the process, things that have happened are the goodbyes (or see you in 8 months). I'd done the majority of these already, but over the last couple of days I've added several more friends and grandparents to the list. Only the hardest remain, the family and the boyfriend. 

Despite this slightly sad side to things I'm still so incredibly excited for what tomorrow and beyond holds. As I said to a fellow study abroader earlier today: while we may be saying goodbyes today, think of all the hellos that start with tomorrow. 

I leave you with that thought, as I'm all packed up with somewhere to go, speak to you when I get there.

Hello, yet farewell!

Presuming that everyone who is reading this is one of my friends whom I have told about this then you will already know that I will be spending the next 8 months in Toronto, Canada. The idea of this blog is to keep all my lovely friends and family up to date on what I'm getting up to across the Atlantic. If you don't know me then well, get ready to read a lot of seemingly mindless drivel about a study abroad students life.

Setting up this blog was one of the many things on my pre-departure to-do list. It is also one of the many things that have been crossed off today. In fact, so much has been crossed off today that really only a few things remain. The most notable and most important being to pack. Now those of you who know exactly when I go may at this point have started panicking on my behalf. Thank you for your concern but I assure you 2 days is plenty of time to pack 8 months worth of stuff into two suitcase. Honest! At least I hope it is as that is what is going to have to happen possible or not.

I don't want to go on too long as this is merely and introductory post and most likely boring most of you to sleep already. The real blogging will start once I arrive. So all I really want to say for now is: Hello and welcome to my blog. Yet, farewell, England and it's lovely people, see you in April.