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.