MuffinMaddy

So I'm in Canada as many of you know and I still haven't been murdered by a bear. :D I'm going for a weekend in Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa in late November and I couldn't be more excited. Everyone's been having weekends away and I haven't left campus since the 20th of September so I've been feeling a little bit left out even though I've had a great time overall. I've had a midterm, and I have two more this week. After this week it's Halloween and I look forward to drinking again (I'm still European) - I have Jagermeister this time round as well! I've started saying 'eh' in speech naturally and I only just did a double take and thought wtf. It bloody snowed today. In normal British fashion I was ecstatic and took photos and then realised there's plenty more to come so I told myself to calm down and went back to sleep. My plans are to go to Toronto for Christmas and New Year. I will spend my 21st birthday in New York City because hey, I'll be able to drink in the USA finally. (Although I won't be drinking because I'll be staying with family that I haven't seen for about twelve years.) It will be my second time ever in the United States. My first ever holiday when I was 3 years old was to New York - obviously my only memories are stored in adorable photographs. Then I'll spend my one week break in Washington DC because tourism. It feels good to have a plan now for my time. So a little more studying to push through and then onto my exciting plans for the year woohooo :D

where are you?

That's me 100%

Maple syrup does good things to my body

it's easier to cycle. They made it like that for the ease of disabled students to get to the student accommodation on the other side. I had a couple of friends down there and there's a pizza place and chicken shop around there so sometimes there's some things worth walking along an annoying bridge for.

I'm in the hood, living on campus is far too costly and just a bit too inconvenient for me. Yeah fair enough. Are you deep in the hood? To be honest I didn't spend loads of time there but some of my friends had their car types punctured and windows slashed :( Back behind Tesco has a lot of drugs but from where my other friends lived, not much vandalism although one of them got mugged. I'm unsure of where I'm going to live when I come back from Canada. I want to live in the posh apartments near the furthest 'campus' accommodation but obviously £££ and that annoying bridge :angry: I live in the posh flat haha. They aren't actually that costly if you look hard enough - but they are nonetheless really secure and really nice apartments. Will have to walk across the bridge twice a day though fml. For those who do not have the pleasure of knowing the bridge: Good luck friend. If I live anywhere further than mascot then I'm getting a bus pass. What's the scheme of a PhD though, do you have a supervisor or something? And will you be around when I'm back next year? Freshers looks insane based on snapchat stories, might want to stay clear of sq3 at the moment. I might get a jager bomb in November and see what they taste like here. There's weird tastes of things here like chicken tikka doesn't taste like it should and I am hating tomato sauces herehere. Going to adjust my grocery shopping accordingly.

I'm in the hood, living on campus is far too costly and just a bit too inconvenient for me. Yeah fair enough. Are you deep in the hood? To be honest I didn't spend loads of time there but some of my friends had their car types punctured and windows slashed :( Back behind Tesco has a lot of drugs but from where my other friends lived, not much vandalism although one of them got mugged. I'm unsure of where I'm going to live when I come back from Canada. I want to live in the posh apartments near the furthest 'campus' accommodation but obviously £££ and that annoying bridge :angry:

Boris are you on campus or in the hood?

I'm going to have a sober October. No drinking in October no thanks. I've drank enough now I've had my fun. Homecoming was interesting. We started drinking at 7am. I had my last drink at 11pm and stayed up till 2 with my housemates and ordered a pizza for our inevitable hangovers. The pizza was great. I'm drinking lots of water and eventually I know I'll feel better by this evening for dinner. Finally made some Canadian friends. Other than being harassed by drunk male idiots my day was alright. No more drinking at 7. I lost my sambuca ginity and i love it now. Also hate whiskey even more after drinking a quarter of a bottle of Canadian whiskey straight

Homecoming. Gotta get myself a university t shirt to blend in.

Far too early to think about that. Been here about 3 weeks. I might be loving it but I know not to jump to conclusions. I might hate it in a week, in a month, or it might just not be the place for me. It might just be the fact that I'm away from the main sources of stress in my life. I have a lot to figure out over the course of the year. I'm looking forward to seeing how well I'll deal with winter. I don't know why but my friend wants to go to Winnipeg at some point

To back up bonez my boyf is a poor poor texter but loves to have a phone call. I personally love texting as I don't really feel like I can be honest while speaking out loud because I'm conscious of other people who could be listening. But the tone of what you're trying to say is much easier to get across on the phone

Phew. I've been trying to call my mum on Skype and it hasn't been working. Thankfully calls to Canada are very cheap from the UK so we had a 30 minute conversation this afternoon.

