Weekend in Toronto with Deadmau5

Us with the Toronto Skyline


Last weekend a couple of us step foot in Toronto once again! This place never gets old! So much to do and see! This time round, it was planned, about a month ago a bunch of us book tickets to see DeadMau5. For those who are probably thinking WHO? His a worldwide Canadian DJ, mainly electro music! So we booked ourselves into a Hostel, we keep getting lucky with these hostel as they are all turning out to be really clean! Also this one provides a free waffle breakfast in the morning. Cannot say no to that!!!! Before the concert, we arrived in Toronto pretty early so we grabbed ourselves a nice breakfast in this cool corner breakfast bar kind of thing! Let's just say the plate did not need a clean, as i did a pretty good job myself. 

Breakfast

Now that our hunger was satisfied, we went on discovering Kensington, you could say it is Toronto's equivalent to Camden market. Full of vintage shops, quirky food stores, one of which was this bakery! The smell alone would satisfy you! A lot of random things going on, one of which was a women dancing to Jazz music holding a can of beer and asking us if we enjoyed her little routine! Then she got a bit too friendly and started to follow Me and Mairi haha! All the shops were pretty cool. There were so many shops with hints of Buddhism and Hinduism, with idols such as Siva and Gautama Buddha donning the entrances. Time had flown by and the Deadmau5 concert was approaching, but first i had to get my intake of food, and that meant one thing Lahmacun!!

DeadMau5 at the Rogers Centre

We arrived at Rogers and the place was already buzzing with people high on life. I think they said there were around 14,000 people in the standing area.  We managed to scuffle our way through the crowd and get ourselves opposite the stage, directly in front of Deadmau5! People were crowd surfing, masking themselves with Deadmau5 headgear and generally having a wicked time! The following morning we made our way on boat to Toronto Island, where we was able to view the skyline of Toronto as well as being able to chill on the beach. Lake Ontario was suprisingly very clean and luckily we had some nice weather too! Well it was cold but the sun was out! Overall we chilled on the sand, had a wonder around the island whilst appreciating the view around us! Then on Sunday afternoon, i caught the coach from Toronto to Waterloo to visit cousins! It was a trip well worth the hassle the coaches caused me, as i had great time relaxing! The day ended with a late 1hr 15 mins coach ride back to University at night in time to hand in my essays the following morning! The rest of the week was full of presentations, test, quizzes and essays! But the Weekend made up for that!!

On Toronto Island facing Lake Ontario's clear waters

Overall, good times all around! 

Canada's Wonderland with a hint of Halloween!

Let the Haunted Antics Begin

Halloween is arriving shortly and the Canadians sure know how to celebrate it! Last weekend we made a day trip to Canada's biggest theme park, Canada's Wonderland. Seriously the rides here were massive. As there were no queues, we more a less managed to go on every ride. As part of the ticked deal we got, we also got to attend the Fear Fest and a buffet! But before this happened, we first had to leave the park and re-enter in order for the park to open the haunted aspects! This is the moment i lost my phone for the second time in Canada, it must have fell out of my pocket on a ride! With luck someone in the park handed my phone to lost and found which made my day! Then i realised my keys went missing too! But thankfully they got handed in too with my phone! Moral of the story Canadians are really nice and i'm an idiot! As we all know for a fact that if this happened in England, it would of already have been sold on!

Getting ready for the view

Anyway, the Haunted aspect of the park was really good! after eating at the buffet we decided to go on the tallest roller-coaster in Canada, Behemoth! It did feel weird, as i just ate 5 plates of food! But it was good!!!! Then we hit the Haunted mazes and shows! The whole day was wicked, but the week ahead was going to be stressful as Mid-terms were approaching, as well as essay deadlines!

Bonjour and Merci Montreal!

Bixi Bike Ride around Montreal!

