One month has passed since I arrived at the Western University Canada. It’s been a hectic month with copious events, many new friends and very irregular sleeping patterns. I’ll try to briefly overview what has taken place here during September and answer a few of the questions I had before I arrived.
Pre-Arrival
Before I flew out to Canada I spent a lot of time sending and receiving emails trying to organise and plan this semester abroad. I had decided to live in university residence as I decided it would be the easiest way to meet new people and get the full on-campus experience. Although much more expensive, I felt it was easier to organise staying in halls than finding a house to rent for a semester. I also decided to not to stay in the upper-year (non-first year) residence, mainly because it was slightly more expensive there.
I was fretting over the correct visa to get to enter Canada but discovered online that as a student for less than 6 months I didn’t require a visa at all. However, you can purchase an electronic travel authorisation (eTA) for $7 as an updated version of a tourist visa. I bought an eTA just to make sure I could definitely get into the country.
Also, before I arrived I purchased the university residence meal-plan for food in residence – it isn’t that bad for cafeteria food – as well as purchasing the university medical insurance, wifi and bed linens. Overall, it was pretty expensive, but it means that once you’re here there aren’t too many costs. Bed linens showed up late so I would recommend just buying them once you get here, if you’re a prospective Western student.
Arrival
It is recommended that you fly into Toronto Pearson airport and then travel either by plane, train or bus to London, Ontario (2 hours south-west of Toronto) where Western University is situated. I elected for the cheaper bus, which cost about $50 as paying for residence upfront had me buried deep in my overdraft already.
Upon arrival I immediately noticed the heat and humidity followed closely by the great architecture of the university campus. Aesthetically, the campus is delightful. As international students arrive a couple of days before the rest of the students, there was very little going on.
Orientation Week
The remaining 34 first year students to move into our floor moved in a few days after me at the beginning of Orientation Week. After spending a few days with only international students, mainly from Australia and other Brits, it was great to meet some Canadians. Making friends here was really easy because, as an international student, they all find you interesting and love to imitate the British accent, even if they don’t quite get my dry, sarcastic British humour. It wasn’t weird that I’m older than the first years (as young as 17 due to the way they organise school year here) and it was really easy to settle in.
O-week essentially involved crazy levels of hype followed by periods of serious reflection about how we all need to look after each other at university. It was a very different week to freshers’ week in England, not least due to the emphasis on a ‘dry’ week due to the drinking age here being 19. There were organised activities during the day and a few days involved being woken up at 7am by our sophs. We spent hours during the week learning chants and cheers about why our residence was better than the others, or competing to be the loudest faculty. What was interesting was how engaged students would be to rather serious and deeps organised presentations on sexual consent, getting involved in charity and looking out for each other immediately after hours of getting energised and hyped.
Overall, it was a really enjoyable week with concerts, ‘football’ matches and raising money for charity and whilst staying relatively dry…a very different experience to England but thoroughly entertaining.
Classes
Lectures, or classes as they’re called here, have been good so far. There were a plethora of classes to choose from and the content of mine have been interesting. Two of my three professors aren’t the most entertaining people in world but the third is brilliantly passionate about his subject. However, from talking to most people it seems lecturers here are generally very passionate and that I’m unlucky to get two less interesting ones. Typically though classes are very interactive here and students will readily get involved and answer questions, whereas people seem to be a lot more reserved in England. Students at home are quite happy to sit in awkward silence rather than answer an easy question… or so I’ve observed.
Overall
This first month at Western has been brilliant. I’ve made friends from all over the world, am getting a great education at one of the top schools in Canada (students here averaged around 90% coming out of high school) whilst being at the only school in Canada to be ranked in the top 10 party schools worldwide – as I am constantly reminded by students here. Western students are incredibly proud to be here, always sporting university emblazoned clothing and it’s great to be around students with such pride. I am gradually adjusting to Canadian culture, picking up slang and being constantly entertained as they reaffirm cultural stereotypes of over-politeness and regularly saying ‘eh?’
I’m so glad I came out for this semester but am already wishing I had the whole year at Western. There’s so much more I could write about (facilities, exploring the city, food) but I’ll keep to the areas I had questions about before I came.
Check out the following link for photos
https://instagram.com/d_haywood/