First Blog

So I can’t believe it’s already been three weeks since I arrived in Canada, the time has gone by so fast. It actually makes me a little worried that the first semester will be done soon, then I have to go home! L I’ve never blogged before so not really sure what I should be writing, but I guess it makes sense to start with the first week..

International orientation took place from September 2^nd to the 4^th and allowed all of us international students, whether taking part in an exchange like me, or attending the university to do their whole degree from a country abroad, to meet each other and get to know our way around before the arrival of new and returning Canadian students in a few days. I met lovely people from all over the place – the Bahamas, Bermuda, Trinidad, Nigeria, Barbados, Spain, France, Germany, the US, Indonesia... For some reason they all seemed to think it was pretty cool that I’m from Scotland but I told them the places they’re from are probably a lot cooler! On the first day (September 1^st) me and the others whose flights landed at roughly the same time as mine, were met at Halifax airport and driven the hour or so to Wolfville, the home of Acadia University. On that first day I was exhausted, having been awake for almost 24 hours, travelling through three different time zones, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the fact that I was actually finally here and having dealt with the stress of flying alone for the first time ever (which, actually, turned out not to be that stressful at all – if you’re lost, say “bonjour”, or whatever form of greeting is appropriate for the country you’re in, and then anyone is willing to help you in English). I was too tired even to be particularly worried about my missing suitcase, which had not been put onto my last connecting flight in Montreal because the plane was “too full”. It eventually arrived at about 1 in the morning, although I didn’t actually wake to the knocks on my door when it was brought – luckily there was a guy in the room next to

me who took it and I was able to get it the next morning. Over the next couple of days the international students had the chance to meet some professors, take a tour of the town, the gym, the library and most exciting to me, the nearby Wal-Mart for bed sheets, towels, notebooks and other things like that which had not been a priority when packing my 23kg.

One thing I wasn’t expecting when I arrived in Canada was the heat. Everyone said that it was freakishly warm for this time of year, but 40 degrees and very humid and I felt like I was actually melting. Before leaving the UK anyone I told about my upcoming trip to Canada had spoken about how cold it was going to be, and I did believe that it would probably be snowing within a few weeks of my arrival. I’m told that in Nova Scotia winter doesn’t really begin until November/December and doesn’t get really freezing until January, so bringing more summer clothes would have been a good idea! The heat became much more bearable three days after my arrival as Hurricane Earl hit the province. For this reason, the arrival of new Canadian students was postponed until Sunday. I was so excited to witness my first ever hurricane, but by the time it reached Nova Scotia it had been downgraded to a tropical storm meaning we weren’t confined to our residence. The older students who were already here preparing for frosh week (I’ll mention more about that later..) decided it would be fun to go mud-sliding in the nearby dykes (haha). This area has the highest tides in the world, so twice daily the dykes fill up. It’s quite amazing when in the morning you can just see an area of muddy land, and a few hours later you can see a lot of water. Anyway, on “hurricane” day we went mud sliding and got extremely dirty, stopping on the way home to wash under some taps attached to an office building. 

Mud sliding!



Cheer off



Dennis House

Sunday 5^th September saw the arrival of new Canadian students and the beginning of Frosh Week. This is like freshers except it lasts for only a few days, and is very different in that during the day you are taken around by the NSOLs (New Student Orientation Leaders – students from the same residence as you usually in 2^nd or 3^rd year) to do different things like a matriculation ceremony, the opposite of graduation where you are welcomed into the school and you actually get to wear a gown! All the residences are in competition over this few days so at every opportunity there was a lot of cheering. My res is Dennis (Whose house? D-house! Etc.), which is closest to meal hall, yay! All this cheering came into practice at the cheer-off, where all the frosh were taken to the gym and performed a cheer which we had been taught before hand… and Dennis won!! During frosh week there are also things on at night time, like a stop light (or traffic light) party, frosh formal, Classified (a Nova Scotian rapper) and a toga party. The student union bars are open to everyone during this week but after that it’s back to the regular rules – you must be 19 to drink in Nova Scotia (this age varies between provinces in Canada). Anyway the attitude to drinking is pretty much the same as in the UK, just maybe a little less intense over here.

So that about sums up frosh week – Wednesday 8^th marked the beginning of classes which I was not looking forward to after 4 months of summer. So far they’re going pretty well, but more about that in a later post.

Peace!