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[sucoexplores]

First Month in Canada

Hello - it’s me, yes I am alive! Sorry (also not really sorry because I mentioned my inability to commit to something on my first blogpost) for not keeping you up to date. The month of May flew by so fast, I don’t even know where to begin. I saw one or two things besides constantly working on assignments and drinking Tim Hortons. Anyways, I will briefly describe the courses I am taking. 

In this half of the semester I am taking three courses: International Trade Finance, International Trade Management and Project Management. The first two are compressed, which means, that we are moving faster through the course than usual. There is always something to do and the submission dates are very close together. So it’s veeery important to keep up with the topics or else you will get in trouble. All three courses also include major group projects, which is okay I think.

My day-to-day life is not very eventful: I go to class, eat, study, hang out with my roomies, walk to walmart (I LOVE WALMART) or drink tea from Tim Horton’s (Thanks to my cousin, I’m an addict now).

On one weekend we went to downtown London. It’s small and clean. There are also HUNDREDS of squirrels in the parks. The city is a perfect mix of old and new buildings. It has tons of cafés and restaurants, which I definitely have to try out before I leave in August.

Last Saturday my roommates and I went to Niagara Falls. The bus was organized by the college and it only costed $20/student. Even though it was my 3rd time in Niagara Falls, it never fails to amaze me. The Waterfalls are incredibly beautiful. We went on the boat (Hornblower) and it was great! We also went on the ferris wheel and visited the bird kingdom. I’m currently working on a vlog, so stay tuned for that hehe

Right now I’m in Brampton at my Uncle’s. My bestie and Travelbuddy Nantoori came to Toronto to spend some time with me. I was soooo happy to see her! Last year we went to New York City together and this year we are going to explore Toronto for a few days.

Okay, I think you’ve read enough. You may look at some pictures I took in Downtown London.

Me being a tourist

Victoria Park

Downtown London

Me, being a tourist again, in Niagara Falls

One London Place Building

Victoria Park

[sucoexplores]

First Weekend

The orientation day on Friday was very informative and the person who hosted the presentation was really funny. I didn’t get to speak to anybody because the orientation was held in form of a presentation, so it’s hard to talk to anyone lol.

After the orientation, I decided to check out the Masonville Place Mall. As I was heading out of the apartment, I saw two of my roommates. I asked them if they wanted to come too and they were really happy to join me. In order to get to the mall you have to take the bus No. 25. With the student ID from my college, I can use the bus for free (within London). My roommates didn’t have their students ID yet but the bus driver was very kind and let them ride for free. When we arrived at the mall after a 26 minute ride, we decided to split up and meet an hour later. I went to Forever21 and bought two t-shirts. Of course I also had to check out Sephora - a very popular makeup store. The mall is very big and has a lot of cool stores. My roommates and I went to the foodcourt and had some Timmie’s and went home afterwards.

On Saturday I had to get up early and get ready for my cousin’s bridal shower. After a 2.5 hour drive to Scarborough (a district in Toronto) we made it to the venue. I helped my cousin, who was hosting her sister’s bridal shower, set the appetizers up. The theme of the bridal shower was Cinderella, it’s the bride-to-be’s favorite disney princess. The dress code for the guests was navy blue and white. After the couple cut the beautiful cake, it was time to eat. The food was delicious. Next on the program were games. The first game was ‘guess the bride-to-be’s age’. There were pictures of my cousin in different stages of her life and we had to guess the age and write it down. The person who guessed the most ages right, wins a prize. Unfortunately I didn’t win in this game. The second game was very fun. The guests were put in teams of 3 and each team received toilet paper and colorful tissue paper and pipe cleaners. The goal was to create a dress and a bouquet with the provided props. I was with my aunt and my cousin. We dressed our aunt and it was hilarious. We made it to the finale but didn’t win. I still think our dress was the best haha. The third game, was to guess how many hershey’s kisses were in a jar. Guess what, who got the EXACT number right? Yes, it was me! There were exactly 60 kisses in that jar. I won the jar with the chocolate and a very nice smelling body spray from bath and bodyworks. The bridal shower was also a great opportunity to get to know my cousin’s friends who are also going to be bridesmaids at the wedding in June. After the bridal shower we had dinner at a italian restaurant called ‘Scaddabush’, the name doesn’t sound italian to me haha but the food was delicious. At the end of the day we were all very tired but I haven’t seen my cousins in 8 years, so we had a lot of catching up to do. We ended up going to sleep around 1 am.

Sunday was a very chilled out day. In the evening, before I headed back to London, we went out for Dinner at ‘Jack Astor’s’. I had quesadillas and it was yummy! I had a great time with my relatives and can’t wait to spend more time in the next 4 months!

Today I slept in and went to the mall to get some shoes for the gym. I also ended up buying a jacket, because my forgetful self left my jacket in Switzerland. The weather is constantly changing, like the weather in Switzerland so it’s good to have clothes for all seasons haha Tomorrow’s the first day of school for me. My class (International Trade Finance) starts at 4pm and ends at 7pm. I’m not sure how to feel about this but hey - I get to sleep in again haha. 