I don't know what it is but there's something about Canada that is making me really happy. Maybe it's the people I've met, or the weather (currently) or the interesting lectures, or the food... but whatever it is I'm just feeling really optimistic lately and that's not the most common emotion I feel in my life. I struggle with depression every now and again but I've only had one breakdown since I've got here and that was relatively minor (lasted about an hour probably but went away when I found a nice space to sit and look at the scenery) and it was the second day so I like to think it doesn't count. I thought I would be homesick but I think I might actually be less stressed now that I'm away from my family and my boyfriend :o I know that none of what happens back home is in my control so I worry less, isn't that great? I haven't had to take any of the medicines I normally take for my problems as well so to be in such a positive state of mind is such a dream. I went to the Niagara falls and it was just such a wonderful day in so many ways. I made some new friends and the weather was lovely, there were some pretty funny moments such as when we started walking through some woods and a Canadian girl asks us "Have any of you seen a bear before?". She was randomly asking, not because she had spotted a bear! We got on a boat and were sailed close to the falls where the mist fills the air and makes it feel like it's lightly raining. There was also a rainbow which I managed to capture. As well as this I finally managed to get a shot of a Canadian flag blowing in the wind at exactly the right moment. I don't know why I've been challenging myself to capture a shot of one but it's tricky with the wind so I guess I've had a bit of fun with it. Some people are birdwatchers... I'm a flagwatcher. I went to a poetry slam on Friday which I really enjoyed. There's a really cool variety of things to do here...it's not all about getting drunk and trying to make drunken memories like it is back home but more about the people you spend time with, the activities you do and the laughs you have. I won't lie, I did kind of miss the 'reckless' Freshers theme we have at home, but I'm really settling into Canadian life. I gave my first proper tip at a restaurant (I'm learning!) and just had a wonderfully chilled day. I was knackered so I came home and slept. I had an 8.30 lecture on cell necrosis followed by an immunology lecture at 9.30. I'll go to a session at 1.30 on 'Preparing for exams' because I'm just that dedicated :rolleyes: Might go to the mall or come home but after that I'll go to the Debating Society at 5.30 and meet some new people. I'm absolutely loving my year abroad so far...

Is this normal or is it some weird European thing? woah woah woah I'm European but I don't even like kissing and I don't think that happens in very many other places I think it's just a Saq thing :shades: ....and probably vampire porn as well.

Such a good day. 40 people all swarming to talk to me just because I sound different. I love it. I've been struggling to approach people even though I want to... I can just never bring myself to talk to people I don't know. Kind of counter productive as I'm on a bloody year abroad.... But we did a simple ice breaker and suddenly had all these people interested in me, where I'm from, what I study, how I'm finding Canada... It was surreal but amazing. I really don't think this happens in the UK, I think people would be interested in foreign people but with much less enthusiasm. I'm so pleased with the genuine interest in anything I have to say though, that's new.......

It seems like people who are nervous about the idea of guns usually don't have much actual experience with them.I apologize if I've missed my mark, but my wife and I would love to give you a chance at some basic firearms training and first-hand shooting experience. If that's something you might be interested in, let me know. We're about a 3.5-hour drive from London, ON, and our usual range is about a half-hour on the other side of us... but there's a place near Lapeer, MI which is about two hours from either of us. Hey, you're right I'm not offended at all by what you've said. The fact of the matter is I'm bloody frightened of guns and I have been throughout my entire life.I don't trust myself I think I'd get the shakes and do something really dumb but maybe in a few months if I get some balls. I'm going to the Niagara falls this Sunday like a proper tourist but my 2 weeks in Canada have been 10/10 so far. I need to buy winter gear soon. One of my friends has been written up by the police for public drinking disorder. British people are so trashy (Including myself I've been a mess a couple of nights already) Poetry slam on Friday night. Time for bed now, 8.30 lecture :mellow: I've also been challenging myself to speak to someone I haven't spoken to each day. I don't know why I'm doing it but I guess it's paid off cause I have Canadian contacts now |^_^| homecoming is next week and my first midterm soon. Never done a midterm before so should be interesting. The mosquitoes are eating me

The idea of guns genuinely makes me nervous. I really do feel sketchy about them. I live in Canada now and it is kind of in the back of my mind when I hear of things but I don't let it stop me having a good time. (I'm really enjoying Canada by the way, I've gotten used to buying alcohol fortnightly) and I've had some great nights out with some cool people. Lectures have begun and the content is super interesting. I've spoken to some Canadians and they think I'm not actually British and that I'm just talking weird which is quite funny. Next year I'll buy some sports gear. Valu mart was alright, 10% student discount Tuesdays was good and I got a good amount of food for about $65.

The trio is complete. The final person from my Uni studying here for the year has finally arrived and we're neighbours. We're not actually friends but we're not enemies either. He just hates my boyfriend for some unexplained reason. Today is an international welcome day I dont think I can be bothered but I'll go because a) opportunity to meet people, and b) will pick up interesting info of course and c) potentially an opportunity for free food esp as nowhere is really open today Setting up the bank account tomorrow. Got another bottle of vodka to use up so potentially drinking tomorrow night, don't know yet. I sleep like a baby over here. There was a plank under my bed making it really hard but it feels fantastic now that I've got rid of it.

