Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeeeen

We were told that Halloween (which actually fell on a Monday) would be a huge party right through from Friday – Monday night. So, us excited Aussies gathered together some cheap costumes and got scaried and fake blooded up on Friday night where we were heading to our first pumpkin carving and then out on the town.

At the pumpkin carving we were the only group dressed up (around 7 of us), which was slightly awkward, but shame on everyone else for not getting into the spirit. After some hectic pumpkin carving (we made ours into Harry Potter) we headed to some pre-drinks at Neill-Wycik and then most of us went the uni bar to get our festive on.

Again we were the only ones dressed up. SHAME ON YOU TORONTO. But we had a good time anyways.

Saturday we woke up nice and seedy and headed to all you can eat sushi...which kept us full for the rest of the day. That night I stayed in but the others headed to Neill-Wycik again for a party.

Sunday a group of exchangers headed to the Toronto Theme Park called Wonderland where they had a Halloween Haunt thing on. I don’t even know why I got tickets because it was the scariest thing EVER. I was terrified the whole time and couldn’t bring myself to do one of the haunted mazes they had set up. Although while we were waiting outside a clown maze, this freaky looking guy started eying us off and so we moved, then he started chasing us (the workers were all dressed up in costumes) it was the FUNNIEST thing. Camellia got chased and was screaming so bad hahaha hilarious!

We went on a lot of scary adrenaline rides though, which I loved so that was fun. It was cool to be there at night though.

Monday we dressed up again and headed to a parade on Church St (the gay district) to see some trannies and what not dressed up, then we went to Primrose where everyone was having a party and then heading out for a guys birthday. The four of us who live at the Alexandra didn’t go out after Primrose but. We headed home after getting a bite to eat and then crashed into bed. Turns out the 31^st wasn’t such a big party after all.

....but what if we get attacked by a bear??

One mention of Algonquin National Park by Shauna a few days before the weekend and we were off on a spontaneous road trip to the outskirts of Ontario. Kudos to Jess for being 21 and driving on the wrong side of the road for 5 plus hours!

It’s basically a nature park in the middle of nowhere that people head to to see the fall colours. We couldn’t leave food out or in the tents or anything because of bears!!! :o

It was freezing, we camped, we built a bonfire (well, the boys did anyways), we ate cold food, it rained, it was pretty, we didn’t see a moose, we didn’t see a bear. Pretty much sums up the whole trip. We went there to see the fall colours. It was amazing. Much time was spent bonding in the tents and around the fire.

Highlights include: cranking the Biebs through the park to make our presence known, Jess unknowingly running into the boys toilets because she was so busting to pee and taking a random detour to a country fair and finding a field of pumpkins!!

Hola Mexico!

So Thursday night we didn’t sleep as we had to be up at 2am for a flight to Mexico! (via North Carolina) We got to the airport at some crazy hour, then were told that our flight had been delayed by 2 hours. The first thing to go wrong for the trip. Had to go through US customs in Toronto, so we spent 3 hours of our lives that we’ll never get back lining up for line after line to get through customs. We made it eventually and slept on the trip to NC.

North Carolina was...interesting. We flew into Charlotte and the southern drawl was so bad. Think ‘Hey yaaaaaa’ll wanna get some fooood?’ At that airport I invested in a travel pillow and a blanket. Best. Decision. Ever.

Our flight to Cancun was cruisey. Jess slept most of the way, I was too excited. We got in and it was HOT. So nice. Although we felt out of place in our jeans and cardis.

We got through Mexican customs with ease and then found our shuttle and were headed to our resort with some loud Americans. 

Our resort was amazing. We met up with 7 other Australian girls, had a few drinks, went to the beach and had some sushi for dinner. LUXURY. Our deal was all inclusive so everything was free. Amazing.

On day 2 we had a tour planned to do adventure stuff and see some ruins, so we planned to get up at 6am. Plan fail. My alarm went off an hour early (time difference), so I turned it off thinking Jess’ would go off. Turns out her phone had gone dead. So we woke up to a phone call from the front desk at 7.25am telling us our tour was there. We were supposed to leave at 7.15am. Whoops. We ran around pulling on any clothes we could find and flew down the stairs. We made it in time regardless. Just weren’t winning any friends that day.

