And the exchange begins!

The last two weeks have been a blur...
A whirlwind of figuring out class rooms, socialising, subjects, phones, emails, furnishing the apartment, socialising, buying extra warm clothes, understanding classes, organising weekend/future travel, socialising, grocery shopping, trying new foods, seeing new places...just to mention a few.
Being "aussie" is pretty fun in Canada... Everyone loves us.
We are pointed out almost every class by the prof, offered help and friendship by everyone.
We are in a 3 level apartment building with a Frenchman and Italian man above us, and above them are two girls; a Swede and another Frenchie.
We were invited upstairs on one of the first nights. Where all of our neighbours and a couple more Frenchies were drinking and being merry... I think it was one of the first times where the most common language being spoke wasn't english (despite being in a primarly english speaking country). So it was quite weird trying to interpret what was being spoken with the little French I remember from the 5 years I learnt at Fintona.
Em has made quite the effort to make sure we are included and feel loved. She got all the girls together for a night out on the town the day after my birthday; beforehand we met at Ems for some drinks where I was suprised with a smartie-covered cake with candles.
We went to one of the local countrybars; "Dallas". Everyone loves country music here, Keith Urban is definately a favourite and we being his fellow Australians are looked at weird for not knowing/liking his music.
We took the bus and arrived at the bar to find a line of 700+ people. Lisa (Em's friend) had booked us a guest list earlier in order to allow us free entry and no waiting in line. The bouncer didn't want to hear it though, aparently everyone in line was on the guest list....
So after Em was shoo-ed away for whinging, I jumped in with my Aussie accent pleading that it was my birthday and my first night out in town etc. Which somehow managed to get the 15+ of us in past the 700+ line without paying for entry! (my thoughts "schweeeeet, I love being australian right now").
Dallas is two levels, the second being a balcony over looking the main floor below at the front of which is a stage with a mechanical bull...
Of course, me being the birthday girl and a exchange student was told I had to have a turn... 20ish seconds later, I very unspectacularly and lame-ly slid off the bull. Pat made a more impressive effort with 84 seconds.
The Canadian certainly are hospitable people....I paid for one drink that night. The rest of that weekend was spent recovering....
Last Thursday was Lisa's birthday. We were invited out to join the gang at the local Bricker Brewery, where they have "bricker tours"... aka- pay $15 for 2 hours of all you can drink beer.
It was a good night, I held back just enough to enjoy the antics of many others around me. Joelle (another of Em's close friends) confessed her love to me before telling me that her and the 6 other girls jokingly call themselves the 7 days of the weeks, and the other night she had a dream that everyone was a particular day of the week, and I as their new edition to the week was the 8th holiday! So I've recently been given the new nickname "holiday". So no shortage of love coming my way!

Language differences can be quite funny. Apart from obvious differences like biscuits/crackers, ALuminIum foil/aLoooominum foil, I reckon/eh?, about/aboot, beanie/tuque(pronounced took...and we get the weird looks saying beanie?!); the canadians are so polite that they must think we have the dirtiest mouths ever.
I think Australian swearing to Canadians is like the Irish are to Australians. I don't swear that much compared to most people at home, but over here I must have such a sailor mouth! We either get laughs for swearing or a little girly jump from the unexpected expletive.

I think Im also seen as a bit special, for some reason I've developed this constant habit of pulling doors when they should be pushed and pushing doors when they should be pulled; Pat finds it hilarious and gives me a patronizing cheer on the few occasions I get it right. As well as this we both keep walking through hallways and on stairs on the left side and almost hitting people...
I'm also highly likely (and hoping not to be) to be hit by a car at any moment. Every morning we leave the apartment for an 8.30am class; in Melbourne 8.30 isn't that bad... This morning in waterloo it was -20C before windchill. The cold hits you so hard that sometimes you forget to breathe... It's like the automatic reaction you get when you first dive into cold water and hold your breath, except every now and then I do it as I walk outside. So when you're struggling to concentrate on breathing, it's really hard to remember to look in the opposite direction when you cross the main road at 8.15 in the morning.

Hockey....is (to understate it) an obsession. I don't think there has been a class without a famous game, or player, or shot being talked about. Nutrition, Ethics, Physiology, Psychology all mention ice hockey at least half a dozen times or so in an hour long class. Everytime it's mentioned though, the prof usually then pauses, turns to the rest of the class and says... "can some please explain it for people who don't know what we're talking aboot?" as they gesture in the aussies general direction.
The profs are also really nice and complement on cool things that the Australians have going for them. Such as the nutrition prof talking about our Glycemic Index labeling on foods; or the physiology prof asking about Tasmania or the Ethics teacher saying he loves our national rugby team "the all blacks"....errr yes... It felt to mean to correct his intended complement...