Once again i have not posted for a while! With the amount of work that has been going on, I seriously haven't even had time to eat, let alone sleep due to multiple essay deadlines and tests! Anyway, for Thanksgiving weekend, around 15 of us exchange peeps organised a trip to Montreal! Words can't describe how much fun we had! After a 6 hour coach trip from Toronto, we eventually arrived in the French speaking province of Quebec. It was so weird being in Canada and everyone talking in french, but it was a good to use the word "Merci" and for people to understand! Haha!! Of course, over 6 hours without a decent meal and only one apple to last you the whole journey, the first thing we did was to eat Montreal's speciality dish.  Can't really say it was exciting, as it was only melted cheese on top of chicken and chips, called 'Poutine', but it was niceeee!! Kind of like cheesy chips in England, but i'll pretty much hoover up any food that is in front of me. Anyway, you now know where cheesy chips originated from.

The next couple of days were filled with so much fun that I'm already reminiscing over good times. We were able to eat at a cool breakfast restaurant, where i had the nicest caramelised pear pancakes! There was practically a que of people outside waiting for tables to become free. After wondering around Montreal's various districts we ventured through parks as well as climbing up Mount Royal, where we was able to view over the entire city. Although the walk up killed, as we decided to take the more 'scenic route' which basically felt like a hike! And hiking in 25C+ weather was, lets just say 'an experience', but worth it! After spending the rest of the day wondering around Montreal's many attractions, the night ended with a meal and a Night out Montreal style!

Chinese Lantern Festival

The next day involved catching the metro (underground train system) to Montreal's Island where we rode bikes whilst appreciating the Montreal Skyline and good weather! The day then consisted of bike riding around the streets of montreal and visiting the Botanical Gardens, with close encounters with poisonous concussion causing plants and a bit of meditation in the Japanese gardens; well just sitting down and relaxing more like! The bike rides were really cool, as there are a number of stations around the city where you can rent a bike for $5 for 24 hours. All you have to do is make sure the bike is at a station every 30 minutes, which was fairly easy as the stations are everywhere. But one of the highlights of the day, was the visit to the Chinese lantern festival, which was wicked!! Overall the weekend was wicked and a definitely one of the many highlights of my  study abroad experience so far!

A common picturesque street in Montreal

Overall, good times all around!

Homecoming and Happy Nuit Blanche!

McMaster Marauders Vs Waterloo Warriors

Homecoming arrived and left with a Bang! After purchasing my homecoming ticket for $10 a couple of weeks ago,  I couldn't wait to finally experience it! After going to one game already, i kind of knew the drill, but Homecoming tends to be the main game! And that is the impression i got. One thing that still confuses me is the whole concept of Homecoming! After asking many Canadians "what is Homecoming?" no one could actually give me a clear answer. There has already been an opening game, so the players have already come to back Home (as in Uni). So looks like I'll have to Google it! Anyway the Game was great, free food, pictures with the mascot, McMaster University cheers, free inflatables, face paint and the atmosphere is what made Homecoming! Everyone went all out, wearing anything that represented McMaster University, so anything that said McMaster, had an Eagle and the colour Maroon! Early that morning i managed to buy myself a Marauders T-shirt to show some support! If you didn't have enough Maroon on you, then that's shameful! The whole event was pretty good, with many people having parties in the morning before the game had began and Homecoming breakfasts. Once we all arrived, we brought hot dogs during quarter breaks and watched the marching band do their stuff! Half way through the game a streaker starts running across the pitch and gets arrested by the police,  which was funny!! After winning the game McMaster 40 Vs 20 Waterloo, people went onto their house parties to celebrate!! Funny story is that Waterloo have not long just started playing Football again as they got suspended because their players were on steroids. Too surreal haha!!

