Sooo after exactly 2 months here, I'm hideously bored of my travel blog which started out as I wanted; me talking about everything I did so I wouldn't forget anything when I try and look back over this year when I'm home. But my parents got involved. My parents don't actually seem to care that I like to drink to excess, in fact when I'm dying in bed hungover telling them how shameful I feel they just laugh, and let me learn from my own mistakes, which I have. But my Dad thought it was a great idea to give away my blog address to every single possible extended family member, meaning me frantically censoring everything I'd written so far. Every last swear word or inappropriate comment, and every drunken or otherwise story which doesn't make me look like an angelic outdoorsy Canadian. Borinngggg.
I'm currently on a year abroad in Canada, specifically in London, Southern Ontario, at Western University, doing Psychology. I love Canada. It's cool. So in my first post here I can throw in a few of the highlights of Canadian life that I've not been able to write about, and from now on this can be a far more personal, honest account of life over here than my travel blog which sounds like it's written about a stranger when I read it back. Apologies for how long this post is going to be as well, I'd recommend only reading on if you're seriously procrastinating. And I mean seriously. As I am right now.
Frosh week was the first entry to get deleted; this is basically Canada's Freshers Week. Unlike England, Frosh week on campus is dry, because most first years here are around 17 years old. With the drinking age being 19 I heard before coming here it was pretty strict on no drinking whilst in res, which is one of the reasons I chose to go in a house instead. Frosh week has events all week you have to buy a wristband for if you aren't in res; I think it was like $60 so I couldn't be arsed with it, but at Orientation I met Chloe and Greg, two Brits from Saint Andrews, and they'd bought wristbands. They told me about Sophs, which are usually third years, and they look after a group of first years during Frosh week. They all have nicknames which the first years have to call them by, and at the end of the week Sophs reveal the story behind their nickname, I can't actually write some of them on here but they're all really dirty or are drink/drug related. I was actually at a Soph party at the end of Frosh Week and they were all so hammered, perhaps having to stay away from alcohol all week made them lose it. Anyway Frosh Week events involved things like team chants and dances based on what res you're in, and at the 'closing ceremony' they all perform them to one another and compete. It just didn't sound like my cup of tea, but from what people told me, this is where they found a lot of culture shock, as the way some of the first years behaved at the events you'd think they were drunk but were actually stone cold sober.
Frosh week for me was basically Freshers at home; going out every night and meeting a load of people. The bars in London are so different to back in Leeds/Blackpool. They all remind me of Yates' or something, none of them are actually anything like clubs but when I'm inside the bar, people act like they are in a club. The dancing here was probably the biggest shock I got. A girl will grind on a guy literally all night without even kissing him, and the boys don't seem to expect that she will kiss him. And the grinding is absolutely ridiculous, I'm surprised some of the people I've seen haven't been kicked out because it is basically sex with their clothes on. One or two without their clothes on. They did get kicked out. I even saw a girl sandwiched between two guys grinding, and I do NOT understand how that isn't awkward.
The music they play is mainly standard popular chart music, with a bit of a twist; you'll be listening to Calvin Harris or whatever's number 1 at the minute, then for the next 20 minutes you'll get proper heavy hip-hop that I've never heard in my life. It's bizzare and once I noticed it, I did struggle to get used to it. We did manage to find one amazing club which is exactly like home, which I think will be my saviour whilst I'm here when the hip-hop gets tiresome.
Drink prices was something I'd heard a lot of negative things about before I came here and I found in Frosh Week that it totally depends what bar you go to; I paid $1 for a beer one night and $7 another night. That's another thing, EVERYONE drinks beer. I'm becoming scarily used to it but it actually isn't as bad as I thought. People also don't seem to drink spirits and mixers as much, like vodka coke, preferring to just shot a load of spirits instead. Leading to me getting so drunk the night I met my housemates that I had to be carried to the bathroom to throw up, then carried to bed and have my shoes taken off. Excellent first impression as always.
House parties here are so much better than England, perhaps because they seem to be more common, and most of them are keggers. Keggers mean paying a fee to get in, about $5, and the hosts have bought kegs of beer and made kegs of dangerous punch, and you get unlimited drinks from these. Also, this might just be my personal opinion but the house parties here seem friendlier; people don't stick to who they know at the party, everyone seems to wander around and socialise, so often you speak to almost everybody there and it's no big deal. English house parties are still amazing but often are focused around the music playing, and definitely in Leeds anyway are often are taken over by copious amounts of drugs. Not saying that's a bad thing, it's just very different in my experience.