Despite that mishap, the tour was so awesome. We drove about 3 hours to the jungle and went abseiling. We then hiked for a bit and went zip-lining through all the trees. After that we headed to a river and did some kayaking, then hiked again through the jungle. We were told to look out for cougars and tarantulas. WHAT!! We arrived at an underwater cave where we were blessed by an old Mexican man, then headed underground. The water was beautiful and not that cold, surprisingly. Apparently it is some people’s drinking water though. Gross. After that we headed off to have a traditional Mexican lunch. The food was beautiful and made by cute little Mexican women.

We then headed off to see some ruins, which were amazing. They’ve been standing for thousands of years and there was a human sacrifice bench and everything. We saw where they used to play ball games and our tour guide explained how the loser of the game was fed to the lions. We walked through the jungle to see a famous ruin (or could catch a bike taxi for $10) but we got lost and so had to turn around and walk back.

We headed back to the hotel and had our first dinner with the girls, then showered and headed back down to have our second dinner. Lol. We were hungry okay!! That night we had a few drinks at the resort bar, which had an acrobat spinning around in the air. Was quite cool. We ordered room service that night just for fun as well. We asked for everything on the menu but they said ‘No no! That too much!’ Damn.

The next day we spent lazing around at the beach (BEAUTIFUL!) and in the pool. Which had a swim up bar! We met a few Americans there and one guy from Toronto. Crazy! Then one American came up to us and said he could tell we were from Adelaide by our accents. Now THAT was weird.

We had another free lunch and then headed to the shops to find some souvies. It was a cool little outdoor mall with a river running through it. We then headed to dinner with two of the other girls, we planned to go out into the city but chicken out so stayed at the resort bar. It was so dead but we made friends with the bar tenders so it ended up being fun.

Got up early to have a huge brekky then say goodbye L. It was so hard to leave the beautiful, warm beach. But we go to our shuttle right on time (thought it was later than it actually was) and our flight out of Mexico was all good. UNTIL. We flew into North Carolina needing to connect to Philedelphia before heading back to Toronto and because the US is crap at life, we had to go through customs (even though we were in transit). That took FOREVER. Heaps of flights came in at once so we were waiting for the good part of 2 hours. Anyways, it took so long that we missed our connecting flight and the only one we could get put on was for 9am the next morning. This was at 2 in the after noon. SO we were told we wouldn’t get accommodation because the delay wasn’t the airlines fault, but because we are poor we couldn’t afford anything ourselves, so night at the airport it was! We were starving and so ordered pizza to the airport, then bundled up (thankgod for the travel pillow and blanket) and camped out.

Our flight out the next day was one time, thankfully. And we finally got into Toronto and home. We missed classes and lost marks for not handing up assignments though, so thankyou US Airways. I will not be flying with you again.

2 months in and it feels like 2 weeks..

26^th Sept - 2^nd October

ANOTHER WEEK GONE! Crazy.

Monday – Nothing of quality. Mondays are boring in Toronto. I have my photojournalism class. Again, I sat in the wrong seat and was picked to be the model for the day. Good times. I had a DSLR right up in my grill for half the class while my T.A (teacher) took pictures to blow up on the big screen. Awesome.

Tuesday – Feature writing day! For this class I have to do an assignment on a place and interview people etc. I had SO much trouble getting the rights to access a homeless shelter so ended up changing my idea last minute. We have assignments due every week for it, so that was slightly stressful. I feel like they have more of an idea how to make sure students don’t leave assignments to the last minute here. Like, they have progress reports. I think it’s really effective. Met Shauna for lunch today because she was a bum and missed the lecture. It’s a good thing she came to keep me company otherwise I would’ve been a loooooooner.

Kickboxing was tonight as well! We paired up and used the hand things that you punch. My knuckles were a bit bruised after, but it was fun.