Not meaning to offend by the comment I had made.I understand what you are used to especially with the explanation provided. I just find that growing up here I tend to tip in such a way (bill is 8.75 so hand a 10 and walk away). At the same time it isn't required except at restruants where it is expected and some people will be really rude If you don't. idk it's just different. In Europe a tip is nice but you've got to be special. I don't really see how it's unusual to you guys when a lot of the world handles customer service in a different way. And I'm not tight, I've said keep the change plenty of times. It's just I'm not used to a culture where it's demanded of you to give more than you're being charged. Like hey this is $9, oops forgot to say you've gotta pay the tax on top AND tip me. You have to understand why that's outrageous to people who are unaware of how things run in this country. My house has a person from Hungary a guy from Singapore and a Dutch girl and we all laughed at the tipping culture this evening.

Well, we simply tip when something's been amazing. Honestly we pay the price and that's it. I didn't realise I was supposed to tip, I don't really care but I can't exactly go straight into a culture of never tipping anyone into remembering to give people more money than the service they gave me. In future I'll push myself to remember more to tip just because it's part of the culture but I'm not doing that in the UK lol. Excuse me for never being made to tip if I didn't want to in the UK

My goodness alcohol is so hard to find.... But I managed to find an LCBO and buy some vodka, sort out my phone so now I have a Canadian number. Got hit on purely due to my accent, cause lets face it, a sweaty lost girl in Canadian heat isn't the most attractive thing to see. We had a lot of hiccups in our conversation because he used words like "condo" which I honestly didn't know what he meant by that, and "pound" for the hash sign... I was just lost in a lost of conversation but I sorted it out. Got lost downtown for a couple of hours, so was late to dinner but the caterers were awesome and gave me some leftovers which was super kind. The bus stopping system's a bit strange to me too. you have to pull a cord then grab the doors so that they open. I then had to walk about 35 minutes home, had a great shower and got ready to start drinking. Went to the drinks on the floor above me and it was like 40 exchange students playing beer pong and drinking and socialising. I was really surprised that everyone was up for drinking! But it was great, got to meet new people and then we went to a bar. Took 45 minutes to walk down there but we managed it lol. I had a great time but I conked out at the bar and some dude started talking to me about my braids and I was like yeah I need to go home so got a taxi back to my place costing $8.75 which is pretty normal. He did only give me $1 change for the $10 I gave him but I was too drunk to bother saying anything. Really bonded with my housemates, we're all drunks it's amazing. It was actually such a good night. we sat on the grass for a while and chatted for ages, and met a singaporean guy whose birthday it was. I don't expect to get drunk all year but I really look forward to more social events with other people now. I had left my key in my room deliberately because I feared my level of intoxication would result in me losing my key, but the flat was locked so I had to wait for my housemates but they didn't take long to get back so that was good. We had an argument over the taste of ketchup before I called it a day and conked out in my bed. So, first drunk night out in Canada - a solid 8/10 Nothing bad happened, positive vibes, no complaints other than the difficulty of finding alcohol. The niceness of canadians is making me go a bit crazy, everyone is soooo nice. Someone added me on fb like yesterday after talking to him for like 5 minutes and now he's like 'oh I see you do science, i do science, i could help you' and i'm like ahh why is everybody sooo nice! I got lost the other day in one of the buildings and a girl literally jumped at the opportunity to walk me to where i needed to be. its lovely but its so overwhelming because i come from a place where no one gives a crap (or we're too reserved) to even ask if someone needs help or anything

I am legitimately surprised your phone recognises the intersection that calls itself Arva. I mean, I would understand if it said Middlesex Centre, which Arva is a part of, but Arva itself? No offense to anybody (however unlikely they read this) from there, it's just really small is all. I had to wiki it. I've been so tired, went to the mall on the bus. Wtf that the way to stop a bus is pull a cord?!!! Don't have that in the UK. Bought some trainers or what Canadians call running shoes. Embarrassed myself by not reading the label on maple syrup and seeing it in a glass bottle made me think it was liquor. The shop guy couldn't stop laughing. And ffs Canadian tax. Dhjnsnsnkshjs. Had a nice subway, why the hell do Canadians not know what chicken tikka is, and why don't they have hearty Italian bread? No luck finding a phone plan today. Have to wait till Wednesday or something because Monday is a holiday and Tuesday is busy. I might go drinking tomorrow night apparently people go to the bar more than clubbing so might look at some place.... Apparently there's a mechanical bull at one of them. My boyfriend has been begging me to go on it and snapchat it to him. We're yet to figure out a Skype arrangement but we'll sort it out. My poor Chinese housemate is really jet lagged and can't deal with life atm. I'm tired as hell and it's only 9

Just wait until winter. Mid- to late-Autumn, really. Right around the end of October is when it usually starts getting ridiculous, at least in the London area. Yeah, you'll see a lot of familiar names around here. We stole a majority of our naming schemes from the UK. Out of respect and love, of course. of course. I like looking at my phone weather location, its constantly overcast. Sometimes my phone says I'm in London, other times it says arva

someone's put glow stick all over my ceiling so turning off the light is so distracting. my bed is hard as a rock, and my phone only charges from the computer but otherwise i'll just go and buy a charger and new sim etc. canadians are so cute though, i'll explain later will definitely take some getting used to, esp as a lot of the street names are exactly the same as where i live in the uk. man, seeing 'oxford street' and it not heaving with people just felt so different!