I’ve been back in Glasgow for about 2 months now, and I am feeling pretty settled once more. While I was away in Canada, I came to realise how much I really love Glasgow as a city and there were lots of things that I really did miss about it while I was away. Since I have come back, I have found myself feeling somewhat like a tourist, wanted to visit all my favourite places that I have missed. With things like new buildings having sprung up while I was away, supermarkets closed, and new shops opened, I did feel initially that I had a lot of catching up to do.

When I arrived back in Glasgow, I came with the attitude that I wanted to try and get involved in as much as I could in order to get me settled back in. I have now rejoined the Glasgow Univeristy potholing club, have got involved in an arfican drumming course which I did prior to going on exchange, have enjoyed the live music scene that Glasgow has to offer on any occasion possible and have baically just made an effort to actively get myself doing things in Glasgow.

During the first couple of weeks back in glasgow I helped out with the international induction activities which had been organised for the incoming international students coming to study at glasgow. This was a lot of fun. It got me meeting the incoming international exchange students, and it also got me in touch with other Glasgow students who had just returned from their exchange. It is really great to have some friends who have also been on exchange, as you can talk to them about your time away, but also about how you are finding returning home . I’d really recommend helping out with the induction week for exchange students if you are returning to glasgow after your exchange. I remember just thinking it was great to have lots of different accents around me again, and being able to meet people from literally all over the world. While Iwas away many of my friends were also on exchange and came from lots of different countries. This was something I really missed when I came home.

One thing which does take some getting used to is Glasgow Univeristy’s academic system. In Canada it took me a while to adjust to their way of doing things; at Dalhousie Univeristy I had lots of continual assessments throughout the year. Now that I am back at Glasgow my classes are all marked on the basis of one 100% essay or one 100% exam. So at the moment I am trying to make sure that I am still doing my work throughout the term, despite the fact that I dont have any immediate deadlines coming up. This is a little tricky.

Overall I think that returning to Glasgow after being on exchange does involve a degree of reverse culture shock. It is always going to take a little time to get used to being back, but Glasgow is a great city to be returning to, with so much going on all the time. It’s now my final year at uni and so I am determined to make the most of my time in Glasgow.

The other thing which I have noticed considerably about being back at the University of Glasgow is the size of the university campus. Its really nice to see friends and class mates regularly, bumping into people each day either at the gym, the HUB, the library, outside the library or walking along University Avenue and University Gardens. Last year, due to the size of the campus with its handful of different libraries and sports facilities, I rarely saw my friends and housemates on campus. There were a number of friends that I never once saw on campus or bumped into during my whole year at University of Toronto. Instead meet ups had to be prearranged due to everyone’s busy university schedule. So in that regard being back at the University of Glasgow is very enjoyable. I realize that this might sound slightly contradictory but I miss the anonymity of Toronto and the enormous university. The fact that there were places you could go and you could do your thing without being disturbed. Of course over the course of the year this lessened as acquaintances and friends were made but it was really pleasant to just blend it.

I still miss U of T, the Hart House gym and the different libraries. I seem to have more memories and experiences from my year at University of Toronto than from my two years at Glasgow University combined. That said, I hope this year will be challenging, social, interesting academically and above all a continuation of everything that last year was – somehow. I’d be lying, however, if I were to say that its been any of those things six weeks into the semester. I guess my heart and my head are still in a different city even though its nearly November and I returned in July…