Wednesday – Critical Issues day. We formed groups for an assignment that’s due soon. We have to plan a documentary for an issue in journalism. Too much work for my liking but fun all the same.

Thursday – Thursday is usually the day we go out but this week it just wasn’t meant to be. After class we bummed around in Camellia and Jon’s room watching 16 and pregnant. It made us sleepy and hungry so we stayed in haha.

Friday – At night Zach made the trek over and the five of us pre-drank in Jess’ room, played kings and bantered. Around 11ish we headed over to Shoeless Joe’s (a sports bar) – IT WAS FREEZING! There we met the other exchangers and a million other Aussies to watch the grand final! It was so weird having so many Australian accents around, made me definitely not want to come home – I just love the Canadian accent too much! We bailed before the end of the match, got some poutine and went home. Clearly we are not true Australians.

Saturday – I spent the morning tracking people down for interviews for my feature story. I got a few and only got rejected once. Success! At night we prepared for an event called Nuit Blanche, which is an art festival where a whole section of the city gets shut down and various art pieces are displayed. It literally runs from 7pm until dawn and the art pieces are big walk through things. The coolest thing I saw was a pre-recorded 90’s sitcom thing was being shown on a wall outside and inside they were filming and one person was playing the part of the dad and it really looked like they were actually part of the show. It was freezing and by 1.30am we headed home just to de-frost. BUT it was amazing to see.

Sunday – Laaaaaazy day. Spent the majority of the day at the gym and shopping lol. The weather is SO COLD. Feels strange to think that under two months ago I was in 45C heat. Miss it.

Oh and! Happy 20^th  for today (Sunday) Evie! xxx

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.

Sorry Adelaide, but I think I'm in love

This post is for all those constantly asking me what it’s like here/ my parents bugging me for the deets. I’m not into sending you all separate emails/I know you’re not patient enough for me to write letters SO here is a little summary of the place I now call home:

First up, I’m in downtown Toronto. Around 25-20 min walk from the centre of town. Of course, at first I was super (and understandably) bummed about being so far from the centre of town (and Ryerson itself), but this place is AMAZING. Toronto is such a beautiful town. It’s very arsty and alternative – a far cry from the hustle of New York or LA. There’s an abundance of parks (I live opposite one and there’s another few just around the corner), which takes you away from the busy city and into another world entirely – today I chilled at one watching a soccer game on one side, and a hockey game on the other. Bliss! The only thing missing is a beach, but this place is so me that I’m not complaining.

I live literally a 2 minute walk from Kensington Markets, which is filled to the brim with tourists on weekends, along with buskers, hippies, pot-heads, artists, foodies and all other sorts. It’s so fun! Everyone’s willing to get to know you, and of course as soon as they hear the accent a million questions get fired my way – ‘are you from England?’ ‘Oh! Australia? Like, Sydney?’ ‘What school? Ryerson eh? Ohhhhh me to!’

This is probably not something you’ll want to know, my dear mother and father, but the smell of marijuana is legit always present. You can smell it in the park opposite my apartment building, in the markets and there are two restaurants just around the corner which encourage you to bring your own weed and smoke it there. Definitely not in Adelaide anymore!

I also live on the edge of Chinatown, so can just go down the road for a health and wellbeing massage, some deep fried crickets or a $4 haircut.

Starbucks is, of course, like a virus and Tim Horton’s (budget version of Starbucks) is at every corner. The amount of homeless people is still distressing, but, for the most part, they’ll just ask ‘spare change?’ and then leave you alone. There are a LOT of crazies too. But they’re pretty harmless.

The age demographic is very young. But it’s not unusual to see 55 year olds sail past you on scooters on the sidewalk. I guess you’re only as old as you feel.

A lot of people dress differently here (not weird, different), and I suppose that’s because I live in the fashion district.

Cars actually give way to pedestrians, and I was pleased to find that Canada use 1 and 2 dollar coins – welcome to the 21^st century, AMERICA.

This place is vibrant, fun, young and different. Honestly, I think I just fell in love.