Western as a university has a huge reputation as a party school, which I can completely see now I'm here. But they 'party' differently to home; everyone studies Monday-Wednesday, then everyone gets drunk and goes out Thursday-Saturday. At first I really hated this, as I'm so used to week nights being big and recovering over the weekend at home, but now I've grown to love it. The workload here is much bigger, I have a test or paper due almost every week, and with the lectures being 3 hours long, if I'm tested every 4 weeks that's 12 hours of material. Our January exams back home test 11 lectures of material, each being about 1.25 hours long.. go figure. However, the profs here go into much more depth and understanding so I actually come out of a lecture feeling like I know something, instead of feeling like I want to kill myself back home. My organisational skills have been seriously tested, especially as I often go away somewhere on weekends, but it's only serving me well for the hideous final year when I go home.
Once my work's over though, it's over, and Western has plenty to do once you're all done. The absolute biggest events here are Homecoming, Halloween and St Patrick's Day. Homecoming was an experience to say the least; it basically involves getting up at 9am, drinking, dressing up head to toe in purple and white (Western's colours), going to a kegger, drinking more, going to the game, leaving after one quarter, drinking more, and more, and getting downtown by 7.30 to get into a bar. I'm actually proud to say I stayed drunk the entire day, and even made it out until 1am. Not without a trashed house, empty bank account and minor injuries, but allll worth it. Streets got shut down, police raided houses and seized kegs, and there were red cups literally everywhere in sight, it was kind of like Lytham Club Day but on a gigantic scale.
Canadians are literally my favourite people; they're all really friendly, fun and cheerful, and are so easy to get along with. There's obviously a couple of culture clashes but on the most part, we aren't really dissimilar at all. One of the most awkward culture clashes was something nobody would ever think to tell you; signing off texts. In England, you put a 'x' at the end of a text. One at least, or you're probably in a stress with the person you're talking to and want to piss them off. I'm quite taken to putting excessive kisses, at least 3 (so don't get thinking I fancy you if I send 3, you're nothing special), something which caused me trouble when speaking to new friends here. NOBODY PUTS KISSES. And everybody texts like it's BBM or instant messaging. So me sending texts with numerous sentences signed off with 'xxx' meant people thought I was some sort of over-keen sex crazed British girl. Horrific. But Canadians just seem to find it funny, all part of the novelty of being British.
Being British is the biggest deal in the world here; 'Oh my GOD, are you British?' has to be the phrase I've heard the most since I've been here. That or somebody laughing at me and saying 'Welcome to Canada' every time I get confused or distraught at something here. I've asked so many people why we're so endearing, or why the accent is so endearing should I say, and the general consensus seems to be that we speak so 'proper' and that's 'so cute'. Which I find hard to believe, particularly me with my Northern accent and Jenny being a Geordie, but I'm not complaining. It is lovely to just be instantly accepted, and has made moving here so much easier than it could have been. It's also made me miss England, as you don't realise how many quirks and weird slang we use, something I have to monitor when speaking to my Canadian friends. I can't even say 'do you reckon', something that would never have crossed my mind. Hope I don't lose any of those phrases, although I'm already saying school, class, paper, test, study, cover (entry to a club), gas and store. Noooooooooo.
Besides drinking, pretty much all the travelling and experiences I've had have been blogged about here: www.offexploring.com/caitkieltyadey. The places I've been have been unbelievable already, and I can tell that coming here was the best decision I've ever made. The experience is even better than I thought it would be, and honestly, I've barely felt homesick. Ryan's mum and grandma came over on his 21st as a surprise and brought Robinson's squash. THAT made me miss home. And obviously I'm pining after my friends and family, but life here is far too hectic and fun to think about home. A year is nothing in the grand scheme of things, in fact I'm more worried about how I'm going to cope when I do finally get home, Canada is spoiling me. If anyone's even slightly considering doing a study abroad year, I'd say jump on it; I'd never even been away from home more than a couple of weeks except from uni, and barely travelled out of Europe, and it's really not as bad as you think. It's just a home away from home.
I'll try and keep this up to date and half-decent, but if not and you're reading this, at least you got to hear a bit about me getting pissed. And you also must love me or be extremely bored because this is longer than the chapter I'm supposed to be reading.
Sorryyyyyy!