Marauder's Mascot

Once Homecoming was over, it was time to hit Toronto! Every year Toronto holds a huge Festival with many pieces of art and technology located around the city. The cool thing about this festival was that it was on from 6pm to 6am the following morning! So you know what that means, time for an all nighter! A group of us decided to go and stop the whole night and return early morning on one of the first busses! So that is what we did! After setting out and arriving in Toronto, we grabbed something to eat (this is the moment i started to hiccup for 2 days solid) no joke!! We made our way around the different exhibitions all night long! But the best thing about Nuite Blanche (the name of the festival) was the moment when we were walking on a busy street and all of a sudden a truck pulls up with a Dj set on the back and strobe lights blaring out from the back onto a crowd of people raving. So obviously we all joined in and it ended up being wicked! haha i had to take a moment to think, 'Musty your in Toronto doing this on the street!' It was really Surreal! (ye i know i keep using that work but it seriously was haha

  

After walking around for so long, we came across some really cool arty things. For one we ended up in a bus that was a stimulator with images projected onto the windows inside the bus. It was cheesy humour, we also went into a museum with sculptures from the Maya culture (thats the one which predicted the world to end in 2012) as well as visiting a bollywood movie gallery. Overall we had a great night, along with free coffee and a free flask towards the end of the night at this random stand. As the daylight was approaching we decided to go and see if we can catch the sun rise over lake ontario so we all sat down and waited for the Sun to rise only to be disappointed with a sky full of clouds haha! but it was still cool! 

                      Hiding sun-rise over Lake Ontario                         Meal was the Bomb!                     

Once day light had come, we headed to the bus station to catch the 7:30am bus back Home. And then i practically slept the whole of Sunday! The weekend was one to be remembered! 

Me and Lucy @ Dundas Square

See you on the next post peeps!

The Past Couple of Weeks...

SuperArt Crawl Concert: Broken Social Scene

So it's been a long time since i last posted, but to be honest I've just been busy with uni work. The good thing is, along with many other exchange students, we have managed to book a 3 day break to Montreal in the Quebec province during the Thanksgiving weekend! (thanksgiving in Canada is on a different date to the USA), i'll be going there next weekend!

For the past few weeks I have been doing quiet a few things, but i just didn't post about them as it was all happening so fast. But for this post I've chosen to blog about an Art festival that was held in Hamilton City, called SuperArt Crawl, which happens once a year. It was pretty cool as there were a lot of random stools, from bohemian jewellery, classic record stools, Cupcake vans (which would be a wicked idea for the cupcake company to adopt at Lancaster university), snow cones and art on top of building tops, as well as on the ground. Overall it was a wicked day, i also got a free flip book which has amused me for a while, slightly concerning, and i also got to see the Broken Social Scene! There were also a variety things happening on this never ending Street, such as a girl playing the harp, a 60+ year old man hip thrusting during a band performance, and various art work dotted along the street. The building on the right had Knitted walls which looked quiet good! We also ventured into this really old Cinema, which the hamilton council are trying to bring back into action.

Drawing of Aphrodite arising from her Clam shell

Overall the day was really good and i got to see some really cool and unusual things. As mid-day approached, we also stopped by at a mini art crawl which was taking place a few blocks down with similar aspects to the main one, but was more family based. Although, the reggae music at the mini festival was really good! Whilst on this street, i did eat probably one of the nicest pizza's i have eaten, sorry Dogan's, but this pizza was the Shizzle!...Let's just say there was spinach and Hellim on it, surely thats enought to excite the tastebuds! No joke..is was too nice!

As midnight passed i headed home on the bus with my aching feet! And also some other random activity we went to was a Midnight hike in the forest behind my university campus! It ended up with all of us sitting in a circle listening to the sound of maracas and bongos, at least i think they were bongos, as well as a girl swinging lights around, which i did have a little go at. There were meant to be smores and a bonfire but it rained a little so that failed. Then we retreated to a cool game of table tennis! I've been doing some other cool things, but i guess i have wrote enough now, but i'll be posting again pretty soon as i'll be attending a couple of cool things this weekend :)

A few of us exchange peeps chilling and playing instruments during mini hike.
P.s Happy 21st Birthday to our Aussie friend Caitlin!


Adios for now amigos!

Toronto...The Diverse City!

