Hello, I’m Harry/(Henry), I’m a 3rd year Economics and Accounting student and I am currently on my semester abroad to Guelph in Canada. Guelph is about an hour’s drive from Toronto, and is a university town. I have been out for about a month now and I am just about used to the differences now so I thought I would write about what I have been up to so far.
First things first, it took a long day of travelling to get here. I had assumed that this was the case, but after all the joyful delays it was took around 20 hours to get here from home. It is always impressive to see how much travelling takes out of you and I can say that I was pretty exhuasted after that day.
Coming from the UK, one of the first things I noticed was the space. Canada is a big country, and you can tell this as soon as you start driving. Just the size of the cars and trucks takes a bit of getting used compared to the slightly cramped nature of the UK. The Uni campus itself also fells pretty big and it took a few times getting lost to understand where everything else is. Living in the Residence that I do, I am very lucky to be just minutes away from the universities Arboretum, which is much bigger than expected. Definitely a great place to get lost.
The University here is pretty well set up to orientate the internationals, both through the first couple of days, and by having a link program, which gives you contact to a current Canadian student. However, there’s only so much you can learn from talks. The best way that you can learn how to things work in somewhere that you don’t know is just by doing. I spent most of the first couple of days getting lost, and staring at a map and despite feeling like a bit of an idiot at the time, it gives a much better idea of where everything is rather than just following someone around.
Having done our orientation, we then moved onto ‘o-week’, which is the equivalent of freshers week, although a bit more organised. Multiple events were held over this week, from music concerts to arts and crafts, (something which I did not excel at). One of the biggest events of this week was the Pep rally. This is the most un-British thing that you are likely to see, however, once you get over the British awkwardness and go for it, it becomes rather fun. It is simply put, an organised dance off on the American football pitch (just called football) between all the halls. The photo should give you some idea of what it was like.
Having done o-week, we started our classes, something that not many people were looking forward to. However, the teaching is good and engaging, something that home struggles with sometimes. But having said that, they were still classes and most people are more interested in exploring and the like.
The second week was time to explore further afield and head to Toronto. Having only really been to European cities, I was excited to see what Toronto had to offer. It had quite of special feeling of being a big city but also being very relaxed. The view of the high rise skyline, topped by the famous CN tower was really something. Again, hopefully the photos give a better idea of what it was really likely.
The last ‘big event’ before writing this was Homecoming, the day when the Alumi return and a big game of football is played (read big party). The highlight of this day for me was the arrival of the match ball. It was parachuted in by an ex-paratrooper. Hugely over the top but also something we should definitely do more of in the UK.
The Canadian weather has been very unexpected to say the least. We have been in a heatwave for the last week and a half with temperatures nudging 33 and nearing 40 with the humidity. Not what you expect when you think of the Canadian weather, and it can be said that quite a few of the Brits out here are not prepared for these kind of conditions. We came braved for snow, rather than to be sun creaming up before leaving the house in the morning.
The final activity worth writing about before I wrote this was the fulfillment of a classic Canadian sport, Canoeing. On an already mentioned unseasonably hot Sunday, we went down to downtown Guelph and hired out some canoes and set about cruising the Speed river. I have to wonder if anyone has ever been canoeing in a Hull city shirt, but as you can see from the photo, it was very nice.
Next on my list of things to do is a trip to Niagara falls, a 4 day canoeing trip to Killarney Provincial Park and of course, classes and even some mid terms to look forward to.
Instagram: @harrygriffiths4