MuffinMaddy

In the UK we wait longer for results lol. It's nice to have results a few days later over here.

Passed my final with a good grade. That's 0.5 credits down :D

I don't really know how I'm holding myself together at the moment.

Nice

Yeah it's quite interesting to read these things. For me, I am just nervous about it because of all the negative things you hear. I don't have many alternatives though, a lot of my friends will have graduated and campus is too expensive for me. We have a friend who'll be back from his year abroad as well but I don't think it's fair to get him to move in with a couple. At the end of the day I wouldn't want to live with a couple either. I basically lived with him last year because we didn't like my house much and I became pretty good friends with his housemates through it. I actually miss it, it was very cosy and we used to play on the Xbox and stuff. On the down side it got really messy. It's just that we like spending the night together and eventually one of us would end up living with the other 'unofficially' anyway, as it's been for the past two years so I figured it might save hassle by just getting a place for final year. I had a bike so it was easier for me to get between our hosues than it was for him to get to my place.

Good question I'm thinking of the same when I go back to the UK for our final year of University

Tbh I've had money worries whilst out here. I was charged by Greyhound for a ticket that didn't go through online and that set me back about $100 and when I asked for it back, they asked me to contact my bank which I did and the bank said they'd get back to me but it's been over a week and I've heard nothing back. It's not nice to lose $100 obviously, but it just seems that a lot of things here don't take debit cards. I only have two debit cards (my Canadian one and my British one that works internationally) - I don't have any credit cards I've paid for a lot of things with my British card but there's a conversion fee as there's a currency difference with every transaction so it adds up. My Canadian card hasn't got much on it so my mum has stepped in and basically let me use her card for anything I need so I've been looking at things to do in Toronto for the break so while I don't want to go crazy, I already have lol. Bought a smaller suitcase suitable for my travels, two greyhound tickets, earphones, paid my phone bill and also a hotel room for my return to Toronto from New York. The reviews for the hotel look awful but that's a problem for another day :D :D I can see myself with an okay amount of money for my travels, but I'll need to be conservative and very strict with myself when I hit the USA. I think I might get a ticket for the Aquarium, CN tower obviously and we may go ice skating and do other typical tourist things. The only day things are actually closed is Christmas so we should be able to get a lot done. I'm actually quite excited, I've never had Christmas away from all my family before. I feel like a bit of a Yuppie (A yuppie is british slang for a young, urban professional) I also have managed to get a job in Canada within my Visa requirements obviously but I feel pretty damn efficient right now :shades: :shades: :shades: :shades: My plans for the next few weeks are to answer probably 220 multiple choice questions spread out over three exams and then get my hair done and hit the road! It is exactly a month until I level up in age as well. I guess it's gone quite quickly so far and I honestly look forward to getting hugs again from family and friends, I could do with one! On a side note I'm really feeling mixed emotions about how quickly it's gone though because I've loved my housemates, I've had a fantastic few months with them and we've formed a great unit. Two of them leave in just over a week and it's been a bit of a ride. It's just one of those things that you know you're super close in person but you know that you will likely lose contact. Either way I think I live in the best flat in my building (Obviously I WOULD say that) but I'll look back at this fondly. Next semester we have a German friend and a Chinese friend moving in with us so it should still be pretty decent. Just going to huddle together I guess as a lot of our mates will be going home. I look forward to visiting my British friends when we're all back home up in the north of England. I wonder how I will handle a night out in Manchester or Sheffield :blink: I've always been a proud southerner. The furthest north I've gone is Bradford :mellow: :huh:

What did you get? I've had the worst luck with earphones lately, can barely get a pair to last a month. I can't deal with in-ear earphones. They never stay in my ears. I love Sennheisers personally. Got them from Amazon

Got a 3-hour final on Friday with 100 questions. Yawn. Will be good to say bye bye to another module, though. Temperatures slowly dropping but I'm hacking it at the moment without requiring my winter coat. Reports say it'll be a slightly warmer winter. I didn't leave the house today except for smoking breaks but other than that I have new earphones and it literally feels like I haven't been listening to the same songs.