Living on campus is like living in a bubble, theres a convience store, a starbucks, pub, club etc... I mentioned them all to you last time. But basically there is enough to get by living on campus and not leaving. So without a TV, we don't really get to hear much news and the campus life bubble begins to grow....

That's why Pat and I took ourselves off to Toronto last weekend to actually start seeing some of Canada. I love Toronto. It's not that different to Melbourne. Very multicultural, very friendly, not too touristy, great little areas within and all over the city.
Our first stop was the St Lawrence markets where we had a highly recommended (and deservingly so) parmigana sandwich. We then walked along the harbor front which looks across to the Toronto Islands. Half of the water surrounding Toronto is frozen. I've seen frozen water and lakes before, but its quite strange to see a city functioning around it; boats driving through it, ducks popping up from underneath it...
After a pitstop in a local favourite "Tim Hortons" (basically a cheaper version of starbucks, very average coffee and yummy but regretful doughnuts) to defrost we continued walking through the town.
After 30mins under the doona at the hostel, followed by a scortching hot 20min shower my body was still freezing cold; it took over a good hour to warm up. That night we spent a bit more money than a backpacker would normally, and had dinner at the revolving restaurant up the CN tower; which for 30years was the tallest construction in the world, so as you can imagine the view was pretty amazing. Luckily for the price we paid, the food was pretty amazing too!
The next morning I had one of my first ever sleep ins... and in a bed with springs....ahhhhh!
Back into the cold we explored the Yonge district, lots of shopping, none done by me though. I will admit to briefly entering one store for 5 mins, did a quick lap looking for shoes asked for directions from a staff member before making an emergency exit as I could see Pats mood rapidly plummeting.
A very cold walk via Toronto University to China Town followed. (I feel like you only need to see China town in one or two countries other than your own, and you've seen them all).
Before heading home we had a late lunch and coffee in Kensington Markets, which aren't really markets at all. Its a lot of small fruit stores, cafes, lunch spots etc filled with dreadlock embracing, hippy-ish, alternative hardcores. The food and coffee was amazing. It reminded me a lot of North Melbourne.
Infact most of Toronto reminded me a little bit of different areas within and around Melbourne... except with snow.
Waterloo though...
Waterloo is the town my University is in; and while being very pretty and with a couple of shops, it doesn't really have that much to it... A little bit like Launceston cross aspen...

Not this weekend but the next one we have a 3 day camping trip. It's organised for international/exchange students where we get to go polar dipping (cut a hole in the ice and jump in), sit around camp fires, snow shoeing, sledding and use the sauna. We do stay in a lodge though, so it's not quite cold as the rec trips at home staying in igloos! Can't wait! Hoping to see a moose or two!

Love me! xo

New York to Toronto

After a 2 hour flight to Bangkok, a 15 hour wait there, a 7.5hr flight to Doha, a 2hr transfer in Doha, a 14hr flight to New York, almost an hour on the tarmac, half an hour delay for bag pick up we walked through customs in New York fairly tired.

The next step was to get to get to the Hostel.

Outside in the line for taxis, it was like the airport had exploded with busyness and snow. The whole of New York; as most of you would’ve known, had been shut down due to the snow storms and we had arrived in post storm peak hour.

The line for cabs was pretty long, we waited 30mins before being told the airport had run out of taxis, there were still some more to come, but not many.

Pat and I decided to change to the shuttle service (of course as this happens, more taxis turned up). We waited half an hour for our shuttle, our short little Italian man turned up, called out my name and off he went rushing though and disappeared in a crowd of much taller people.

We hurried after him, jumped in the shuttle and drove. 150m down the road, he decided to swipe the front of a stationary car as he was pulling into the curb. We waited another 45mins for another shuttle while our short angry Italian man argued that the other car was moving and drove into him.

By the time we arrived at the hostel, it was 65hours between beds. I was tired, but Pat was wrecked.

Central Park

 Our first day we walked through snow covered central park, went to the North Face store to stock up on some warm clothes, visited Columbus Circle for some wholefoods for lunch (and a quick peek in some more shops) and then continued through Times Square (buying some more clothes along the way), and back up to fifth avenue where I purchased a new laptop.

Columbus Circle

Times Square

So after almost 8hours of dragging Pat around he had been quite the trooper, but had begun to be a bit tired and grumpy, so it was time to go home.

