My first days in Guelph

Karen
27. Aug. 2016
7 Min. Lesezeit

On August, 15th I took an Uber taxi to the Bloor GOtransit station in Toronto, a ten minute drive from my AirBnB home. From Toronto to Brampton (Mount Pleasant GO station) I took the GO train, in Mount Pleasant I had to change to the GO bus service which last stop is the University of Guelph.

As most of you know it isn’t easy to find your way on an unknown campus, so I first had a little trouble to find my way to the East Residence Desk where I should pick up my keys. With two big bags it felt like a hard workout for me. Having arrived at the East Village Townhouses I wished to stay there for the semester as it looks really nice, like apartment buildings on holiday. As I will live in the West Residences I only picked up my keys and then grabbed a cab to the other side of the campus. It’s a bit offside from the rest of the University buildings which I disliked at first as it seemed very lonely and a bit scary. But now I like the fact I don’t live directly next to my classrooms, but instead right next to a forest and fields with horses which are used for the veterinary medicine students. The West Residences are small row houses with two floors, a ten minute walk from the University Centre and much nearer to some grocery stores and the Stone Road Shopping Mall. I live in a 3-bedroom apartment, but my roommates Tess and Katie won’t arrive before September, 4th. They are both Canadian graduate students. The house is nice and spacious for only three people, but still very empty as there is only a little furniture inside and no equipment at all. Therefore I had to buy the most necessary stuff at Walmart on my first days in Guelph: a lamp for my room, a pillow, a bedsheet, a duvet and duvet cover, a plate, knife, fork, spoon, a sponge, a dry cloth, detergent,… There is still so much missing, but I want to avoid buying everything as I have to sell it by the time I go back to Germany. Will share it with the other girls when they arrive, I guess. Unfortunately they both come from other regions than Ontario, so that they won’t bring household with them like me. What’s really annoying about the West Residences is that they aren’t covered by the University’s wifi, so that I only have cable connection via wallport (which doesn’t work either since yesterday). Hope that there’s someone coming tomorrow to help me fix this. Once again I notice how much I depend on the internet, especially now that I rely on it to communicate with you, my family and friends at home, and would like to bring some music and sounds into the empty house.

One of the first things I bought was a bike as I hate to go everywhere on foot. There is the CSA’s (Central Student Association) bike centre where you can find everything to fix your bike on your own and only have to pay the materials. They also offer some used bikes people bring there when they don’t need them anymore. I was lucky to find one which had the right size for me. A guy called Luke helped me fix the breaks and soon I was the proud owner of a green mountainbike which facilitates buying groceries a lot. I buy my groceries at Nofrills as Allison Broadbent from the International Office recommended. It’s the most affordable option to buy your groceries there, but when you want to buy something special it’s better to go to metro. I find it a bit difficult to find everything you are looking for in the store as the sorting is a little different from German stores. In general everything is a bit more expensive and in much bigger packages: shampoo, body lotion,... It’s hard to find something to drink in a less than 2 liter package. Even the small bottles have 591-600 ml instead of 500 ml in Germany. And most of them are really disgusting! :D There’s either something like coke, 7up and Co with tons of sugar or diet drinks with tons of stevia or something like that tasting so unbelievably sweet you cannot drink them. I couldn’t find organic meat so far, but there are at least vegetarian and vegan alternatives.

Another fact you notice at least when you go to the grocery store is that everything is always written in English and French as it’s determined by the law.

When I went to Walmart to buy two booklets for my university courses (geek sends her greetings ;-) I noticed another difference to Germany which is so obvious that I hadn’t thought about it before: paper sheets have different sizes than ours as they don’t fit the DIN-sizes - obvious as DIN stands for ‘Deutsche Industrie Norm’).

Last week I met my study buddy Sarah who grew up in Guelph and studies animal biology at the UoG. As she is very busy with her job, her horse and personal training it isn’t easy for her to find the time. The more I was happy that we could at least meet once for now and will again for sure. We went to the city centre where she showed me some nice cafés, bars and boutiques. Guelph is such a nice place to live as far as I can judge it after ten days. Downtown there are only owner-operated boutiques, no fashion chains, the commonly known brands though can be found in the Stone Road Mall near the University. Sarah also answered a few questions I had asked myself the days before: Yes, you can drink water out of the tap (for me it smells of chlorine, but my body seems to deal with it pretty well); there is no bottle deposit system as we have it back home, but waste separation into recycling, organics and garbage.