When I first returned home I was instantly welcomed back by my family who were eager to listen to my stories. After a year away from my family, and a family fridge, I couldn’t help but stand in awe at all the goodies inside the fridge. I know this might sound silly, but when your living on a student-traveller budget (although during the term time my meals were all provided during the week) you have to cut-back on certain items that you cannot afford. Freshly baked bread, olives, hummous, cheese and pricey Nutella become a treat and are not a given. I really appreciated the fact that there were lots of treats in the fridge. It seems that time apart makes you appreciate both your family and your well-stocked fridge. Strangely enough, when I was at my best friend’s house and we were pillaging her fridge during our post-club inebriated state, I felt bad. It felt strange to help ourselves to all this food, even though it was her house. I think after the summer in Toronto with my friends, where we would regularly go food shopping but were limited in what we could purchase because of our budget, I began to appreciate both food and the time/money that goes into purchasing it. Not that I didn’t before Toronto, it’s just your appreciation is heightened. The same goes for all those t-shirts, jackets and shirts that you didn’t take with you on your year away but suddenly want to wear because you haven’t seen or worn them in months and months. It seems as though distance and time can really improve certain things like your love for food, clothes….and certain friendships! This is definitely true for some of my friendships. With many it is as if I never left, as if I didn’t spend the month of December freezing due to the formidable Canadian Winter. The whole “it-seems-as-if-you-never-left” concept is both a good and bad thing. Why? It is good because you can take off where you left, and it shows that the friendship is as strong even though you haven’t seen each other in a long time. On the other hand, it’s as if you never changed. There is this fear that things slip back into old ways and that, yes, your year was amazing but things haven’t really changed.

There are two aspects of my life in Toronto that I wasn’t aware of until I returned home. In my first month back in Glasgow I had this need, this urge, to be in the City Centre and the West End surrounded by other young people in a busy, happening environment unlike the tranquil, and frankly rather boring, suburbs of the South Side. I honestly think that this comes from a year of living in Downtown Toronto where there were constantly people walking, running and biking past my front stoop on Spadina Avenue. Due to where I lived in Toronto, at the centre of the city and at the heart of the university campus, I was constantly plugged into the city’s energy. You couldn’t help notice the bikes, the squirrels, the people…everywhere! It was only on Sunday evenings, walking through University College campus on my way back from Hart House gym, that Toronto was truly dead. The other aspect of my life that I was aware of was the intense and close nature of friendships I had in Toronto. As an international student, living away from home all year even during the typically family-orientated festivals like Christmas, my friends became my family. As clichéd as this sounds it was true. My close friends were my family and we were constantly hanging out and when we weren’t doing stuff together we were talking on the phone, texting, tagging photos on Facebook, commenting on photos… It sounds almost quite child-like, like wee school kids, and I guess to an extent it was like that but it was also very special, intense and a lot of fun to have a solid group of friends from all over the world. People that could support you, and people that you could support during the good and bad times. I saw my friends every single day. In Glasgow when I returned, I again had this desire/need to see my friends all the time. Not in a ‘needy’ way, it was more than I wanted to maintain the closeness that I had whilst in Toronto.

This forthcoming academic year shall be challenging yet I believe that my experience at University of Toronto will steer me in good stead in every sense – socially and academically. I want to try and get involved in as much as I can given the fact that I’m in my final year. Already I’ve applied and was successfully chosen to be co-Head of PR for Subcity Radio. There are number of other non-academic things that I am involved both related to the University of Glasgow. After a year at University of Toronto where I joined a number of clubs and societies, I want to try and continue that this year. I realized the importance of these groups in making fiends and experiencing new things. I guess this is why a year away, studying at another institution, is a positive experience beyond all the obvious benefits (new city, new friends, new life, new places to travel, new foods to discover… I could go on)

Since I have been back home I have missed people that I met on exchange even more than I thought I would. But thanks to the wonders of facebook and skype keeping in contact and up-to-date with them has not been a problem. In fact last week I actually had a friend from Sweden, who I met while I was on exchange, come over to glasgow for a week to visit, which was fantastic. So the exchange antics have not come to an end quite yet.

I spent the majority of summer in my home town up in the north east of scotland, working in a local store and generally just catching up with friends and family. I was quite surprised how quickly I adjusted to being home. It was just so great to have some time off from the studies and to properly catch up with everyone (a years worth of catching up can take a while). I have really enjoyed being home and enjoying all things scottish once more.