New years eve we met up with Hannah (a girl from the year below me at school who I used to row and coach with) and her family. We did a great walking tour that was supposed to be 6 hours… It turned into 8! However it was great, we covered a lot of sights and food.

Wall St

We started in Wall st, proceeded to ground zero, went to little Italy (had amazing pizza followed by a course of delicious rice pudding shared with my fellow chocaholic and sweet tooth Hannah), then onto Chinatown where live frogs, eels and many many live fish are sold.

Badges of Ground Zero Volunteers

Hannah Banana+Me+Chocolate Rice Pudding=Heaven

Stinky live fish anyone?

We saw Heath Ledgers apartment before heading to Times Square, grand central station (where Hannah and I gave into our sweet tooths yet again, Magnolia bakery has the most amazing cupcakes, featured in sex in the city), Soho and finished in Greenwich Village.

Grand Central Station

Later that night Pat and I went to Greenwich village into a small bar and had drinks before counting down with the very random crowd that surrounded us (a lady older than 60 with blue hair, a group of Korean exchange students, American footballers etc). It was a good choice considering we didn’t have tickets anywhere; we could barely walk through Times Square 2 days before and had been warned by almost everyone not to bother going there for New Years.

New Years in Greenwich Village

After a big sleep in on New years day we went to the highly recommended Katzs Deli for an amazing pastrami sandwich. A walk across Brooklyn Bridge was well worth the effort for some great views of the city and the statue of liberty.

Brooklyn Bridge

The afternoon was spent ice skating with Hannah-banana in the North end of Central Park which was a lot of fun; then in the evening we proceeded to a comedy show which I had been pretty skeptical about (a black man called John convinced us into going after approaching us in Times Square and halving the ticket price). The show was to my surprise actually really funny.

Ice skating in Central Park

Our last day in New York, Pat had a confession…. And I quote “I love New York” and “maybe we should come back for a weekend” –mwahaha I had succeeded in convincing him that New York was more than just a big city!

Our last day I spent the morning organizing airport transfers and apartment key pick ups while Pat had another extended sleep in to recover from some pretty rough jetlag. Eventually we got out and about and headed to Times Square to meet Hannah Banana, we visited the Toys r Us store where they have a ferris wheel inside the store and we all revisited our childhood dreams in the giant Barbie house, in the Jurassic Park section and then the Wonka candy section.

NY's local icon- The Naked Cowboy

Toys R' Us

Between us we had lots of Shockers, Gobstoppers and Runts before going to the M&M store to see the ridiculous amount of different colours and types of M&Ms and a leather Swarovski crystal encrusted M&M jacket worth $3000+.

M&M&M&M&M&M&Ms

I said good bye to Hannah Banana L after a drink at Hooters (yes all class I know, but you have to see it).

We headed back to the hostel for to pick up the bags and head to the airport.

Toronto is cold, very cold. But it was only -7, apparently we will get down to -20 (yes that is in Celsius).

A lovely man took us in our shuttle to Wilfred Laurier University, my home for the next few months. He was very chatty and unbelievably helpful, drove us to go pick up our keys on the other side of uni and then without being asked to drove us to our door and help us take the luggage inside; apparently after a bad incident he know walks everyone inside to make sure they are safe. He told us that it can get so cold that you are able to hear your breath freeze as it leaves your mouth.

Our apartment is great, in the basement of 201 Regina St North, Waterloo ON (look it up on Google maps for a pic if you feel like it). We have beds, desks, chests of drawers, couches, table, kitchen table, oven and stove. But no pots, pans, cutlery or dishes…

 My new room

Orientation games

Orientation day started at 9am, it was a whirlwind of information. We had a tour around the school, met other international and exchange students and a couple of people from our course, there was a group of about 35 people. The tour was great, Laurier is so big, about 5 times bigger than ACU (but its still smaller than most other unis here); it has a gym (free to use) with spin classes etc, an Olympic size pool (free use also), 3 basketball courts in a big stadium, a fast food court open till 2am (good for late night munchies after a big one), heaps of other eating areas and cafes, lots of big buildings, a convenience store, a pub, a nightclub pretty much everything you could possibly need to make this a small city in itself. One hallway has the student union emblem on the group, which no one walks on out of respect for the university. It's called "The Hawk", its even been known to have guards around it during inter-university events to stop people from disrespecting the hawk.

Respect "The Hawk"

I met a very funny and stereotypically wacky Dutchman called Peter, I think its already love between him and Pat. Later that evening we had dinner as a big group, Peter loves to joke but didn’t quite comprehend the cultural differences between him and a Iranian girl called Sahar. He was telling us how Amsterdam is fantastic and you can do anything and everything including “smoking, drinking and having sex all at the same time”, needless to say Sahar hopped up and walked away from that conversation in suppressed disgust.

