Exam Period

Hamilton Harbour

So the stress has begun to try and end the year on a good average in order to put me in the best position possible for the third year. With my exams varying between being worth 30%-45% it proves to be much lower than the final exams back home in the UK, where the minimum percentage is usually 50%. So trying to figure out how much revision is needed is pretty hard. Although there is a lot less content to revise, this is compensated with the numerous amounts of assignments throughout the term.

Hamilton Harbour

It doesn’t help that the sun decides to raise temperatures to 26 CE and so threatening any attempt that I make at revision. There is the “lets study outside”, but that usually ends with people lounging around, eating and drinking the coldest beverages the scarce fridge has to offer.  One of these days was inevitable and so we decided to go for a bike ride along the harbour of Hamilton. It was quite nice considering certain areas of Hamilton are pretty run down, due to the remains of the steel industry that swooped over the city during the 20^th century. The bike trail was rammed with families, runners, long boarders and roller bladders. Everyone was clearly making the most out of the weather. It was a pretty cool ride up until we come across a child throwing stones at a few ducks whilst his mother followed behind trying to take photos of him doing it. Albeit entertaining.

So the day ended with strawberry and bananas smoothies in the garden along with a pile of unopened books. Although, it is fair to say that we deserved a day off as we recently finished all our classes.  

Mairi's Smoothies

'Spring' Break Continued

Few of Quebec's oldest buildings

After a long but comfortable train ride from Ottawa we arrived in ice cold Quebec City. Since coming to Canada in September we have been warned about temperatures plummeting to -20 CE, instead we were greeted by a mild winter with the odd few days of heat. This all ended in Quebec City as temperatures ranged from a maximum of  -7 CE and a minimum -25 CE.


Before we arranged any outdoor activities, we spent some time walking around the city as well as taking a long bus journey to the Montmorency waterfall. This is where we finally experienced the knee deep snow that every Canadian friend had mentioned. It was so deep that the Aussies struggled to cope with. The all too regular "I'm cold" phrase was mentioned more times than cheese (read on). Walking around the field we stumbled across snowboarders at a park, took the chance to slide down frozen steps as well as giving the Australians a chance to make their first snow man. It basically looked like a scene from Narnia. Eventually we ended up in this village cafe where the poutine portions were too much to handle... eh Richard? He shovelled the cheese curds down like a Frenchman who has been away from France for too long. Anyway we made our way back and gorged ourselves on Swiss fondue, some more than others...Richard. The fondue itself was a bit too cheesy for my liking so I quit earlier than the others. It was ok though- Richard took one for the team and took care of the leftovers whilst discussing the prospect of a trip to Philadelphia. Ok that's enough cheese jokes.

Brie-lliant Time (Sorry last joke)

More than knee deep

Struggle

The next day we made our way to Valcartier Ice Park. I think it is fair to say that we were probably one of the oldest groups there but seriously a 80 year-old gran with two hip replacements would have had as much fun as we did. Valcartier Ice Park consists of huge steep snow covered slopes that you could either go down on your own or whilst holding onto a friends rubber dingy straps. Located amongst scenic snow-capped mountains, it was the perfect winter break activity. Sliding down was truly epic  and worth the sweaty climbs back up to the top. It was even more epic when we discovered the drag lifts, which sarah eventually mastered. The best slopes had to be the steepest, on the 8-man log rafts and the spinning rafts.

Say 'Cheese'

  

Part of the Valcartier deal was that you also gain access to the 2km outdoor ice skating trail. Even though we were made to look like complete fools on the ice by our friend Drew (Canadian pro ice-skater), it was fun to just mess around. Once we had enough of that we made our way back onto the slopes! Time management was essential. Maybe the only similarity with the 10 year olds at the park was our packed lunches.

Ended up in a pile

Surreal-Pimpin'

The following day was the day that I eventually had the chance to go dog sledding, something I had been looking forward to since applying to do an exchange year abroad. Once we geared up with more layers of wet dog smelling clothes, we braved our way out into the cold. After a quick/short talk on how to control the sleds we were on the sleds steering away in under 10 minutes in the great Canadian outdoors. Having paid little attention to the instructions that were given to Sarah and I, we quickly made away into the bushes off the clear path in front. Whilst on the sled within 2 hours it managed to snow heavily, harshly hail and beam with sunlight on a repeating loop. The route was really scenic, especially when we entered wooded areas. Eventually we fell off the sled, having saved my camera from the fall, we had to quickly get up and chase the dogs in order to stop them from running off. After playing with the pups it was sadly over and so was our trip to Quebec City. Overall it was a wicked spring break and I made the right decision to go Cold.

Canadian Winter break

P.s A big merci to our French tour guide Arthur, albeit overpriced :D

'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!!!