A view to the north side of the city
Toronto Sky-Line

This week I made my first trip to Toronto and let's just say it was the Bomb. A quick fact, half the population of Toronto were not born in Toronto, making this one of the most diverse cities in the world. Arriving into Toronto on a 'Yellow school bus' you quickly begin to see the tall glass sky scrapers. We got off the bus right outside the CN tower which was pretty cool and then grabbed our tickets and made our way up to the top, which apparently takes 20-30 minutes if you were to walk to the top!...assuming you are an athletic person that is haha!...why take the stairs when you can get on a 15mph lift to the top. The lift was pretty cool as it had a glass windows on one side and also on the floor. So once we made it to the top, you could walk around to get a panoramic view of the city which was nice as you could also look over lake Ontario, which basically looks like an ocean!! There was also a glass floor at the top which we all were laying on whilst taking pictures! This one women insisted on walking on the steel that holds the glass windows together, rather than standing on the glass itself, which was funny to watch, but obviously heights aren't everyones thing! 

The Next stop was to watch the Blue Jays play against the New York Yankees! Once again the whole experience was very surreal! There were so many things going on that you wouldn't get bored! For instance, when the teams were switching positions, the giant screen in the stadium would show someone's face in the crowd and instantly that person would win either money or prizes! One lucky person won a new blackberry phone, someone else won a signed 'Jersey', whereas another won a Expedia voucher for their next holiday! Baseball itself was pretty easy to follow and was fun when the Mexican wave started going around the stadium along with the chanting! "Lets go Blue Jays!"

After the game, which i think went on for around 3 hours, we decided to wonder around Toronto and get to see the city on foot! We ended up seeing a mexican festival on the way, along with malls, vintage shops, people setting up concerts, Dundas square (the time square of Toronto) as well having a wonder around the University of Toronto's campus. Over all the city itself is really nice, there's so much going on, so there is always something to see. I think the film festival was also on too. To end the day we went to this Mexican restaurant/Bar that our Australian friend, Caitlin, suggested and this is where i tried my first Burrito Grande, which if you was wondering was really goooood!!!!!!...and kept me full! The restaurant/bar itself was pretty cool too, as there were so many random things on the walls, chairs and ceiling.

Fellow Exchangers!

Amy, Victoria and behind the Camera Selin

Overall the day in toronto was wicked day and with it only being 40 minutes away from where i live and costing $9 to get to, i will definitely making many more visits to this diverse city!

See you later!

Where To Begin...

So it has been around 2 weeks since my last post, but i do have valid reasons! It turned out that during my first week at Uni i didn't have access to the internet in my house. Although, the first week was so busy i probably wouldn't of had time to post anything. Anyway, where to begin!! So much has happened in the past two week! I've literally been having such a good time, i find it hard to actually believe I'm in Canada! So last week we had a welcome week purely for Exchange students from around the world who are also here to study for one year! Everyone is so friendly, I've met some really cool people that'll i'll be keeping in touch with for years to come! 

Exchange Students-I'm in there somewhere.

To start the Exchange welcome week we climbed the Alpine towers (kind of an obstacle course going upwards). The funny thing is that this is on the university campus. I really enjoyed it, although i did get stuck on one bit for around 6 minutes, so i just kind of admired the view while i was up there. 

I did eventually get to the top. 

I've got to mention how energetic the Canadian students are. It's so funny because it's so different from freshers week back at home. For instance, back in England move in day involved yourself and your parents moving your things into your room. That's not how it is done here. Instead you get over 20 students reps waiting for you to open your car door so they can sing to you and dance for you the very moment  you step foot on the ground. It doesn't end there, for the rest of the week everyone would sing, dance or chant! Whenever music was playing, people were dancing as well as chanting McMaster uni chants. I'm talking from half 8 in the morning till late night! 

     

A person from each department had to have a dance off with each

 other during the talks.

After the talks had finished, there were loads of things going on, at one end there was a group of people pole dancing, on the other there was a stage with music surrounded by people 'fist pumping'! it was so funny and surreal! 

Anyway I'm off! Its been a long day of doing uni work today! I could write about so many more things that i did during welcome week last week, but i'll save that for the next post (which will be soon now that i have internet). Right now i'm tired and i have a 'class' (Canadian call lectures classes) at 8:30am!

 See you Later!