-
Vancouver
By Andrew Mortimer, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada I arrived in Vancouver early and very tired on the 16th of May, having taken a 24-hour train ride from Jasper in the Rocky Mountains. I then took a quick bus ride across the city to my hostel (HI Jericho Beach) and met up with my friend, whom I saw a few days previously in Canmore. After dropping our stuff off, we headed to UBC Vancouver, which I knew had a picturesque campus right on the coast. Unfortunately we couldn’t visit their Museum of Anthropology, which has amazing indigenous displays, due to major renovations, but the Japanese Garden we stumbled across was…
-
Banff & Jasper
By Andrew Mortimer, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada In order to make the most of being on the other side of the world, and with the enthusiastic recommendation of my housemate from Calgary, I decided to go even further from home by flying out to Western Canada. I decided to go on the 8th of May, a week after my final exams had finished, so that I had great weather and minimal fellow tourists. Although I wouldn’t be back in Toronto until the 21st of May, I was only in Banff and Jasper until the 15th, so I had to make sure I made the most of my time whilst…
-
Chicago
By Andrew Mortimer, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada Having never been to the USA before, I was glad when my friend suggested that we visit Chicago in mid-March, as at that point our exams wouldn’t have begun yet. After a bit of itinerary planning, admin, and an extremely empty and early 90-minute plane ride, we arrived (very tired) on the Friday morning. After leaving our stuff at the hostel, we headed downtown to a diner for a great lunch before wandering around ‘the Loop’ and checking out the Chicago River, which had been dyed green for St Patrick’s Day the week before, an iconic tradition there. Once we explored the…
-
Family Visit
By Andrew Mortimer, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada Having not gone home at Christmas, or at any other time, it was exciting to have my family visit in early March. None of my mum, dad, brother or sister had been to Canada before, and as they were only staying for 4 days, we had to make a busy itinerary. This could only begin on the Saturday once they had attempted to sleep having arrived on Friday night, though, by going up the CN Tower. As I had had dinner up there months before, I suggested we have lunch for different views and a different menu. Standing on the glass panels…
-
Winter at UTM
By Andrew Mortimer, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada As nice as it would be to skip them, whilst doing a year abroad, you still have to take and pass your exams. At UofT this can be pretty challenging, because the standards of the other students are very high, and their near-total focus on academics and maintaining a high GPA has the obvious benefits and drawbacks. Building up to those then, I was spending more time in the various libraries, but I still managed to enjoy the lectures and all the extra activities outside of university. For example, I was lucky enough to have a fancy meal at the top of…
-
Montreal & Quebec City
By Andrew Mortimer, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada Having only been at UTM for a handful of weeks, I and a few other exchange students realised that if we wanted to explore our new surroundings, a great time to do so would be during the reading week, which was coming up in early October. Even though we hadn’t known each other long at all, 6 of us decided to book a week away in the province of Quebec—firstly Montreal and then Quebec City. This was a great decision, as we all really enjoyed the trip, especially experiencing the unique culture there. 2 days before we left, I was also lucky…
-
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…
A study abroad journal by students, for students.