She also told me that there is a traditional Canadian junk food called ‘Poutine’: fries with gravy and cheese curds. It’s the favourite after a long night at a bar or in a club like the ‘Döner’ in Germany. I tasted it yesterday, it’s ok, but nothing special. Another food is Quebec yellow pea soup, Montreal smoked meat and Canadian bacon (ham rolled in peameal).

As it is nice to have a native by your side I went with Sarah to ‘Rogers’ and ‘Bell’ which are the two biggest telephone companies for mobile plans in Canada. I was surprised about the prices! It’s much more expensive than in Germany which makes sense when you consider the fact that Canada is about 28 times bigger than Germany in size and the phone plans cover the whole country. The cheapest option I could choose is C$ 31 per month for 150 free local minutes, unlimited international text, picture and video messages, and 200 MB mobile data. It should be said that Canadians don’t use WhatsApp for communicating, but the ‘normal’ messaging, also a fact Sarah told me).

After a few days I had a good overview of the campus. In general it is a very pretty campus; many old buildings, trees and flowers and nice places so sit down and read. The most impressive building is Johnston Hall with Johnston Green in front of it. The botanical garden right in front of the University Centre also is a very nice spot. The Arboretum at the East end of the campus is a wide park you can run through really well. From one end of the campus to the other it’s about 3,5 km. At the moment there are many children’s and youth’s sports camps as well as Asian students groups staying for summer school. I feel very comfortable on campus and look forward to being part of the Gryphon Spirit soon. Why Gryphon you may ask? The Gryphons are the University’s athletic teams. In 2014 the University celebrated its 50th anniversary. Since then there is a Gryphon statue welcoming all students and visitors at the East entrance. The Gryphon is a mystical creature half eagle and half lion.

All over the campus there is a vast number of squirrels not being very afraid of humans. It’s the dark ones, not the red ones we have in Germany. Also there are some brown-grey colored and the smaller chipmunks - all of them so cute!! <3 Today in the Gardens right in front of the University centre I spotted a beautiful red bird unfortunately being shy in front of the camera.

As nice the weather is and as much I like the campus and the city I feel a bit lonely at the moment. I’d thought there would be more (international) students arriving before the official semester start, but I was wrong about that. I don’t know anyone and it can be very boring sometimes. All the better that there is a great gym not far from the University called ‘Movati’ where I went twice and will definitely join for my time in Guelph. Another nice experience was meeting two of my neighbours, Jamie and Alysa, living in the Family Housing. They invited me having a drink with them in their front yard. Apart from the eight mosquito bites (the little beasts stung through my long trousers) it was a wonderful evening and once again the Canadians proved being friendly and outgoing.

It’s hard to resist buying a coffee at Starbuck’s here as it is everywhere (2 times on campus at least)! I’m so in love with the Java Chocolate Chip Frappuccino with an Espresso Shot at the moment <3. Tim Hortons by the way is at least 4 times on campus. Very different from Universities in Germany!

Good to know when you are on a semester abroad in Guelph:

Check the CSA bike center for a used bike, you only have to pay the materials for fixing it and give them a small donation.
Look on kijiji.ca for used stuff like wifi routers, furniture, bikes and much more.
Have in mind that the paper sheets have another size and therefore won’t fit into your German folders.
Don’t be surprised when your first grocery shopping tours take much time, it isn’t easy to find anything you need at first sight; and don’t be surprised about the big packages.
Don’t fall into despair when there is nothing in your house at first, you will learn to become more flexible (it’s also possible to sleep under your scarf when you don’t have a blanket yet) and bit by bit you can buy the most necessary stuff.
The water out of the tap smells a bit chemical, but is definitely well-tolerated, don’t worry, you can drink it.
Keep in mind that the phone plans are more expensive than in Germany and that Canadians don’t use WhatsApp for texting with each other.
‘Movati’ is a really great gym! Great courses and other training facilities!