Just last week I returned to glasgow though and I think it is only now that it is really starting to dawn on me that I really am not going to be going back to Canada. With freshers week in full flow here in glasgow I cant quite believe its a year ago since I set off to Halifax. Having been volunteering with some of the ineternational student events and with keeping in contact with Glasgow students who have just set off to begin their exchange in Halifax, part of me really is missing Dalhousie University and Halifax city. But at the very same time I am really quite looking forward to getting settled back into the student life in Glasgow, as I missed this city a lot.

So basically its a mixed bag, and I dont think that that is a bad thing at all. I had a great year in Canada, and now I plan to do my best to have a great 4th year here in Glasgow.

During the second semester of my exchange the topic of converstation ofetn turned to what people were thinking about doing once they had finished their courses at their exchange university. And I remember different people having very different ideas about what they wanted to do next.  Some people were just really looking forward togetting home and catching up with their home country and firnes and family there, others were looking to get a job, while others were were looking into all kinds of differennt ways which would allow the to keep travelling for as long as possible. 

Before I went on exchange I had always hoped to do some travelling round canada after my exchange.  Some of my friends travelled from Halifax and worked their way west, finally ending up on the west coast.  It was a huge trip, and covered such a distance, but sounded absolutely fanatastic.  I had planned to join them on this venture, but half way through the term my mum told me she was going to nepal and asked if I wanted to go with her, in may.  I had always wanted to go to nepal and I decided to go with her, and to do some research for my dissertation while I was out there.  This was an incredible trip.  It did mean however that after I finished uni, I didnt have all that long before I flew back to scotland.  I had enough time to enjoy some relax time to spend time with my friends doing some of the things studying had made hard to do during the term, so that was a lot of fun.  Had I not being going to nepal I would definietly have stayed longer in canada and taken the opportunity to see a bit more of canada. 

If you do plan to go travelling in canada, one of the things taht a lot of my friends did was couch surfing (you can find it on the web) its where you stay  at local peoples homes for free things, and everyone I spoke to who did this had really good experiences.  I didnt try it so I dont have personal experience but its  something to look into.

One thing I would say to all of you who are thinking about whether or not to go travellng after your exchange is that it is a great opportunity to see some of your host country or surrounding country, when you dont have to be worrying about studying anymore.  A lot also depends on money of course, for me I did come back being a bit in debt, but I worked during the summer and paid off my overdraft fine.  I dont regret spending any of the money I did when I was out there because I got to do some amazing things and I really didnt want to regret not doing something out there just so that I saved a couple of dollars.  allow for some unexpected expensiveMoney is of course really important and you have to budget etc. 

I had a great summer and speaking  to my exchange student friends (who all did very different things atfer the exchange) they all had a great time to.  So there is def not a right or wrong answer to what you should do after your exchange/  If you are on exchange now, you have plenty of time to think about what you fancy doing after you finish studying, so make the most of it and…enjoy.

Austin, Texas. Berkeley. San Francisco. Santa Cruz. San Diego. Bonnarro Music Festival. Buffalo, New York. Toronto.

My year at the University of Toronto:

My year at the University of Toronto:  From an academic perspective, I’ve never worked so hard. The academic system and mentality in Northern American universities, or “school” as they call it, is a lot more progressive. The work load is constant with essays, presentations, exams and weekly readings for lectures and seminars. In contrast, my first two years at Glasgow consisted of an exam and essay for each subject per semester. At the University of Toronto I was taking five subjects and all subjects had at least two to three essays per semester (although some subjects did not have final exams!) The students at the University of Toronto work constantly, its very intense university and it was no surprise to see students asleep at their desks or with piles of energy drinks and books working away. I definitely felt stressed and anxious around exam time but there is a feeling of mutual understanding between students; everyone understands that the University of Toronto is a very demanding, challenging, competitive and intense university. I enjoyed it all; I realized again and again that this was what it is about and took every moment in my stride. The long hours at the library, sitting beside my favourite people in the library, going for breaks for food or to work out at Hart House – it was a strange, strange seven weeks in the lead up  to the exams and essay due dates. Everyone at University of Toronto has their library of preference. My favourite library had to be Pratt Library which was part of Victoria College. Pratt was modern library, it didn’t feel stuffy and had huge glass windows everywhere which looked out onto the quads and Queens Park. Often I would sit there studying whilst ten or so squirrels would run past outside (note: In Toronto there are squirrels everywhere – black, brown, grey squirrels run wild in Queens Park!) For my final few weeks at the University of Toronto my friends and I were in the library every day. From morning until late-night we would be on Level Nine of Robarts; so much so that we would recognise other “Level Niners” when we are out and about. There were several occasions when I bumped into people that I recognised, but did not know, and we would joke how “level Nine was our home”. Occasionally, I was frustrated that my life consisted of studying, going to the gym, eating and sleeping. Even more so when I spoke to other international students who were going out constantly  – enjoying Toronto – because their exams results did not count towards their grade back at their home university. Looking back I was definitely in a ‘bubble’. I didn’t really move outside the University of Toronto ghetto, my day consisted of the library, and back home to eat. It was a strange six weeks, but absolutely worth it. At the end of the day, I had to accept that I was in Toronto for university. It saddened me that I couldn’t spend time exploring Toronto yet this was something I had to accept. Plus, I realized that this was part of the experience and that it was important that I learned how to manage my time. I realize that my experience at the University of Toronto will hopefully make this forthcoming year, my final year, not necessarily easier but it should help me to work efficiently; juggling my time and organizing my work load to the best ability. On top of that, it was so great to see how other universities operate. I noticed that that at the University of Toronto, and I’m sure this is the case at the majority of universities in North America, the students are a lot more vocal, open and articulate during seminars and lectures. For instance, frequently students would ask questions both during and at the end of the lecture about the topic being discussed. Something which I have never seen at the University of Glasgow – I wonder how a lecturer would react if a student asked a question in the middle of lecture at Glasgow! Again, it’s a different mentality, since the students are paying for their education they want and believe they deserve the best education possible! I don’t know if this opinion is accurate or not yet it is definitely true that the work load is a lot more demanding – not harder, just more! – than at UK institutions. On the other hand, I would say that it takes a lot more to get an “A” at the University of Glasgow than at the University of Toronto. Again, I don’t know how objective I am being; this comment could merely be fluff although several other exchange students have agreed with me.

Life after the exams and five weeks On The Road:

After the exams finished, a handful of students who were on their exchange year returned to internships and work opportunities back home. I believed that my “Toronto experience” was definitely not finished plus I wanted to go out, to see Toronto, to see my friends again beyond the library walls! Before I flew to California in the middle of May, I began scanning the local free newspaper Now Toronto – the equivalent to Scotland’s The Skinny – to see what events were on in the city. As always with Toronto I was overwhelmed. From free lectures by Magnum photographs at the Drake Hotel as part of Compact Photography festival to festivals in Little Italy, Greektown and pedestrian Sundays in Kensington Market. My final week in Toronto was quite unsettling, I was excited to go travelling, and even though I knew I was returning to Toronto for a few weeks before my real departure back to Scotland in July, I was upset that the year was over. It was also very, very difficult moving out, boxing all my belongings – sorting which clothes to keep, which clothes to donate, which clothes to keep for travelling etc etc. It took hours. It shocked me how much stuff I had accumulated throughout the year. Unlike going on holiday, living abroad for a year, there are things you Have to purchase like duvets, pillows and blankets especially during the cold Canadian winter. On top of that, I had boxes of university notes and books that I had grown throughout the year.
Once the packaging was done, it was time to celebrate and enjoy the exams being over. My house-mate and my best friend, Rhiannon, was also on exchange with the University of Melbourne, organized a surprise leaving party for me. All my friends were there, everyone brought a different course. It was really special. The wine, and banter were flowing. Rhiannon cooked home-made pizza and hummous – it was delicious! Afterwards we all cycled downtown to go clubbing. It was one of those nights that you’ll always remember because everyone was there and because you know that those kind of nights are ending because people are leaving, the year was coming to a close. On the Monday I flew to California to begin my five weekend travelling adventure.