Pretty surreal night. I'm still drunk so bear with me. So it was my Canadian friend's birthday. She invited me over. Friend is a fairly loose term but anyway I decided to head over. Basically everyone bailed on her so I made sure to make it. I got off the bus one stop too early and got lost in a suburban residential area around 9pm.I walked using Google maps and bumped into a running man who stopped to rest. He said he'd walk me to my destination if I wait for the people he was running with. Eventually four people roll up. It turns out they were all part of a family from Toronto here for their grandfather's memorial service. It was revealed that their grandfather's favourite thing to do was the beer mile,so that's what they were doing when they bumped into me. They walked me over which was lovely then we said our goodbyes. I settled and met my friend's boyfriend and housemates. About an hour passed before the doorbell rang. The drunk family were back and asked to join my friend's birthday party. We sat around and played drinking games which was super fun. We swapped numbers then went downtown. We had a night out meeting several people along the way and I left about 2.20. A guy I had met offered to share a taxi with me for 75% of the journey home. Then he got out and have the driver $20 and asked him to drive me home. I'm home now and I'm still surprised by this act of kindness as it's unheard of in the UK. Overall my night was definitely 10/10 Really loved having a night out with Canadians finally

i feel ya Anthropology exam on Thursday and I just cannot be bothered to even look at the notes. The lecturer puts too much information on a slide and is overall unappealing. He's going to put a practice exam online on Wednesday. In other news, booked my Greyhound to Toronto so Christmas plans are official.

In typical exchange student fashion I am: In Toronto for the first week of Christmas break and in New York City for the second week of Christmas break. For my birthday I will probably just eat at a decent restaurant back here.

Friday I went to Ottawa and had a look at the Canadian houses of parliament and peace tower. Then I went to the market and then drove to Montreal where I went to dinner with some friends and had a great time clubbing. On Saturday we continued our drive to Quebec city where we went on a walk and tour around the city. It got bitterly cold in the evening even though I was able to tolerate it for a while. We went clubbing in Quebec and it was really fun. We then went back to the hotel and woke up early for a drive back to Montreal where we went to the Notre Dame and chilled in Old Montreal. Then we got back in the car and drove for about six hours (stopping for dinner) and arrived in Toronto. I had a fantastic weekend and arrived back home at about 2am where I literally threw my things down and went straight to bed. It has snowed a hell of a lot here but it's beautiful to see everything coated in snow. Probably going to see Mockingjay at some point during the week. It's my friend's birthday so I have some rum. Not really sure if I feel like partying but I'll still be sociable.

It'll be my first time in Toronto since landing and even then, the airport isn't -actually- in the city anyway. We're not spending a whole lot of time there, maybe getting dinner then checking into our hotel. I look forward to spending my actual Christmas holiday in Toronto though. It will be really cute with my pals. Bit of a weird question but is there anywhere in Canada that I can buy Yorkshire puddings from? I want to make as close to a British Christmas dinner as possible. I have an Anthropology final in two weeks' time. Kind of crazy how quickly the time has gone but I look forward to dropping my modules and changing them up next semester. I am due a change-up I think. I'm starting to get a little bit bored.

It's -3 apparently. I think I'll be taking my jacket.

Another good grade in Microbiology great. Had a job interview - got invited to the second stage of interviews - completed that - we'll see what happens. They readvertised the position so it makes me slightly nervous. I feel so exhausted all the time here. I had breakfast with the president of my university because it's international week apparently. They really do a lot for international students, it's nice. Anyway I am so tired even thinking about my weekend ahead. I'm leaving campus tomorrow afternoon and will be back on Monday. I am off to Toronto for a day and then on Friday morning we head to Ottawa. After that we're off to Montreal and finally Quebec City on saturday night. We should be back in Toronto very late on sunday and then I'll finally get a bus back to the city my University is in. This should be about 2am and I'll get a taxi back up to where I live. This is the travelling lifestyle I've always looked forward to :D I finally get to have a weekend away of my own.

