10 things I wish I’d known before coming on exchange

1.       Living alone is easy

2.       Not getting into Neill Wycik or Primrose is not a big deal

3.       Everyone LOVES Aussie accents (Canada, we love yours too! Keep talking!)

4.       Alcohol is not cheap (damn you cheap America. Damn you.)

5.       Making friends is easy

6.       Frat parties are not that fun

7.       Thursday night student nights are fun

8.       Noodles really are the diet of students

9.       Canada isn’t a large open space with snow and bears

10.   Marijuana is EVERYWHERE.

My week! 19^th-25^th September

WOAH. The weeks go quickly here. I’ve decided to start doing weekly posts just so that when I go home I can try and remember what’s been going on.

P.S I’m mainly writing this for myself now. I think my parents will read this, but for the rest of you feel free to be like ‘whatevs Soph, no one cares.'

Soo it was the third week of classes (that feels crazy) and it feels just like home. Everyday I’m like ‘oh man, I’m so behind. Tonight I’ll do so much homework!’ Never happens. Photojournalism is fun. Maybe I’d like to be that type of journalist. I don’t know. My T.A showed everyone’s pictures in class (we have weekly assignments – this week’s was to show a picture that shows ‘weather’), mine got okay reviews so I was happy. Jess and I headed to the gym after class, feels so good to be working out again!

Tuesday was my feature writing class. At the moment we’re doing a place profile, so I have to find a place to do a story on and then find characters and people to interview and blah blah. I hate things like that cause everyone else clearly ahs a hometown advantage, the only areas I know/can easily access are the ones around me. Oh well, this area’s interesting anyway. Ohh AWKWARD, during today’s lecture I hadn’t really eaten brekky, so of course my stomach went crazy and was all ‘blerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghheghrghehgh’ for two hours. Good times.

That night was my first kickboxing class night. Even though I’m awkwardly uncoordinated at fighting (who knew?), it was actually a ton of fun! And a good workout.

Wednesday is critical issues in journalism day. Quite an interesting topic. We talk about Iraq and journalists who have been killed. To be honest it makes me want to be a foreign correspondent. Our world is so messed up. We had a pop quiz! Not so fun.

Thursday was my first politics class. BORING. So boring. Like, SO boring. Now I remember why I like journalism.

Thursday night we went out to Mick E Fynnes (pub) because it was student night. Turned out being kind of hectic. It was fun! But way hectic.

Friday I was too hungover to go to my politics lecture. Sorry mum.

Saturday I bummed around and went to help Zach shoot a scene for a commercial he’s creating. I ended up being in a crime scene and drawing chalk around an ‘X’. So cool! After that I went shopping because I had to find clothes to wear to a ‘P’ themed house party! Party was fun, until a guy fell off the balcony. Awks. He’s fine though, but it was a bit of a downer (obvs).

Oh! P.S! Zach and I dressed as paintings to the party. So we were all in white then another girl came as a painter and everyone ended up painting us. It was such a good idea! Kudos to Zach for coming up with that one.

Today (Sunday) I headed to the markets because it’s a happenin’ place on Sun you knowwwww. There were lots of buskers out (today was a BEAUTIFUL sunny day) and dancers and such. Did some housewifely duties and made a nutritious dinner and now off to bed to start it all again tomoz!

Nighty night x

RYERSON, WE GOT THE SPIRIT!

Being ‘welcome week’ at uni, Friday was spent skipping classes and joining a MASSIVE (like, over 2000 students massive) parade through downtown Toronto and getting on a ferry and riding over to the Toronto Islands. The parade was epic. Like, stupidly epic. Thousands of students chanting and yelling – each faculty had its own shirt and its own chant...I got stuck with an early childhood education shirt, oops.

RYERSON, WE GOT THE SPIRIT, RYERSON, COME ON LETS HEAR IT, NA NA NA NA NAAAAA NA NA NA NAAA, HEY! HEY! HEY!

The day was spent pushing in lines to get free food and drinks, chilling on the grass and in the beer garden. The island was set up like a music festival with a main stage and everything. The amount of school spirit here is amazing.

At night we headed to the uni bar, but it was packed and after an hour of waiting in line we bailed. Unfortunately that meant we walked into a bar that was completely empty. But we made the most of the situation and scored free entry and cheap drinks.

On Saturday, heads weren’t too sore but the day was spent doing dismal housewife duties. At night we headed to Primrose (student rez) for a ‘Jungle Juice Party’ – basically everyone brings a drink and pours it in a tub, making a big mess of alcohol. Ended up being kicked out by the Don because too many people, too much alcohol...you know how it goes.

This morning (Sunday) we woke up nice and early to head to Niagara Falls! Amazing place well worth the early wake up. Did a tour through a nearby hostel with some other Aussies, jumped on the maid of the mist tour and got saturated right under the falls. Epic.

Headed to the Hard Rock for lunch, then to a whirlpool – where 4 Canadian lakes merge into one. It was cool to see but was pelting down with rain when we were there, so we were absolutely soaked. Then we headed to old town Niagara, which is set up in an 1800s style with horses and carts etc. They have the world’s best ice cream there too (legit). Delish. Then we headed to a wine tasting, but by that stage we were all too tired to enjoy/appreciate what we were tasting.

Amazing day and properly exhausted. Uni starts for reeeeeal tomorrow (only attended two lectures and one lab (tute) last week...oops), not so keen to get into study mode.

Until something exciting happens,

Adios.