Life at Waterloo

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As the end of the semester is getting near, we all started looking back at our time at the University of Waterloo. All the work we did, thing we learned, the people we’ve met, the parties we had, the trips, the fun, and how fast it all seemed to go! I still feel that I just arrived here but in the meantime almost three months have gone by. Looking back to all of this I really feel blessed that I was able to come here. I have noticed so many cultural differences between Europe and North America, it really is amazing. The biggest difference is how open people are around here. I think the simple fact that they have so much more space around here makes them less frustrated when they meet people. It is also highly valued to be friendly and polite. It was kind of shocking to me to interact with people and have to mind my language. You cannot just say anything you want here. It is not allowed to discriminate or say other things that might offend people in some way. I am used to say whatever I want to say and here I feel like I have to think more before I say anything. I’m not sure if I like this type of society more than ours but people here really seem to be happy. I guess when you have friendly, polite peoples around you all the time you feel like a good and accepted person. The irony is that a lot of Canadians told that there still is a lot of covert discrimination. So I think it is just a matter of deciding what you would prefer: direct and honest people or polite and friendly people that might talk behind your back. Not that Dutch people don’t talk behind people’s backs, but you get the point.
What also strikes me is how instructors give class here. It is not as formal and anonymous as it is in Holland. You have discussions, assignments during class, and they ask a lot of questions to you. Basically; they make you think. In Holland you are just a number and you just have to pass your exams and maybe write some assignments. That’s it. I feel that people develop more on a personal level here and not just academically. At home you get a lot of information during class and you learn a lot of theories but here you learn to think more and do the work for it yourself. Going to class here will not make you pass the exam but you do get inspired to think about it and it makes you want to be a good student. Going to class in Holland just makes you want to go home and forget about it.

Another big difference is how instructors speak when giving classes. I have had to laugh an awful lot during classes here. They use word like: frinkin’, damn, what the hell. One of my teachers started screaming like a person possessed by the devil as portrayed in movies (to make his point across when we were talking about that subject). He also quoted Cartman from Southpark saying: ‘Respect my authoraty!’ I loved it. That same teacher also jumped up a table to make a point (he almost fell off when we jumped on, that would have been really funny). In another class my teacher mentioned we should watch some old porn from the 80’s (the subject at the time was body hair… you can imagine where this was going). So the point is that they are really good at teaching in a way that relates to our way of thinking. Not just some bored old man standing in front of class mumbling about this and that theory, where you just want to fall asleep to. A downside to this university (especially when you are on exchange) is that they give a LOT of work. I have had to write so many essays in just three months, I can’t believe I just finished my last one!

Having finally finished my assignments I am going to focus on my exams for the coming three weeks. I have a test this Monday already, after that I have four exams on the 12th (two tests), 15th and 19th of April. The most difficult ones are on the 12th and 19th so I’m glad they are spread in two weeks. I have also found out that when converting the grades from here to Dutch standards I get somewhat higher grades there. Therefore I’ll have pretty good grades from this period if I get good grades from my exams. Either way, I’m not stressed and really excited for my trip to the West.
I’ll tell you a little bit more about what we have done the last few weeks since I’ve not written anything for ages. Our weekend to Toronto was certainly one to remember. It was Elizabeth’s birthday and she had planned for us to go out to dinner in the 360 restaurant in the CN tower. The CN tower has the highest building in the world and the restaurant slowly rotates around it. If you have good weather you therefore check out the whole of Toronto from there. Elizabeth had gotten a stay at the Chelsey Hotel for her birthday from her parents. She went to Toronto on Friday with Vicky and the rest of us (me and all the Brits) were supposed to come on Saturday. What Elizabeth didn’t know was that I secretly was going to come on Friday to decorate her hotel room with balloons and streamers. I turned up at the restaurant where they were having dinner. Elizabeth was so surprised! She loved it. Vicky sneakily gave me her room key and I said I would meet them at the bar we were going to go to. I decorated the room and went to the bar that was just a few blocks away. They were in a gay bar where they were having drag queens dancing on a stage and afterwards they held a butt-rating contest! That was hilarious. Anybody (only guys of course) could come up to the stage and drop their pants to show they ass. We met some very nice people in the bar and we were going to meet up with them the next day when we were planning to go ice skating.

I went couch surfing at Dave’s house that, apparently, was an enormous skyscraper in the middle of Toronto. It was awesome. He had a small house but the view from the balcony was epic. I’ll put the pictures I’ve made on the blog entry. The next day we all went for breakfast at the Marche that was almost exactly what we have in the V&D with fresh food but then two times bigger. They had so much choices and it was delicious (and pricy of course). After that we went to the ice skating rink and saw Matt and Josh we’d met the night before. It was a blast! Some people were falling on their bum the whole time and it was really fun to see. I also almost skated over a child that fell just before us. I was able to avoid the kid and right at that moment Tom had made a picture with his camera. Most brilliant picture ever! When we were done skating we said goodbye to Matt and Josh and walked to the Canadiana hostel that we were going to stay at. We freshened up and got ready for our dinner at the 360 restaurant.

Unfortunately the sky was grey and we did not have a view from that far. We could see lights from the city and it was still quite pretty. Also the food was amazing. We were all dressed up nicely and I felt really grown up at that moment. After the lovely meal and a visit to the glass floor of the tower we went away to go out. We searched for a good place to dance but we ended up in an almost empty bar where a band was playing. We had one drink and went to search for the next one. We walked on our heels through the snow which was a really funny sight. We took a cab to the only place they had already gone to before; Fox and the Fiddle. Not a fancy place at all, but a lot of fun. We played some pool (I was really bad at it) and played some other games. We met another British guy at the bar and he joined us with our games. Not the night we were expecting but so much fun at the end. We headed back to the hostel and met a bunch of other people that were hanging out in the living room of the hostel. This was definitely one of the best nights in Canada so far.
For the rest there were several house parties here at CLV and I’ve got to know the other internationals. Through the Couchsurfing site I also got in contact with some locals and other people that are on exchange or traveling here. This Saturday is the Maple Syrup Festival in Elmira and I’m going to meet up with other CSers there as well. Apparently thousands of people go to this Festival every year even though it is in a tiny town. I’m excited to finally taste some actual maple syrup.

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Comments

[Maugosia]

super blog
Hi Emilia, leuk te lezen over alles waar je mee bezig bent. Geniet van je tijd in Canada. Tot ziens op skype, dikke knuffel Mama