B(w)oston, Massachusetts

Burger Joint's Wall of Fame

After New York it only seemed right that a trip to Boston should follow. Once we checked into the hostel it was time to search for some food! A common theme that you might be noticing. We eventually settled for a burger bar two minutes away from The Berkley College of Music. The bar itself was pretty cool as the walls were covered with all things American as well photos of customers who completed the challenge of eating 6 or more hot dogs. If those hot dogs were chicken or beef, im sure i would have demolished at least 8, modest i know!



Boston had an unusual feel to it in that it was not like any other American city i had been too. In fact there seemed to be a lot more history and the city itself was a really calm. We started the day with a tour around the famous Red sox baseball stadium. We then attempted to follow the freedom trail around Boston but had quickly got distracted by Quincy Market! The Freedom trail is basically a self guided tour around the historical sights of the city! However that quickly ended when we came across a Market that catered for all palates. They had a variety of foods with Clam Chowder being the most popular. We spent around 4 hours in this market just chilling and getting up now and again to buy the next course to our meal! Eventually we decided that we should continue with the freedom trail! We ended up walking past the first public school in America as well as the graveyards of those who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Harvard University

The following day we made our way to Harvard University and walked around a part of the campus. The university's buildings were really nice and the campus itself was appealing. Next stop was Salem which is famous for the Witch trials. The area was dead, the streets were empty and the only shops open were those selling witch related products. You could buy yourself some love potion as well as the book of shadows and many other random things. Salem itself had a weird feel to it, especially after a young girl or boy (couldn't tell) asked if i wanted to hear a rap. It was funny at first but then he/she wouldn't leave haha eventually he/she had fallen for the "I'm going to miss my train" reason. We finished off with a lunch in this cool cafe and happened to bump into a friend's cousin. It's also worth mentioning that we had a successful trip to the Cheesecake factory too. All in all, Boston was really nice and relaxing! Although the coach journey back to Canada was not pleasant as we first had to go back to NY in order to get our coach to Toronto! But all was good as we re-visited the all day breakfast restaurant in Madison square gardens before we left! A good 2 hours spent in NY.

Salem

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!

New York New Year

Coach Trip Into New York

New York was the next stop after Washington. I think it had taken around 5 hours to get to NY from DC,  but it was no hassle as we managed to get the front seats of the coach. We had the best view all the way to NY and managed to get some great shots. We arrived and of course when we exchangers travel nothing seems to go smoothly and so we are always running around. The first issue was getting into the apartment. After reading bad reviews of the person who rents the apartments we were already worried that we might not have no where to stay and that we just wasted money by paying a deposit. Upon arrival the landlord messaged us saying that he was waiting for us at the accom. Of course it had taken us longer than expected to get to the apartment and so we had missed the landlord. We eventually found the accom but couldn't get in, so the first thoughts were that we have been conned: "it was too good to be true". Basically, whatever was happening to us was what we had read on the bad reviews; "you will arrive and the landlord will not be there......etc". I don't know about the others but i started to panic as we had no way of contacting him apart from through wifi and we cannot ring from our Canadian phones in the US. So we eventually decided that i should run to his office which on the map seemed to be a couple of blocks away. So I'm running around, dodging a lot of people, dropping things on the way and then i decide to quickly check my emails to see if he has contacted us. Luckily he had sent us the code to the building as well as leaving the keys for us to collect! Panic over! The apartment was exactly as it was advertised, it practically looked newly furnished, it was small but that didn't really matter, and to be able to have accom for New Year period was a miracle in itself! as we booked it so late. Also the landord turned out to be an alright guy, he was originally from Ireland and now lives in NY. One of the best things was that we were a 5 minute walk into Soho and we were surrounded by a lot of wicked restaurants in a nice area!

Front view of the Apartment

Pancakes, Waffles and Egg sandwiches

One word to sum up this trip is "Food". I cannot even remember half the places we went to but one thing should be noted; anything can be found. One particular favourite of ours was a restaurant called "Stage Door" located in Madison Square Gardens. They served all day breakfast and really nice deli sandwiches. The food was so good and the prices were also really reasonable and so you had to order more than what was needed. The portions were huge. Do not fret nothing was wasted! Being in New York this time round allowed me to explore areas that i previously hadn't seen as well to visit a few museums that i didn't get a chance to do before! One cool thing that i got to see was the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition. It was interesting to see something that i had been studying in the previous semester. It was something not to be missed as they were only in NY for a few weeks as they were on loan to the US by Israel. 