I was in San Francisco for five days, spending one day in San Francisco with my best friend Alex from New York City who was there by chance with her family. From San Francisco, I went to Santa Cruz – where I stayed in this beautiful hostel by the water, it was filled with lots of other exchange students from the UK who were also travelling. I visited Santa Cruz’s university which is in the mountains, surrounded by trees and forests. Really great campus! After three days Santa Cruz, which was a Californian version of Blackpool with its amusement park, rollercoaster’s and beach, I returned to San Francisco to meet my sister who flew from Glasgow to see me. We walked and walked and walked all over San Francisco. It is truly the most amazing city – the hills, the very friendly people, the distinct neighbourhoods, the food, the views. We biked over the Golden Gate Bridge and spent the day on Sausalito Island. From San Francisco we flew to San Diego where we spent another week enjoying the sun, the beaches and the enormous Balboa Park! I preferred San Francisco to San Diego. San Fran has so much character, every neighbourhood is filled with history from the Castro district to the hippy dippy Haight-Ashbury. From San Diego my sister returned to Scotland, however, my adventures were just beginning. I flew from San Diego to North Carolina and then got a connecting flight to Nashville, Tennessee. I was flying to Nashville because I was volunteering at Bonnarro Music Festival – North America’s largest music festival.  Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual, four to five-day music festival, first held in 2002. The festival is held at Great Stage Park on a 700 acre (2.8 km²) farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles southeast of Nashville, Tennessee. The main attractions of the festival are the multiple stages of live music, featuring a diverse array of musical styles including indie rock, world music, hip hop, jazz, americana, bluegrass, country music, folk, gospel, reggae, electronica, and other alternative music. This year saw David Byrne of Talking Heads, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Snoop Dogg, Beastie Boys, Phish, TV on The Radio and Bruce Springsteen take the stage. I arrived at the music festival on the Tuesday afternoon, I was jet-lagged and all over the place after travelling throughout the night and through different time-zones. I had arranged to meet my friend from Toronto, Rory,  another exchange student from the University of Glasgow, in Nashville. However, things didn’t go to plan because of Rory’s delayed and broken-down bus that was travelling all the way from Toronto to Tennessee. The music festival was a great experience: the thousands and thousands of tents, camper-vans, food stalls, stages, the 90,000 festival-goers,  the bands, the atmosphere and the 120F weather every day! It was insanely hot under the Tennessee sun! After the music festival, dirty and tired, I travelled to Austin, Texas, where I spent a week hanging out an American friend from Boston who had lived in Glasgow for a year on her exchange. We biked around the city, explored Austin’s indepedant record stores, the vintage shops, the vegetarian and vegan eatieers and the Head Quarter’s of Whole Foods (we even watched ‘Babe’ on the roof of Whole Foods!) From Austin, I had planned to either travel to Chicago or New Orleans but because of the sheer cost of travelling in the Unied States I had to call it a day and return to Toronto. It worked out perfectly. I flew from Austin to Chicago and caught a connecting flight to Buffalo airport. It is significantly cheaper to fly to Buffalo and than catch a cheap bus to Toronto than flying directly to Toronto. I boared the bus to Toronto at 5am. I was so, so, so excited to be back in the city after five weeks of travelling, wearing the same dirty clothes. I really love travelling, I enjoyed meeting other students and travellers from all over the world but I was desperate to return to the familiarity of Toronto. It really had become my home from home. I arrived at 7am, collected my luggage and walked home. The sun was shining, the bikes and people were everywhere and I was ecstatic to be back in Toronto. I was met outside my house by friend who was holding a huge ‘Welcome Back’ card and an even bigger packet of oatmeal – our favourite!! After sleeping, unpacking, showering and catching up, the Toronto adventures began and they didn’t stop. The next four weeks were probably the best four weeks of my entire year in Toronto. They consisted of cycling, going to the park, picnics, clubbing, walking, running, hanging out, being care free, enjoying North America’s largest festival gay and lesbian festival – Pride – which saw 2-3 million people flood Toronto to enjoy the week long celebration. My final weeks in Toronto were perfect, so much fun! The weather was amazing, there were no commitments, no essays, presentations, lectures etc. No real responsibility. Everything went so well, and I don’t know whether this was because I knew that I was going home. Either way, it was terrific. It was so good to be back in Toronto especially in the summer. My last day in Toronto was bitter-sweet, I was sad to be leaving but I understood that I was going home and that I’d be seeing my family, and best friends, in a matter of days – hours.

