Toronto has it all!

HOLA CHICOS&CHICAS!!

3 Weeks ago i took the plane from Brussels-Chicago. I spend a week in Chicago with a good friend Lotte who is studying in Ottawa at the moment. Chicago was amazing, it is a MUSTSEEcity, i think its comparable with NYcity. I wrote a story about Chicago on www.ireneintoronto.waarbenjij.nu if you are interested in this citytrip that i highly recommend to everybody! Its in Dutch;). Besides i will post Dutch blogs on this website for friends and family, a bit more in detail then on this uniblog, which is more informative and useful.

2 Weeks ago i arrived in Toronto and it feels like home already. I think i adapt pretty fast to my new environment and thats nice, it might help that it still feels like holiday at the moment, i enjoy life here a lot and i see/realize/think things that i wouldnt remark in my everydaylife in Tilburg(which i also enjoy of course). But enough talk about me...
What is interesting to know for YOU about an exchange semester at Schulich school of Business, Yorku in Toronto? I would say, TORONTO HAS IT ALL!



--> YORKU CAMPUS: HUGE!!! 55.000 students study here.. sooo its like a small town. it took me 35minutes to run around the whole campus(village included), and im not a bad runner;) its really big and all things you need in everydaylife are located on the campus, several banks, shops, services. Get a good impression of the Keele Campus by checking out the interactive map or the pdf: http://www.yorku.ca/web/futurestudents/map/keele_map.html
Besides, you can find a lot information on this site; info overload i would say. but its of course not easy to make a good website for such a big uni with 55.000 students.
The bad thing is, from the univeristy campus it takes 1 hour to get in downtown toronto.. (bus, subway) i dont likethat. The university of Toronto is located in the citycentre.. that'd be better.
--> TORONTO: Extremely multicultural&friendly city! for sights and tours check google/lonelyplanet! a lot to see and do everyday. especially in the summer there are many events. i was at several festivals already. at the moment TIFF is going on, sooo its very likely to see famous actors around in downtown. we will go to a premium screening as well next week;). the multiculurality can be experienced in all the different neighbourhoods like greektown,chinatown,little india, little italy, every etnicity is located here in some part of the city. and they all live together hapilly!! and people are extremely friendly, they want to help you with everything, for example i didnt have the exact cash amount in the bus (3dollars) i only had 20dollar bill, and i asked to change it, which was not possible, then a woman just said: here take these 3 dollars.....??? i didnt want to accept that of course, but just to show how they are.
--> OAC; open arms committee: a great group of students who organize the introduction/orientation days, 3 days last week, including nice games to get to know the other exchange students, a campustour; 'skavengerhunt';) ((everything here is a competition, thats really funny, there are prizes to win for almost every activity that is done with a group)), a downtown bustour, and 2 greatttt parties!!! really nice to have such a good start. i know from friends that not everybody has an intro period like this. another +!
--> EXCHANGE STUDENTS; we are with around 75 exchange students coming from all over the world; France, Spain, UK, Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina, Russia, Italy, Czech Republic, Switserland, Austria, and many Asians: Singapore, Japan, HongKong, China, South Korea. It is nice to have such a big group of different cultures. Funny to see how open we are as dutch people (or Brabanders!!), amongst others thanks to that, we are also very loved by the other exchange students i experience;).
--> LIVING: there are in fact 2 options, 1=on campus, 2=village. the village is a small village next to the uni (check it out on google maps, streetview, the houses are VILLA'S!) where only students live. i live at 22 Troyer Avenue in a cute house with in total 15 exchange students, we live with 8 differen nationalities here (estonia, iran, ghana, russia, czech rep, uruguay, dutch, and 7 asians from China). Its a lot of fun;).
on campus living is also possible, if you like that then you should go for a reseidence without Mealplan!! (because this mealplan of 1600dollars will kill you, because burgers,pizza,burgers,sandwich,etc is the only choice.. vegetables/fruits are not in there haha) i know some people who had this, but they changed their residence. i also know some people who do enjoy it, but i dont want to see them in 4 months (SUPERSIZE ME...hahahha)
--> FOOD: Canadians are not as fat as americans but also obesitas is a big problem in here:P... and im not surprised by that.. the food you get here is soooo unhealthy! fastfood! There is a small shopping center on campus, and also a lot of restaurants; wendy's,KFC, Tacobell, subway(the best of this selection in my eyes) pizza, and other shops where you can grab your on-the-go sandwich.
--> SPORTS: sportfacilities are great, for only 15dollar you have unlimited access to almost all sports for 1year! lessons/training do cost extra, buttttt luckily my skills are good enough already so i dont need this haha. The combination of bad food an good sport facilities is a contradiction in my eyes. Since the first is bad for body&soul, the second is good..:)
--> TRANSPORTATION: bus here in north york / subway to get downtown and in downtown. But I dont like busses at all, so i bought a bike;) although biking is an extreme sport here, since there are no cycling lanes, the options are street/grass;). other (exchange)students envy me, the proud,sporty dutch girl on her bike;)
--> SCHULICH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS! waaaaaaaauw! im proud to be one of them... and that already after 1 day of classes yesterday. its a great learning environment, you are having class together with the TOP of the canadian students and other motivated exchange students. This is one of the leading business schools in the world. no jokes;). i knew Schulich was good, and for me that was also one of the reason to go there. But if you tell somebody here that you are a student at Schulich they say: 'really?wowwww congratulations' orrr 'so you're on of the smart kids'. I didnt really get that, untill somebody explained me that for a canadian student its only possible to get in if you graduate with an A/higher on highschool...if you did that indeed, then there's still a strict selection procedure. haha funny soo im studying here for a semester among the creme de la creme of the students. And i went sporting yesterday with my russian roommate and we were asked what we were studying, when we said business at schulich, they were shocked, normally you can never find them in the gym, only in the library;). we will improve the image of the schulichs;)
OK...im curious how high the workload will be we'll see;). Butttt at this moment it still feels like holiday for me. This morning i woke up late, played tennis with a french guy, got some groceries, cooked a healthy dinner, and now im going to prepare some chocolate-peanut muffins with my housemates since there is a pre-party at 15Troyer in the village, where some nice dutch and germans live;) and after that we will go downtown with a big group of exchange students. Yes.. also Schulich students like partying;) hahhaha.

Have a good one;)
ADIOS AMIGOS
any (useful!) questions: iren_eee@hotmail.com