The Festivities Have Begun

The beginning of Xmas

Not long ago a friend informed us about the 'Calvacade of Lights' event that was to happen in Toronto. Of course being exchange students we did a little research and took the opportunity to go and experience something different. Once i managed to pull myself out of bed, or should i say drop, we made our $9 journey into Toronto. In the early afternoon we looked around for some formal gear ready for the end of term formal next week. Toronto, as I'm sure many other places around the world, have already decorated the "Malls" (yes i said it MALL haha) with trees, lights and the rest of it. 

To be fair i was impressed with the decorations in the Eaton Centre (Ye Rosie it's Eaton not Eden), but no so much in Bay! Before we started to look around the shops, there was the tiny issue of satisfying our stomachs with some good food! The bottom floor of the mall was basically dedicated to food! I'd say there was easily around over 20 different food shops! The size of it can't really be described, but it was huge to say the least and well worth the endless search to find a seat!

As the day progressed we wondered around looking at the Xmas lights around the city and walking into random shops. Then we killed some more time by going to a restaurant to order drinks and Ice-cream. The Ice-cream was that good i had to order a second, plus the waitress added an extra scoop for me. All in all very gooood! We then made a move towards Nathan Phillips Square where Canadian singers were performing, they seemed to be well known. This was then followed by some Xmas songs, and then the Firework display to represent the beginning of Xmas or the Happy Holidays and the lighting of the Xmas lights. The reason for why Happy Holidays is used is due to the other religious event that occur during this time of the year, so it seems to be more appropriate. Also, Merry Xmas was made illegal apparently (as i was told by B) I trust her knowledge! We managed to grab a good spot on some kind of building that overlooked the whole event. Next to the concert was a fountain that has been transformed into a Ice Skating Ring. It looked wicked! We decided we would have a go on our next visit, plus it was fairly busy on there so it made sense to wait. Overall it was a wicked day out, but right now I've brought a one way ticket to back to reality! The reality being the countless amount of deadlines this week!  

Canadians are Pro Ice-Skaters!

P.s it's getting colder and I'm still ignoring the fact that the weather will soon get into negative digits.

Denial springs to mind.

Being Productive Is Key

Mills Library- My Second Home

I feel that it is important to mention that this Study abroad year is not all fun and games. One of the main reasons for coming abroad is to study half of my degree here in Canada. All i can say is the work loads is intense. With constant quizzes, in class test, mid-terms, final exams, presentations, essay outlines and essays, there hardly goes a week where i can take a breather! For instance, next week i have three essays due one day after another. All in all, you could say i live for the weekend, but even then I'm having to fit work in somehow. Since my time here, I definitely feel i am far more productive and have developed a pretty good work ethic. Since being here I've spent so much time in the library! In fact more times within the past 3 months, than the whole of my first year in England. I've also found that i can work in noisy environments, something which i couldn't do in England at all, thats the reason why i wasn't in the library. So for example, if i had an essay to write, I'd lock myself in my room with my desk covered in paper,  books, notes on the wall and with my desk light shining like a spot light. Some may say, "that's pretty over the top", but seriously it was the only way i could get things done. Since coming to Canada, the motto "Deal with it" has definitely occurred many times. HOWEVER, it is all good experience for when i get back. So i suppose if you were here and you weren't enjoying your course, it could be pretty painful. It's a good job i enjoy what I'm studying :D

Ice Hockey Is The Solution To Stress Relief

Hamilton Bulldogs Vs Grande Rapids

This week has been stressful, to be fair every week at University here in Canada is stressful! I may as well bring my mattress and simply position it in a nice corner on the 6th floor of Mills Library! (I'd probably be warmer there than in my own room too). So after handing in a lot of work, doing test and presentations, I couldn't wait for the first event of the weekend, my first Ice Hockey 'Game'. The excitement for this game had been building up slowly throughout the week, so i was expecting good things! And i was not disappointed!

                    Face Off                                  Me and Nic Prepared for the cold

 All i can say is, Ice Hockey beats both american football and baseball hands down and i can see why it is Canada's official national sport. The game itself is fast, so you are constantly left on the look out. The best part is when players face plant the plastic boards around the ice ring. We didn't get to see a fight between the hockey players this time, as fights are very regular in Hockey games. Just have a search on Youtube, you'll see what i mean. Although our city, the H Bulldogs, lost against America's Grande Rapids, it was such a cool game that the score didn't even matter. Half time involved bed racing on ice, as well as racing remote control cars on the ice, which i admit was a bit random. Ultimately, the game itself was so good! All i can say is I will definitely be going to more Ice Hockey games while I'm here in Canada. Maybe the next will be a NHL game.

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!