At the back of my mind, all year and especially whilst travelling, was the common phrase “once your home, YOUR HOME” so I constantly stuck to a policy of making the most of every opportunity, putting myself out there and trying to experience as much as I could, and what a year it was.. …

Well being home as got its up sides for sure. I’m finally giving my liver a well deserved rest as well as my overdraft! I’m back working in the job I had before I left which considering the financial crisis is pretty jammy of me. I called ahead from Canada to say hello and ask them if there were any vacancies and I think they appreciated the touch.

I’m not going to lie being home has been a bit of a jolt to the system. All of a sudden I find myself living back with my parents (I haven’t done this since I was 17 and i’m 27 now). LOTS of things have chnaged since I went away, I was in a relationship when I left and no longer am (I don’t really reccomend long distance as it happens) and my friends lives have all changed too.

I find myself coming up with ever ingenious ways to get myself back to Canada. At present I’m considering the BUNAC program once I’ve graduated and also the possibility of studying my masters over there but maybe once I’ve settled back in this will change. I’ve been back three weeks now.

I’m looking forward to getting back to Uni and back into university life. I am going to be living in halls and have volunteered to join various international groups as I feel staying in touch with an international contingent will ease my transition back to Scotland. A lot of my friends from exchange are studying in the UK next year and already i’ve had about 3 reunions with more planned!

Exchange was absolutely the best thing I ever did and although it’s hard to be back I know I need to focus on the years ahead…onwards and upwards…to the next big adventure!!

We flew from Toronto to Vancouver, got the bus down and visited friends in Seattle and then got the bus from there to San Fransico…never ever do this!! Fly it’s comparible in price and the greyhounds on this stretch are just terrible!! It is pretty funny looking back on it, just how awful it was, but I can promise you I didn’t find it funny at the time!

We were supposed to get another bus to LA and then on to Vegas but opted just to fly straight to Vegas – scarred as we were! In vegas we took a tour trip to the Grand Canyon which was well worth the visit!

Then we flew up to Chicago which was probably my favourite city of the whole trip (althou san fran was pretty cool too) and then on to Boston where we visited such wonders as Harvard and the cheers pub!

We caught the megabus from boston back to NYC and then straight on to Washington DC and then back to New York. It was an amazing trip but I do wish i’d had more time in some of the cities. I think If I were going again I’d do less cities and more time in the few that I did visit.

I spent my last two months either living in the HI in toronto or in Barrie which is north of toronto (which made it all the more annoying I didn’t have a HI membership) and on the GO train line. IT’s a very pretty ‘city’ and I have a friend who was working there and I stayed with his family on the weekends.

Muchus fun and sunshine.

I think the most stressful part of the whole year was the run up to leaving and the first few weeks getting classes sorted and settling in. Organising where to live visa and classes is stressful but was definitely worth it in the end.

