How has it already been a week?Ā I mean, seriously?????
Hi! My name is Ginte, and I am a 3rd year Economics & Finance student (Although I count as a Business student here in Guelph, with a Finance Major). I’ve been accepted on a term abroad to Guelph, Canada. For those who don’t know where Guelph is (and I can’t blame you), it’s around Ā Ā Ā an hours’ drive to South-West from Toronto, a tiny town (In Canadian terms, I’ll come to that later) with around 100 thousand inhabitants.
Lucky for us, who go to Canada for less than six months, I barely had to deal with any paperwork. We don’t need any visas, all we have to do is fill an online application for an eTA (electronic Travel Authorisation), pay $7, and we can board the plane!
My journey began on September 1st, withĀ a 5 hour delay to our flight. University of Guelph had already created a Facebook page for International and Exchange students, where I found out that there were more of us on the very same plane, going to UOGuelph. I have teamed up with a few other students from Birmingham, and we took off! The flight was a straight 8 hour journey to Toronto, with plenty of snacks and drinks provided. Sadly, due to the flight delay, we missed the shuttle bus that the university had provided, and we had to catch a cab (Always good to have emergency money on yourself!). We arrived to our hallsĀ at around 10pm, where we got greeted, and were given our room keys. Most of exchange students stay at the university provided accommodation, and judging from our fellow internationals’ experience, where they would spend lots of money on hostels while looking for a place, staying in halls is a good choice, although could be a bit more costly (~$4500 per term).Ā I liveĀ in East Village Townhouses, which have a capacity of 4-5 people. The houses are massive, and have air con provided (Which is necessary in this heat!), the rooms are singles, but massive, and the windows have a mosquito net (another crucial detail).
Internationals get to move in a week before the Canadians do, to give us that extra bit of time to get our heads around the campus without being distracted by another 20 thousand faces. They have a great programme set up for exchange students, where they provide free breakfast, barbecues, and dinner; they take you on shopping trips for essentials, show you around the town, give a few unavoidable powerpoint presentations, and allow you to meet fellow Ā international students. Which is what the first week was about. Ā I thought I would spend most of my time hanging out with Canadians, but it turned out there’s plenty of Aussies, Swedish, Dutch, and many more to party with!
I do have to say, the heat is immense here. I packed my luggage full of snowboarding clothes, hoping I would get to hit the slopes in a month or so, but it has been solid +30C, and I have been loving it! Even when the sun goes down, it’s still around +15-20C, so you can always feel comfortable in shorts! A great treat after such a rainy summer back in the UK!
More about the town and campus:
Although Southampton is twice as big in population, do not expect Guelph to be half the size. Quite the opposite in fact. Canadians have so much space, they spread everything out as far as they can. Getting to the other side of the town takes around 45 minutes on the bus, and trust me, there’s no traffic jams there (another great solution to our everyday problems – much much MUCH wider roads). The downtown itself is absolutely gorgeous, and you will find there’s a lot of limestone churches about. As for the nights out, there’s quite a few clubs you can go to, and when they say that a club is very run down – it’s quite good on English standards. There’s a lot of shops around, and prices seem about the same, and some items are cheaper (electronics, for example. Which is good. Your hairdryer will not work. Your kettle will not work. Your everything apart from phone and laptop will not work), some are way cheaper (Pringles – Ā£0.50 per can), some are probably a bit more expensive (clothes). For those who are into drinks, buying alcohol is cheap. However, Ontario regulates the sale of alcohol really tightly, and you have to go to dedicated places to buy your booze at, and I think there’s only 3 places in Guelph you can do that at. They do have MASSIVE walk in beer refrigerators, so hands up for those who love beer.
The campus, just like the town, is enormous. If you take our lovely Life Sciences building to compare to most of the building on campus…. Well… That’sĀ about the size of all of the buildings on campus. There are lecture halls of up to 700 capacity, they have parks in the middle of campus.
As for those who love sports, you will fit in! They have a massive American football stadium, 3 soccer (sorry, football) fields, 2 swimming pools, baseball field, indoor gym, indoor soccer, indoor basketball courts, tennis courts, a hockey rink, and so much more, that I haven’t had the time to explore yet. Best of all – most of it can be accessed for free if you’re a student here. NO MORE GYM FEES! I, personally, have joined a ”Learn to Skate” course, where I will spend every Monday evening learning to ice skate. I will also join the non-competitive women’s soccer team (they have 3 leagues for most of sports, depending on your ability). They’re also building a second Athletics complex right outside my residence village, which will be finished Autumn 2016, because apparently what they have is not enough! The American football games have free entry with your student ID, and boy they are fun to watch! (Rules are easy to understand, and Canadians are nice enough to explain it to you. In fact, they’re very nice and helpful in general.)
Food:
Guelph is rated #1 for on campus hospitality services across the whole country. And there is a reason why. Apart from the fact that you can have an amazing meal for a medium price, and you have dozens of choices on where to eat (from Starbucks or Subway to some restaurants), you can also buy a meal plan for the term and get a discount, and never have to deal with cash again – as your Student ID works a treat!
Fauna:
You will notice a lot more animals around. On top of the choice of our lovely red and grey squirrels, you can notice black ones running around as well, and they’re nowhere even near as shy as our British ones. The campus seems to have a massive issue with raccoons and skunks, so we are advised to keep our rubbish bins inside until the day of collection, as those vicious creatures have opposable thumbs and love to just make a massive mess wherever they can. I suppose everyone parties in their own way. š
To conclude,
I already love Canada so much, I wish I could finish my degree here and pretty much never come back.
10 days down, 90 to go. Let’s see what else they can offer. š
Oh, they’re also taking us on a Niagara falls trip for $55, so fingers crossed there won’t be any thunderstorms.
Sorry for such a long post, there’s just soooo much to say!