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Background: A land of vast distances and rich natural resources, Canada became a self-governing dominion in 1867 while retaining ties to the British crown. Economically and technologically the nation has developed in parallel with the US, its neighbor to the south across an unfortified border. Canada's paramount political problem is meeting public demands for quality improvements in health care and education services after a decade of budget cuts. The issue of reconciling Quebec's francophone heritage with the majority anglophone Canadian population has moved to the back burner in recent years; support for separatism abated after the Quebec government's referendum on independence failed to pass in October of 1995.

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By Brit Girl
October 27th 2008

Autumn Almanac

North America » Canada » Ontario » Hamilton » McMaster University

SDC10548

My plans to go to a friend’s for thanksgiving unfortunately fell through and so spent the weekend on campus. Luckily enough however, my friend Anna also stayed here and so one crisp, autumn, Sunday afternoon we went for a walk into Coots Paradise, the nature reserve adjacent to the campus. We followed a path behind one of the residences into the woods and down to the lake. Now I’d heard that autumn in Canada was amazing but to be honest it didn’t exactly sound that remarkable; I mean leaves change colour in England too. However, when you put thousands of these [View Full Entry]

By Brit Girl
October 14th 2008

Working 9 'til 5

North America » Canada » Ontario » Hamilton » McMaster University

So as some of you have pointed out (in one case repeatedly; thanks), I haven’t actually written that much since welcome week. The reason for this is simple; not that much has happened. I am living in a country where students actually work. Where people will choose homework over going out. Where pretty much everyone goes home for the weekend. Coming from a country where procrastination is considered both a sport and an art form, and where getting out of your home is the main reason people go to university, this is a bit of a culture shock for me. It [View Full Entry]

By Brit Girl
September 7th 2008

Thursday-Sunday: Making A Memory

North America » Canada » Ontario » Hamilton » McMaster University

So Thursday came, and with it came classes. Somehow in all the madness of the first few days I’d managed to forget about the whole work side of Uni; the real reason why I was here. Every building at Mac has an acronym so asking for directions made me sound like some sort Bond girl. My Thursday timetable said I was in TSH, BSB, MDCL and PC. Not only that, but every building has a ridiculous number of rooms and apparently very little logic to them. (I’m still trying to work out how BSB340 isn’t the room immediately above BSB240.) Luckily [View Full Entry]

By Brit Girl
September 3rd 2008

Wednesday-Freedom

North America » Canada » Ontario » Hamilton » McMaster University

Everyday on the wall by the main doors to the building, the reps put up a poster showing the day’s activities list. On Wednesday’s written besides 3pm-6pm (after the clubs fest and before the pj parade) were written the two magic words we’d been longing to hear all week: “Free Time”. So, after going around the campus and signing up for all the groups we wanted to, we had lunch and then tried to decide what to do with our free time. Funnily enough, because every minute of every day had been organised so rigidly for us over the first few [View Full Entry]

By Brit Girl
September 2nd 2008

Tuesday-Join With Us

North America » Canada » Ontario » Hamilton » McMaster University

Tuesday, faculty day, and because I was being a first year that week it meant I was in social science. Woo! We all arrived at the football field in our blue t-shirts and had to register. Here we were given a coloured headband and told our team name. You would have thought these would have been fairly simple like Team A, Team 4, or even Team Light Green. It wasn’t. For some reason the organisers like to confuse things a lot so when my coloured head band was called I was welcomed to team “Alpha Sigma Beta”. My thoughts exactly! We [View Full Entry]

By Brit Girl
September 1st 2008

Monday- Everybody's Screaming!!!

North America » Canada » Ontario » Hamilton » McMaster University

B-B-B-Bates!
Pretty much everyone in our halls

I’m not sure if I mentioned this before but Mac likes cheering. And the annual “Bed Race” is the focal point for this. An hour before the race we had a Pep Rally. Everyone from our halls met up outside and we literally covered ourselves in purple paint from head to toe, writing Bates on any skin available. Whilst doing this we practised our cheers, learnt even more, and generally got high on excitement and paint fumes. We then walked down to where the race was being held and queued up with the other Halls. This lead to more cheer-offs, including [View Full Entry]

By Brit Girl
August 31st 2008

Sunday- Shiney Happy People

North America » Canada » Ontario » Hamilton » McMaster University

We were awoken at a ridiculous time Sunday morning, by the reps shouting and banging on our door. We all dressed in our purple Bates t-shirts and they took us all down to the student centre where I had my first Canadian pancakes. Having been told by far too many people that Canadian pancakes are the nicest in the world I was pretty excited. They were obviously nothing like “real” pancakes; they were too small and too fat, plus it wasn’t Shrove Tuesday, but after loading them up with fruit and cream and avoiding the maple syrup at all costs, I [View Full Entry]

By Brit Girl
August 30th 2008

Saturday: Oh My God

North America » Canada » Ontario » Hamilton » McMaster University

As the plane started to descend below the clouds we could see Canada properly for the first time. It was really, really, flat! Any height was given by buildings like the CN Tower, although, there was a whopping great lake. I knew Lake Ontario was huge but I'd never imagined it to be that big. At first I thought it was the horizon but as the plane tilted in to land I realised that I could see America faintly in the distance on the other shore. All the housing estates were built in identical, neat patterns and the roads were ridiculously [View Full Entry]

By roberrific
August 18th 2008

Harness Race History at Confederation Cup XXXII

North America » Canada » Ontario » Hamilton

On August 17th my friends and I watched Somebeachsomewhere make history at Confederation Cup XXXII, at Flamboro Downs, just outside of Hamilton Ontario. Of course we had to park a half mile away from the Grandstand as we were late arriving (at about 12:30 pm) on Sunday August 17th, 2008 - but we soon got inside the air conditioned venue with plenty of time to place our bets on the Confederation Cup XXXII Final! More on that later. My date went to fin [View Full Entry]

By bedouin
May 6th 2008

Getting Ready

North America » Canada » Ontario » Hamilton

So I'm home now.. and marks are finally out! Yay! I passed.. and I'm trying to get ready for France.. Holy Shit.. I never realized there was soo much paperwork to get a visa!! Anyway, everything is really hectic right now.. parents are sick and with the new house and whatever.. I just wish the summer goes by a little faster and I'm on my way to Paris!! I can't wait! I'm actually really excited!.. and scared.. Just picked out the courses today...registration starts tomorrow.. yikes!! Anyway I'll keep this updates as I get ready for departure! =D [View Full Entry]

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