We finished the night at one of the local pubs watching the junior hockey championship between Canada and the US; needless to say there is a huge rivalry. I’m pretty excited to see a hockey game.

I love it here, I love the snow, everything is so pretty, the people are so polite, kind and helpful, we have so much support offered to us and so much information given to us. A lot of the mentors we were with yesterday offered us spare toasters, kettles, pots, pans and microwaves.

We had our first class this morning, Em (who came from here on exchange to Australia last year) had ethics with us this morning. The lecturer, aka “the prof” was so kind, he spoke to us after class and told us he’d make sure we were properly integrated into his class and he’d help us with any problems we had.

If I could stay a full year on exchange I would (but ACU wont let me), this place is fantastic.

More to come soon! xo

Hanoi

Hanoi was great. It’s full of colour, noise, people, traffic and is somewhat volatile. The general community is really happy and never afraid to hand out complements to each other and tourists.

I feel like with my coloured hair I may as well be walking around with a giant arrow pointing at me above my head in neon lights.

 Pat and I went to the movies and as we were waiting for the film to start, I had two girls next to me repeatedly taking photos in my direction. The photos stopped after I turned around and grinned for them in the background.
At the ceramic village we visited this morning I had a couple of girls standing a couple of meters away huddled together giggling, one of them proceeded to come up to me and say in Vietnamese that I was beautiful. There's never a shortage of children seeking attention from foreigners either, saw a really cute little boy at the end of the day who showed off with staking chairs and spinning them around until he was dragged away being told off.

The Ceramic Village

We’ve done a couple of touristy things around town; seen the temple of literature, walked around the lake numerous times, seen the ceramic village, tried plenty of the local cuisine and driven around to see some of the sights. 

The Temple of Literature

More could have been crammed in, but I’ve enjoyed being able to wander around town and see Hanoi for what it is, as opposed to paying for every touristy sight that half the locals haven’t seen let alone care much about. Having said that though, being a communist country, the community is not lacking national pride; flags are everywhere, everything has a history and a story. It’s reinforced to me how Australia; as such a young country, we generally tend to only adopt a sense of national honour for sporting occasions or Australia day.

On the 23^rd Georgie and Sanaya left us. We spent the night before strolling around the Lake and taking photos of the beautiful scenery. 

The next morning we got in a taxi at 4.30am... With over 10km left to go the taxi was swerving from one lane to the other (I’ve never felt more comfortable driving in both lanes along the line in the middle), so when our driver began hitting himself in the head with his fist, it was time for Pat to start rambling off every word of Vietnamese he could. Apparently I am his girlfriend who is 22 years old and a tour guide, Georgie and Sanaya are 18 and both his sisters who teach English....The stories went on and on. Talking at the taxi driver and turning up the radio were our only two tactics available to us. Pat is able to talk in Vietnamese but struggles to interpret the questions.

We survived, made it to the airport and got through a teary goodbye from both Georgie and Pat, and now it’s just Pat and I.

Christmas eve, Pat took me out to lunch to meet one of his friends who he used to work with; well that’s what I was told at least. We drove to Pat’s friend’s new workplace at the intercontinental hotel, as we arrived I took a call from home. We proceeded through the hotel where we were to meet Mai at her room, no one answered the door, and Pat then rudely pulled out the key to Mai’s room.

“Merry Christmas!”-then I clicked, we weren’t actually meeting anyone for lunch at all. Pat booked us a room for the night. Later that evening we had a drink and cheese platter at the bar by the lake, leaving me feeling pretty spoilt. Afterward we headed back to the hostel for some Christmas carols and to help spread the Christmas cheer.

The entrance to one of the shops at the hotel was covered entirely with gingerbread.

Christmas was good; odd but good. The Vietnamese aren’t short of Christmas decorations, but they don’t celebrate Christmas, so they’re definitely a bit short of Christmas cheer.

Wearing Santa hats around town and seeing other Westerners in and around the hostel do the same helped to create the spirit.

Christmas lunch was on the hostel terrace. We were cram packed in together with free flowing alcohol and all the usual Christmas lunch trimmings, all contributed to a jolly sing-along and a some Christmas fun. Free flowing alcohol lead to an afternoon nap, which then lead to not much else in the evening.

Most recently we’ve been spending time preparing for Canada; buying warmer clothes, eating, sending off summer clothes and bulky souvenirs, eating, drinking, visiting some local sights and recovering from Christmas eve/day.

New york post will happen soon...

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and even better new years. xo