Toronto & UTM Arrival

By Andrew Mortimer, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada

After I had landed, and tried poutine in the airport, my first challenge was getting successfully picked up by one of my new housemates and his girlfriend. Although they only lived 20 minutes away, in neighbouring Brampton, it had been a tricky journey for them due to her faulty car. Despite breaking down three times driving back, I was fortunately unsuperstitious and pleased to get the opportunity to speak to them more (primarily by the sides of various roads), having had to rush out of the rammed terminal queue. They were great and generous company, as well as stereotypically polite Canadians. Luckily she also came from a family of mechanics and was able to get me to my Airbnb before the sun set. After I got myself set up at my temporary home that evening, said bye to them, and went to bed, I could begin thinking about settling in and my permanent accommodation once term time began in two weeks.

The next day I began a week of assimilation and frustrating phone calls with various realtors, as I and my two new housemates (one of whom hadn’t arrived) attempted to rent a house in Mississauga. Thankfully, we managed to move in on the 31st of August, and after a few days of setting up one of my housemate’s stuff (which furnished our empty home), it was livable, and there was even an Alsatian next door.

Having gotten used to the new scenery, been downtown using the useful shuttle buses, and checked out the UTM campus, I had my first scheduled events on the 5th of September. These introductory meetings allowed me to meet fellow exchange students and personally were essential in my enjoyment of my year abroad. In the second meeting, completely by chance, with a room full of people from all over the world, I sat next to a boy who lived 10 minutes away from me in Derby (and was on exchange from the University of Leeds)!

After these initial meetings, we exchange students were able to experience more of Canadian culture through several organised events. Firstly, we went to a UofT varsity ice hockey game. It was an intense match (although not as aggressive as others would be), and then we went to the Madison (the closest pub to the arena) before taking the last shuttle back. Another great event was visiting Niagara Falls for the first time. It is a good idea to go here pretty soon after arriving from the UK, in my opinion, because the boat trip to the foot of the waterfall does not run during the winter, and this was the highlight. It is not especially tricky to get to Niagara Falls from Mississauga if you are willing to get an Uber to the Clarkson GO train station, and it is worth revisiting a couple of times to fully check out the unique surrounding town if for no other reason.

I would highly recommend involving yourself in as many of these early events as the exchange team at UTM puts on, as they become rarer as the year goes on and are the best opportunities for meeting people. Finally, I would also suggest trying to go to the varsity American Football pretty quickly once you have arrived, as the season ends early in the semester.