Kit is a Civil and Structural Engineering student currently on an international year abroad at McMaster University in Canada. Based in Hamilton, about an hour from Toronto, she is looking forward to exploring the picturesque Canadian scenery in contrast with the skyscrapers that are a key feature of North American cities. She has a bizarre passion for bridges and is known for taken a bridge selfie something she will definitely be continuing in Canada and the U.S. As this is her first time out of Europe she is keen to discover what life is like across the pond and whether those stereotypes are actually true…
Heyy, (insert typical Canadian greeting here), I’m sat wrapped up in a blanket (it’s not thaaat cold yet but it’s coming…) attempting to watch the Apprentice as I reflect on my 8 weeks in Canada so far I’ve suddenly got a sense of how far away I am, 3500 miles away 5hrs behind friends back home but Hey! I’m in Canada!
These past weeks have been hectic, arriving to Toronto Pearson Airport back in August with nowhere to live (as recommended by the study abroad feedback forms…) resulted in my friend and I frantically viewing student houses,enabling us to quickly establish our bearings around McMaster and the city of Hamilton. Hamilton could be considered the Sheffield of Canada as it’s an old steel town and is slowly trying to rise up as somewhere trendy to live… We managed to find somewhere right by campus in the area that’s kind of the woodhouse of Hamilton with a group of 6 other Canadians with the intention of not just spending time with the Leeds group and the other exchange students.
Leeds and McMaster have a pretty established exchange programme so it is a routine occurrence that many students are offered Mac, there are just under 20 of us here, with an even stronger link between the science faculties – 7 from civil and 5 from physics means inevitably little Leeds bubbles have formed. Having a group of people from Leeds and others on exchange (the exchange club here are welcoming and offer good trips) lead to many fun adventures…
In the first few weeks we were able to explore the immediate local area; there’s a stunning conservation area right behind the campus and some of the local waterfalls, apparently there are a hundred within the city proximities, making Hamilton the waterfall capital of the world apparently, alongside trips to IKEA and beyond… Obviously the big name on the list was Niagara Falls as one of the reasons for coming to Canada was the stunning scenery and natural features that are exaggerated and scaled up dramatically compared to Britain. Niagara Falls are actually two waterfalls; the American falls (self-explanatory) and the Horseshoe Falls, the falls, and the main reason that people visit Niagara. The other, slightly bizarre and very contrasting purpose to visit Niagara is for the casinos, as a top tourist destination it was inevitable that there would be tacky touristy shops and things, but as we stepped of the American style school bus that have bizarrely been taking us on our trips it was bleak and a stark contrast so see so many high-rise illuminated buildings housing the casinos right next to one of the natural wonders of the world.
With the intention of viewing the highly anticipated fall (autumn) colours a group of us went on an outdoors trip the following weekend to Algonquin Park, one of Canada’s many national parks. After travelling 6 hours on an uncomfortable school bus (we were over the initial excitement) we arrived to the darkness of a campsite to await the view in the morning. It certainly did not disappoint and witnessing the mists rise from the lake to reveal the park was beautiful. We spent both Saturday and Sunday canoeing and portaging (where you walk with the canoe on your shoulders) exploring the park and the evenings around a fire. Unfortunately the colours had only just started to turn so it wasn’t as impressive as we’d hoped but we were still able to see plenty of chipmunks, loons (a bird of Canada that can dive/swim) and many black squirrels, the illusive moose were not spotted.
The big adventure so far has been our fall break trip (technically also reading week…) where a group of us hired and minivan and drove north east to three of the “must-see” Canadian cities; Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa. Montreal and Quebec are both in French speaking Canada, which relied on my poor French a level skills. The French speaking cities have the same hostilities towards those that don’t bother with French as that of France, they at least expect you to try. These cities feature winding streets similar to Paris with Quebec City being based within the old citadel, the fortified city of Quebec, Ottawa despite being smaller than the three largest cities (Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal) is the capital of Canada, with the famous parliament hill and Rideau canal it was definitely worth a visit despite views from Canadians that Ottawa was boring!
In terms of the Canadian stereotypes, never have I seen so much plaid! They have a bizarre obsession with the British accent, which always makes for interesting conversations in the club washrooms (bathrooms)… AbootOout and eh are all very much things and the stereotypes are not over-exaggerated at all! Like America the roads here are massive, and the highways can be up to 12 lanes wide nearer the big cities with express and collector lanes that are incredibly confusing for a brit abroad attempting to drive an automatic minivan whilst on fall break… They also let almost anyone drive pick-up trucks which made for a fun trip to IKEA with my housemate when furnishing our new house, working out how to properly secure a bed in the back of a pick-up was an interesting task for two engineers… Queen Elizabeth II, often referred to as Lizzie is massively featured in Canada, she’s on their 20 dollar note, all of their coins (nickel, dime, quarter, loonie and toonie) alongside being present in Canadian parliament in paintings and on a horse as a statue, there is a constant sense of Britain here, both because of the history but also because of Canada’s love of Britain despite constantly seeking distance from the commonwealth… A “British-Style” pub is easily found here which is odd with the strict Canadian drinking rules; the drinking age is 19, they start uni at 17 which is weird and casual drinking is just not a thing here…
The plan in Canada is to experience some winter sports, such as skiing and curling, next week we’re off to our first hockey game (hockey is ice hockey here our normal hockey is field hockey…) so I’m preparing myself for violent brawls which don’t stop until someone hits the ice! There are also plans to spend Christmas in Vancouver and New Year’s in New York – I can’t wait to see the ball drop! I also want to explore more of the metropolis of Toronto (suits is filmed there!! I’ve seen that corner!!) as it’s so weird how it suddenly goes from the dense high rise financial district to normal buildings. The end plan is to roadtrip down the West Coast so we’ll see what happens…
This week has been highly stressful with multiple assignments and my first ever midterm (scary thing) – continuous testing and surprise quizzes actually happen here, so I’m off to wallow in a typically Canadian Chinese takeaway and a rom com with some of the British girls… Byeee!!
Kit Wolverson x