'Spring' Break?

Ottawa, Canada!

Since the beginning of exchange one question that everyone kept asking was "What shall we do for spring break?". At first we all agreed upon going somewhere hot as we dreaded the perils of the coming winter. Somewhere hot basically meant Mexico or Cuba. Eventually the majority decided that we should brave the cold and get the full Canadian experience! After all we are studying here so we should make the most of it. Plus Selin had just bought her Canada Goose jacket, so she desperately wanted to get her monies worth and Nic had come prepared with an array of winter boots hahaha!

Traditional Native Games

The day arrived where we would once again make the short trip to Toronto in order to catch our bus to Ottawa. This was probably one of the funniest bus trips I've been on. It involved late wake-ups (Mairi), sickness/hungeroverness (Mairi), wrong tickets (Myself and Alison), running around Toronto working up a sweat to print off the actual ticket (Me) and a pacing drug addict at the back of the bus (drug addict). After a lot of trouble, we made it to Ottawa. Considering Ottawa is the capital of Canada, it is quite small. One of the main attractions of Ottawa in the winter is the chance to ice-skate on the worlds longest naturally frozen river! Unfortunately we arrived a bit too late into the winter season to be be able to ice-skate but we did manage to experience the last day of the winterlude! This included native dances, spiritual songs, ice sculpture competitions, free green tea and various pieces of art and history! 

Getting native in a Teepee


After a few beaver tails (no pun intended-its actually a fried pastry dessert) we made our way around the historical parliament buildings of Ottawa and into a deli shop which Barack Obama had recently visited at ByWard market. The stay was brief but just long enough to see what Ottawa had to offer.

 
Chilling at Backpackers Inn

We had a chilled evening in the basement of the hostel after handling a shushing row with the another group upstairs. This was the evening Richard had "An interesting theory".

 

Beaver's all round!

The next stop was Quebec City!!!

Midterms: Good or Bad?

Studying for Theology midterm

I will be cutting in between each post to give you a quick update on uni/school life.

Reading week arrived and marked the half way point to the end of the second semester as well as the arrival of midterm exams. As one exchanger noted, "Why are they not called mid semesters?", considering they do not use the word 'Term'. They can be a bit of an annoyance when you are also overcome with essays, debates and presentations at the same time. Experiencing midterm exams last semester enabled me to be more organised and prepared for them this time round. Although, it does seem odd that many students get tested 5 or 6 weeks into their semester as what could you have possibly learnt in such a short amount of time? However, I have come to realise that the extra revision allows you to be more prepared for the finals and you learn a lot more than you think.

The value of midterms can vary from 10%-40% so it's always a struggle trying to figure out how much revision you need to do for a test/what you'll be MSAFing - basically a form that exempts you from handing in an assignment below 30% without a doc note but with only one a semester, you have to be selective! Im happy to say that i did not use one last term and i hopefully will not be using one this term either. On the plus side - if you fail to hand in an assignment and use your MSAF they simply add the percentage onto your final exam or give you a new deadline. This is something that wouldn't happen back in the Uk unless you have a very serious reason, such as a medical reason. Many students here in Canada  have used it due to having 3 assignments due in on the same day, so in a way it can be seen as a good thing or a maybe a sign that a person should be more organised. One other strange thing is that midterms can stretch from the beginning of February to the middle of March. This can be annoying as people would probably prefer not to worry about revising for a small midterm percentage two weeks before their final. Overall, I'd say that yes midterms can be annoying but they do allow you to bag marks towards your final grade!