Why do you think that she'll be devastated by rejection? Is she ugly or something? Why do you think they won't tolerate you dating multiple women? Did you give off the vibe that you don't have many options and only date one girl at a time? It could just be one of those things where there's a lot of gossip and he-said, she-said and that's something I wouldn't be surprised he might not want to deal with. It could just be looked down on, the idea of "playing" two girls even if in reality, dating more than one person is perfectly fine. I can't generalise but quite often some girls don't like the idea of the person they're seeing to be seeing somebody else (especially not someone they know)

A woman in my home city has been pushed in front of a train because she's Muslim. She survived but it says it all about the ridiculous reactions of people.

Right. So it seems I'm doing pretty well academically in Canada now. (By my standards - I failed my first midterm due to silly panicking but I've calmed down and got two good grades since then) 90% in Physiology and idk what I got in Anthropology yet because I wasn't in class but above 70% because nobody got below 70% and class average was 79% so I could have got anything. Seems a bit rigged though because professor wrote 110 questions and only marks out of 100 and is known for changing the curve (we don't have that in the UK) so :mellow: My issue is I have no idea what a good GPA is as we don't have those in the UK - like we have the top grade which is above 70% at home, then we've got the second-best which is 60% and above and under that are the lower grades 50% and up and finally a 'pass' at 40% and up. Under 40% is a fail. (In Britain) In Canada the pass mark is 50% and to me, it seems people here (at my uni at least) only seem to think 85% and up is really what is regarded a "good" grade. I did think that it'd just scale up like 70% being the equivalent of a '2.1' which is our 60% and a "first" or ''top'' grade would be 80% but I have no idea what my grades will be translated as. I've got a spreadsheet going with my percentages so I hope I'll be able to figure all of this out at some point as this year's going to be worth 20% of my degree overall. I've had a rough few days, feeling down etc but I'm improving a lot and not a moment too soon (3 midterms in the next few days)

Didn't you say that last time you got completely shitfaced? :P Yeah probably but I don't often forget things that happen when I'm drunk. I genuinely did not remember any travelling done yesterday, but I remember conversations and jokes made. I remember all photos taken and videos made although there's a couple that I just look gormless in - at least my head wasn't spinning or anything.

Good halloween but I wish I had been awake for more of it. I got drunk fairly quickly, I don't remember going to the club but I remember being there. About five people were around me giving me water. I passed out in the club but got up an hour later and got taken home by my flatmate. Slept in bed for idk how long, then I (still drunk) enjoyed the rest of the night with people even more drunk than I was. I really don't think I will be drinking to that level anymore, I'd like to remember all of my night in the future.

Had a bloody exam on a Saturday. Ty Obama. 75 questions diagnosing the cancer from the description. Tedious by the end honestly.

I hear that a lot, actually. My high school had roughly half the number (it wasn't in the village). Yeah stolen :D Joking, of course. The merchandise is just a little much but I guess it's North America. I'm still waiting for a really good party - the closest we got is a Dutch girl's birthday party three weeks ago. I don't know if it's here, or if it's just the people I've met here but when people join a group that I'm in (eg we'll be standing in a circle or something) and someone who doesn't know any of us joins - they seem to formally say hi to everybody in the circle except me. I honestly don't know what to make of it. I wouldn't care if it was once, but it seems that literally that situation repeats itself more than once when I'm just as friendly as everybody else. Its just a bit unusual when you're from a place where everyone almost goes overboard to make sure they've been polite to everybody and said hi. Either way, it's just like I went to a bar with the group I hang out with and a photo was taken and the guy who took it commented that he couldn't see me in the photo because my skin's darker than everyone else's. I was literally like alright mate ... The first time we got drunk my housemate reeled off loads of racially offensive jokes as well. Again, I'm chill but it was like I'd literally known them for all of two days. I feel like I've earned my spot in our friendship group in an odd way - like I've proved I'm not an angry monster who eats everybody so now finally everyone includes me in plans and smiles at me in passing. It's all cool but it just highlights the kind of fact that I've never been in a friendship group that is homogenously one ethnicity - I've always been friends with so many different people at once and I'm versatile so it's cool with me but when I'm increasingly isolated by other people it just feels odd because everyone's so inclusive back home. :blink: Still haven't had a problem with anybody yet which is good. I didn't have a problem with anyone in my first year until February though so there's time. :ph34r:

I was born in a small city (Sarnia, Ontario) but grew up in a village of 1600-1700 (Watford). I lived in that village for almost 19 years and would happily return if there were decent job opportunities. Don't get me wrong, Watford is pretty terrible in almost every way, but the smaller population is what I prefer. We have a Watford just outside London - its such a crap place. I think it classes as Hertfordshire but people tend to say they're from north London if they're from Watford. Bit of an ambiguous place but it's not in London no matter what they say. I have yet to have a truly memorable night out though - I'm a quarter of the way through now. I think a big contributor to my lack of homesickness is listening to music that reminds me of home. I've spoken on the phone for 1206 minutes in the last 30 days to call home - unlimited minutes. I honestly forget I'm in Canada until I talk to people. People seem to think my accent is Australian. My Uncle's flying me out to New York - I have mixed feelings because I haven't seen my American side of the family for twelve years. I tend to be awkward at family gatherings although obviously I'm up for a free flight any day. It does honestly feel a bit surreal to be on this side of the world. Being five hours behind isn't too bad a time difference as I tend to finish lectures by 10.30 each morning. Another thing is that exams can literally be scheduled at any part of the day... and on any day. My last exam is December 20th, a Sunday, at 7pm. For one thing, a Sunday? They seem to like evening exams here as well - can only be a good thing as I can study for the whole day but it's still unsual for us. Lectures run till 7pm max in the UK and exam periods are generally May/June, and January. Midterms are only a thing for some courses. I'm finding lecturers much more approachable here, and people are friendlier. Got a little International student crew going on in one of my courses with some New Zealanders. I think I have a friend in all my courses now apart from Pharmacology. Doesn't matter though, I kind of realise I have had to be the outgoing one to actually get talking which is normally daunting. Yik Yak is keeping me super entertained especially when I peek at my Uni back home. My Uni has soooo much merchandise - shot glasses, baby bibs, bandanas - any item of clothing can probably be found with the logo on it. What's even more unusual to UK folk like myself is that it's normal to wear Uni gear - it's a silent rule back home that you don't wear Uni gear. I bought a shirt for homecoming that I wear to sleep but that's about it. I plan to get a hoodie by the end of the year to add to my hoodie squad.

I was born in a big city (London UK) and I thought I had outgrown it and gotten bored of big city life - moved to a town about an hour away by train. I hated it because there was barely anything to do, and it's a bit of a dingy town with some horrid locals. I can't really name any great experiences there that weren't influenced by people who go to the University with me on the outskirts of town. I've never been to Toronto apart from landing at Pearson 7 weeks ago (how has time gone so quickly? Slow down). I watched the baseball yesterday on television whilst following the election. I was sitting next to a really disgruntled conservative who was whining about immigration as the map had sections coloured in red on the television. I'm not a politics person - I disagree strongly with my boyfriend when we talk about politics so I like to avoid the topic where possible. Everyone's been to Toronto from my friendship group so far and loved it, so I've made it a point to go. I really like London ON so far in that it seems to be bang on the kind of sized city I would like to live in - not too big (compared to London UK) but still a good amount of things going on. I think there's good variety of things to do here - I've barely left campus Also, I have forgotten the brand of maple syrup that I fell in love with. Ben and Jerry's maple syrup that was bought for me as a present really isn't cutting it :(