http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Hamilton/McMaster-University/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from North America , Canada , Ontario , Hamilton , McMaster University en-us Wed, 11 Nov 09 07:41:37 +0000 Wed, 11 Nov 09 07:41:37 +0000 My plans to go to a friend8217s 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 I8217d heard http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Hamilton/McMaster-University/blog-338963.html So as some of you have pointed out in one case repeatedly thanks I haven8217t 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 con http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Hamilton/McMaster-University/blog-334000.html So Thursday came and with it came classes. Somehow in all the madness of the first few days I8217d 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 n http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Hamilton/McMaster-University/blog-329216.html Everyday on the wall by the main doors to the building the reps put up a poster showing the day8217s activities list. On Wednesday8217s written besides 3pm6pm after the clubs fest and before the pj parade were written the two magic words we8217d been longing to hear all week 8220Free Time8221. So after going around the campus and signing up for all the groups we wanted to we http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Hamilton/McMaster-University/blog-327737.html 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 tshirts 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 wasn8217t. For some reason the organis http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Hamilton/McMaster-University/blog-327344.html I8217m not sure if I mentioned this before but Mac likes cheering. And the annual 8220Bed Race8221 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 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Hamilton/McMaster-University/blog-327309.html 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 tshirts 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 8220real8221 panc http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Hamilton/McMaster-University/blog-323312.html 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 Ameri http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Hamilton/McMaster-University/blog-318700.html After leaving Saba in the Netherlands Antilles I went to visit family and friends in Canada. I really enjoyed doing nothing for a while. I bought a new laptop and spent a good amount of time setting it up trying to work around the Vista bugs. I was able to put full attention to writing emails chatting with friends and a doing a whole lotta surfing including some travel planning. Reading http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Hamilton/McMaster-University/blog-253383.html Akwaaba Welcome to my little corner of the cyberspace world. I will be spending the summer of 2007 working in Saboba in Northeastern Ghana with Engineers Without Borders. I will post more specific details as they become available. I leave for Ghana on May 6th after a thorough training in Toronto. Thank you all for sharing in this journey with me. Bio My name is Dan and I am currently a biology http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Hamilton/McMaster-University/blog-151261.html Well as you may or may not know I've been strategically approaching local businesses to get goods donated for the school. I picked up tons more stuff today so I thought the logical step would be to let you all know what I've collected so far From Titles campus bookstore 300 pencils From the McMaster Health Centre 400 bandaids 800 antiseptics From Fortinos 10 dictionnaries 120 big p http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Hamilton/McMaster-University/blog-52005.html So I've lasted this long in my life without the need for a blog but I've decided this is likely the best way to let everyone know what I'm doing this summer. But now back to midterms... I leave in 44 days and have way too much to do between now and then http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Hamilton/McMaster-University/blog-48071.html I arrived in Canada with a 200 fine above my head. For anyone planning to bring an apple into the country anytime soon apparantly it's not a good idea. Fortunately my British charm and wit saw me through You can't bring that into the country. Haha oh well you could have it for your lunch if you like. No we have to incinerate it. Oh.A good start I hastened through customs being http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Hamilton/McMaster-University/blog-24889.html