Here are some pictures from my weekend - enjoy!

Delicious Cupcakes

Those cakepops were to die for!

Beautiful cake!

The jar with hershey’s kisses

I know this cookie is too beautiful to eat -  I ate it anyway haha

Post-Bridal-Shower-Dinner at ‘Scaddabush’ (from my snapchat: suebelieves)

Dinner at Jack Astor’s. (from my snapchat: suebelieves)

Thanks for reading, bye!

[sucoexplores]

Hello Canada!

I arrived three days ago in lovely London, Ontario. Luckily I had a direct flight from Zurich to Toronto. At the Toronto Airport there should have been a greeter at the arrival but the person was nowhere to be found. Fortunately I had the mail (with my pickup-details) printed out and there was a very detailed description on how to get to the bus to London. After a 3 hour drive to London and the bus driver not knowing where to drop me off, I made it to the residence -  well almost. I had to run from house to house to pick up and hand in forms, it was definitely a marathon after sitting nearly 12 hours! Then finally I got my keycard for the apartment and my room. It wasn’t time to rest yet, because I had to get beddings, washroom stuff, food and a sim for my mobile phone. So I headed out to the nearest Walmart, which is a 20-minute walk from the residence. The selection at Walmart is biiiig! It took me forever to decide haha. Afterwards I went to the phone section to buy a sim card. It took 1.5 hours to get that done, because I wanted a plan that has got enough data and coverage. Since I’m not a permanent resident of Canada, it was kind of difficult to get it done. Fortunately the lady was able to pull some string and get it done for me anyway. As I was showing her my swiss passport, she was so amazed! I’m not joking, she admired my passport (and it’s unfakeableness (is that even a word?)) for 10 minutes. She didn’t charge me for the sim card, because I was waiting so patiently haha. While I was waiting a guy complimented my backpack, which I also found really cool. People don’t do that often in Switzerland. After I purchased the items I headed back, ate, talked to my parents and relatives (really lucky to have relatives here!) and finally went to bed.

The second day consisted of exploring the campus and buying some more things for the room. The coordinator from the international office gave me a tour around the campus. It’s is huge compared to my tiny uni back home. Well, here at this college there are tons of programs at one place. My swiss campus is only for the business department. If we put all the departments together it’d make a huge campus as well haha. But still it is SO BIG! It’s a maze to me and I forgot half of the things the coordinator showed me. I have a map with me so I should be good until I figured out the maze haha. Two other people moved into the residence. A girl from Korea and a girl from Japan, they are really nice!

On the third (yesterday) day I met up with my cousin’s fiancé who lives in London. He gave me a quick tour around London, so I get a bit of an insight. Back in the residence I met my third roommate, she’s canadian and she studies event planning, which is really cool.  Later that day I wanted to get my nails done for my cousin’s bridal shower this saturday. I googled Nail salon and walked to the nearest shop to get them done. It went super quick, it was cheap and my nails look good from afar haha! 

Today is Orientation Day, I’m looking forward to know more about the college and meet more people. Maybe I will find some students who have the same courses as me...anyways, this was one big fat blogpost haha. Hope you enjoyed reading it (I doubt anyone reads this except Nantoori, my bestie, who is coming to visit me in 4 weeks - OMG! And of course my fantabulous clique)

Kbyeeee

[sucoexplores]

Hello!

I created this blog, so I can document my journey as an exchange student in Canada. I’m not the kind of person who does things consistently but I will try my best to blog regularly. Also I’m very sorry for any english mistakes, I’m trying to improve by writing blogposts.

Right now I’m still home in Switzerland, organizing my exchange semester and enjoying my time with my family and friends. To be honest I have no idea what to write about so here are a few words about myself:

My Name is Suvi and I’m a business administration student from Switzerland. I enjoy making videos, going to concerts, watching movies, traveling and spending time with my loved ones. Oh and I am obsessed with cats. Hopefully there are plenty in Canada! :D 

Infos about my exchange semester I’m there for the summer term, so there won’t be a lot of local students but I don’t mind at all. I haven’t chosen my courses yet so I can’t say anything about that. As for the accommodation I chose the on campus residence because I’m way too lazy to find an off campus accommodation lol. 

What I expect: Meet people from all over the world. Experience a new way of teaching style. Learn more about Canada. Explore Canada or at least Ontario haha. Improve my english skills (this one is very important to me). Gain experience in general -  like living on my own, being more independent etc.

Feelings: I’m very very very excited and I have been looking forward to this for almost a year now. On the other hand I’m so scared and nervous because this is my first time being away from home for longer than a week. Now I’m going to live in an other continent for 4 months - OMG! There is a first time for everything right? 

So yeah, before I completely freak out, I’m ending this blog post haha.

Canada, can’t wait to see ya!