I have met so many amazing people who I hope will be friends for life, a good few of my Canadian friends are on exchange in Europe (indeed mostly Scotland) next year which makes me happy beyond belief as saying goodbye to all the people I’ve met throughout the year has been the hardest part. I’d like to think we inspired them but maybe they were just drawn to exchangees as they always intended to do it. 

The academic culture and it’s differences were the biggest surprise, they do do things differently. Lots of presentations and the workload is constant. However, it is fair to say that less is expected of an individual piece of work than at Glasgow, which means it probably evens out in the end . There’s way more work but you spend less time on each thing. Talking to profs is a good idea as most are understanding about it taking a while to adjust.

Canada is a very sporty country which is fun and makes me feel really unfit simultaneously. I joined the ski club and for a brief spell the rowing club but found it too much to keep up and so just kept on the skiing. There’s something for everyone which is great and the gym is free!! The Outdoors club looked like it was a lot of fun and I wish I had joined.

Public transport is also free for students which is a plus too, but you only really need it to get to the Cataraqui mall and in the winter from the lcbo (the booze shop!). Mostly Kingston is a very walkable city and even if it’s cold if the sun is out it’s very pretty.

Travelling is a must and despite the hefty workload I got all over the shop. I went on trips with the International centre and NEWTS orientations week including Niagara, Ottawa, Toronto and Wonderland (a theme park near Toronto which if you like roller-coasters is well worth a visit). These were all just day trips and my first big weekend travel was with a group of other exchangees to Montreal. Montreal is beautiful and I’d definitely recommend going in the early fall. Some tips however: Book accomodation in advance it’s less stressful this way. Stay at the HI hostel and invest in a membership, these hostels are everywhere and you will save yourself a packet. The membership is around $30 but you will get your money back if you intend to do any travelling.

After this it was early December before I got away again due to workload (and various social commitments ie parties and such that kept me in Kingston) however lots of other exchangees rented cars and went on road trips every weekend. You find the one semester lot are mostly trying to get away and see things so it’s always good to tag along with them. I so wish i had made it to Quebec city so if anyone is going make sure to go with them!!

NYC- oh wow -you should definitely do this at Christmastime. We booked our megabus tickets months in advance and happened to clash right with final exams. Luckily none of us had any exams and so we were able to go but remember when booking trips that Canadians do exams all the time mid-terms, finals, mid mid-terms so unless you are a film major (no exams woop) then make sure to check with profs when the exams are (not, of course, that I am advocating missing classes but exams can be at times when classes are not).

Also if you are in NYC Boston, Washington, Philadelphia and some other really cool cities are all on the megabus route which leaves from NYC so keep your eyes peeled for bargains. I left this big megabus tour for the end when i toured round the states but lots of others went mid-year. Other people also opted to hire cars but unless there’s a group that can drive be wary. bus tickets are cheap and it’s a very long way for one person to drive.

Christmas! I went skiing at blue mountain resort about 3 hours north of  Toronto and it was amazing, not only did other exchnagees (randomly) show up there it also meant I could spend Christmas day with my friends family who lived near there. Lots of people went home at Christmas so I guess this is down to preference but I don’t regret staying for a second it was awesome.

New year I spent in Toronto which was also great and a really cool way to say goodbye to friends from the first semester who were returning home.

Second semester was pretty hard work really. On the up side there were lots of new faces on the second semester exchange and i got to move from the west campus halls to the main campus halls at Harkness which believe me was much better!

It went by in a flash with a few weekend shopping trips to Toronto and and awesome ski trip to Mont st. Anne and then the year was over. Second semester went by so quickly compared to the first.

Overall truly the best year of my life and undoubtedly this account does not cover half of the fun things that happened. Everyone’s experience is unique to them but I’d say whatever your take exchange will be something that will stay with you for the rest of your life.