O, Canadaaaa

When people ask how our year abroad is going, I think it’s safe to say all of us exchange students reply with a simple “good thanks!”, with maybe a quick update on the weather if you’re lucky (hint: it’s always bloody freezing). So, in order to kick-start this blog back into action, I thought I’d give you all the reality of what it’s really like to be an English student from University of Leeds stumbling around Canada, lost, confused, and in a perpetual state of overexcitement…

The Good

Good rhymes with food, and that’s not a coincidence. Poutine. Perogies. Maple Syrup (Maple everything, actually, even baked beans, a product I can’t ever see myself complaining about – see letter to Heinz below). Beaver Tails. Cotton Candy icecream. Donuts. There’s so much good food in Canada it’s hard to talk about much else, but here’s just a few more highlights: 

 Working the accent. People are a lot more generous when you’re a ‘posh’ English bird. The only downside to this is that the guy at Tim Horton’s always looks shocked when I ask for coffee, stating “you don’t want tea and scooooones instead?” in an awful parody of my accent. The upside is us English speakers (and a good Canadian friend of mine who does a great fake) have got multiple free drinks for acting confused and extraordinarily British in clubs, saving lots of time and money queuing at the bar ourselves (high score: 7 free shots).

     The YOLO effect. Yes, I do hate myself for saying that, and, like all of us who have sunk into this trap, I used to just say it as a mockery of those who did, and now I’ve gone and become one of them. But this year is just pass/fail, and that means YOLO is said on a daily basis. Go out for dinner every other night? Why not. Spontaneous night out with an 8:30 start the next day? Go for it. Quick trip to Montreal for the weekend? YOLO, my friend, is the answer you are looking for.

The Bad

Culture shock. Something we all mocked at the start, but actually manifested in me as embarrassingly, melodramatically, and unnecessarily screaming at anything and everything. Luckily this only lasted the first few days, but unfortunately meant that everyone’s first impression of me was some girlish weirdo who was everything-phobic for no good reason.

Good food in Canada didn’t come without its sacrifices. Say goodbye to decent cheese, chocolate, a good cuppa tea and cheap alcohol. Lambrini, I miss you, you are so fiendishly cheap and tasty.

Under-estimating the cold on a trip to Algonquin during Fall break. My good friend Madie and I almost lost our nips that week. Big shout out to our team leader Jon Reed, who waited until the end of the freezin’ trip to casually mention he had hand and foot warmers the whole time.

   The Just Plain Ugly

Making friends with new people, then discovering that those new people like board games. Playing Risk for four hours on end, a joyless game ending with bitter resentment, broken friendships, and Risk-induced hysteria for those players such as me who were out after the first hour but stupidly stayed for all four. I realise that many people don't share this opinion, but the nob who said "a bit of competition never hurt anybody" was clearly a champ, because when people start losing, a friendly board  game can get very ugly. 

      Goodbyes (mainly because everyone looks ugly when they cry, even the hot one in Bridesmaids). Even if they do love board games and drive me slightly insane with week-long fights over a second-hand stuffed monkey from Value Village (don’t get me started), the people I’ve met so far are irreplaceable, just like the ones back home, and splitting off to go our separate ways at the end of the year is something I for one am dreading (and may possibly cope with by writing another, soppier blog article when the time comes).

So, to conclude, life in Canada is pretty incredible so far, as even the bad times have turned out to be hilarious bonding experiences. Besides, what kind of student really needs sleep (or nips) anyway, eh?