Catching some Rays            Chelsea Market

If you are ever in New York, I recommend you go to Chelsea Market! It is basically this indoor food market! Me and Mairi went from shop to shop trying everything, from brownies, pastries, pies, cupcakes etc... It was food heaven! It's also the place where the cookies are made for the Grammy's or the Oscar's, can't remember which one. But yeah this place is wicked! And whilst you're in the area take a walk down the high line! You will meet some odd characters on your way, we did! 

The  Highline

The most exciting thing that i expirienced in NY  was celebrating the New Year! News Years Eve arrived and the scramble to be in the centre was chaotic. Getting onto 7th Avenue was tiring, we walked from 42nd all the way to 59th street because every time we tried to turn into a street the guards would say the next the street is closed and that the next one is open! So this went on for a while until we found ourselves walking in central park in order to get back round to 7th avenue! At this stage we started running and so were many other people! it's funny now that i look back but at the time it was pretty stressful as we were worried that we might not see anything at all! And to spend New Years Eve in a bar would be pretty crap as that can be done anywhere! With determination we managed to get onto 7th avenue. We could see time square in the distance, we were neither too far or close! A couple of other exchangers decided to go to Time square at 1pm in order to be in the centre! They made the right decision as they had the full view of the performers! But waiting around for 9 hours didn't really sound appealing. Nonetheless, we got a good spot and waited! People were buying full pizzas and then selling slices to the crowd! People were sitting on the floor and every so often a barrier would open and we would dart to the next block in order to get closer! It was funny because everyone would just race to the front and get squished whilst trying to get through the barriers! It was all good fun! So we waited, joked around and watched the big screens for a couple of hours. It was a bit annoying that they didn't provide big speakers for us to hear the performers, so although we could see Lady gaga, Drake and Santana perform we couldn't hear them! luckily for us this women came onto a balcony and music started to play the closer we got to 2012! Of course Alicia Keys' Empire state of mind was played whilst everyone sang along. The women seemed like she was having too much fun as she started to swing her head around while holding her microphone in the air! The countdown started and The New Year arrived with fireworks and people singing in the street! It was a wicked experience that i will not forget!!

Time Square Clean Up

I Quote, "Not So Busy Washington"

Getting Inaugurated at Capitol Hill

The journey to Washington begun with a funny experience whilst we were about to cross the boarder into America. Basically there were three of us going to Washington, Nic had a minor issue with boarder control as she did not have her study permit paper! So we laughed for a couple of minutes up until the coach doors shut and Nic still wasn't on the coach. So we got prepared to let the driver know that our friend was still at boarder control. Luckily he went back and Nic made it back onto the coach...along with a new study permit paper! But yes she was one of those that held the entire coach behind! haha! After 15 hours on the coach, crossing through 3 states and a women talking so loud on the phone that a couple of people told her to keep it down, we made it into DC. 

First initial thoughts when driving into DC were....well lets just say a bit run down. It was only until we got to our accommodation that we were told to keep away from the area we arrived in, basically the whole East side of the city. When dropping off our luggage we met possibly one of the funniest Asian women i have ever met. She was from Hong Kong, most likely to be in her 50s and she cracked out the funniest one liners. Her main feature was to rate locations around the world according to how busy they were and according to her "Washington was not so busy and boring". She was a character and she also went to mexico for 2 months, you get the idea; she gave us a lot of info on where to go as well as what she has done and what she also wants to do when she returns back to Hong Kong, which is to become a translator for those who wanted to know.

So we made our way around Washington seeing all the landmarks it had to offer. Surprisingly the city itself is pretty small as we managed to walk everywhere. My favourite landmark was definitely the Lincoln Memorial where we were able to read the Gettysburg address. I feel it is also worth mentioning that the Supreme Court of the United States is also a pretty cool building as everything was made from Marble, including inside. One thing i have realised since crossing the pond is that poverty is definitely more apparent. Whilst visiting the White House there were people sleeping outside the gates on the floor in their sleeping bags. Pretty surreal considering the President is living life in luxury while temperatures outside plummet below zero.

             
     

lincoln Memorial

One thing i loved about Washington was the fact that the majority of the Museums were free! We spent at least 4-5 hours in each one. The national air and space Museum and the Natural History museum are definitely ones to visit, we spent around 4 hours in each and could of spent much longer if we had the time. Overall, there is a lot too see and i can imagine it being even better in the Summer as you can hire paddle boats near the Cherry Blossom trees. So we headed back on the late night to get ready to depart in the morning. I also have to mention the Asian lady was a very light traveller, she would wash her clothes each night and hang them in the bathroom to dry, we stumbled into her spiderman pants quite often haha!!! I felt it was worth a mention.

Overall, I really enjoyed Washington and i definitely recommend taking a visit when you are given the chance! After Washington we headed to New York to celebrate the arrival of the New Year! More on that on the upcoming post.

Washington Memorial in the distance