Orientation-Week

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2016-09-06 21.19.31

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The UofG O-Week is hardly to compare with the O-Weeks I know from Bremen or Magdeburg, it’s so much more fun!! All the events in which you can participate, the large number of volunteers organizing everything, the whole atmosphere, the feeling of being part of a kind and supportive community (the gryphon community) and of course the fact that it takes place in summer with great weather!

A fact that may be shocking for German students is that alcohol is prohibited during the O-Week. I actually endorse it very much. While in Germany everything is about drinking as much as you can during O-Week, in Canada it’s really about getting the feeling of being admitted in the UofG community, it’s a very pleasant and harmonic atmosphere. Students in general actually follow the rule of a dry O-Week, probably as alcohol is very expensive here and when the campus police catches you in the act you have to pour it in front of its eyes.

Like I mentioned above, there are many volunteers (it must have been more than 500), it’s a totally different mentality of helping each other, at my home institution it’s always very difficult to find volunteers. The O-Week was a full week, more than 350 events took place, there was free food every day, and the weather was fantastic!

Here is a list of some events I joined:

• West Residence barbecue: getting to know the RLS (residence life supervisor) Lissa and my neighbours

• Backstage tour with the Drama Student Federation

• Button making with the History Society

• Marauder’s challenge with the Harry Potter Alliance: We had to find several places on campus and take fotos of them, at the Summerlee Science Complex we met three girls with snakes which we could touch and pick up (like real Slytherins ;-), by the way there also is a Quidditch team at the UofG

• Pancake breakfast

• Planting “Plant yourself in Guelph”: I planted calendula and sunflower for my bedroom

• Cupcake decorating

• President’s welcome & President’s welcome barbecue: Again it was kind of a Hogwarts-feeling as the president and the deans showed up in old, long university robes, lead by a bagpiper. It was a real solemn ceremony and in the beginning everyone stood up and sang the Canadian national anthem with a singer at the lectern.

• Opening of the New Guelph Gryphon Athletic Centre: Since September the UofG has an awesome, big, new gym with many training facilities. It costs $ 45 per semester including many group fitness classes, swimming, badminton, squash and a large number of classic machines and free weights.

• Live music & food-trucks on Johnston Green: One evening there was a stage on Johnston Green with several local bands playing a great mixture of music. We were sitting in the grass, listening to the music and enjoying food from the food trucks – an unforgettable evening.

• HIGHLIGHT of the week - Pep-Rallye: Every residence rehearses a boogie-dance and performs it in the Gryphon stadium in front of all the other new students. There are shirts for every residence and a great music mix. It may sound stupid to you, but it is so much fun when you are part of it! Even the university’s president Franco Vaccarino went to the stadium dressed in the Gryphon shirt and cap and wished everyone a great Pep-Rallye which is a tradition for many years.

#oweek