TRANSFOR REPORT: Studying and living in Toronto, Canada

Transcription

1 TRANSFOR REPORT: Studying and living in Toronto, Canada My name is Daniel and I m studying forestry at Albert-Ludwigs Universität in Freiburg, Germany. As a participant of the TRANSFOR program, I spent two terms at University of Toronto (U of T). As far as I know, TRANSFOR program has ended. But I suppose there is still intensive cooperation between the universities which were involved, including student exchange. If you think about going to Toronto for studying abroad, the following information could be interesting for you. Downtown Toronto University of Toronto U of T is the largest University in Canada (more than students) and ranks highly in numerous world rankings. Besides St. George Campus, the original location of U of T located in Downtown Toronto, there are two other campuses in suburbs. All institutions which are important for you are located on St. George Campus. o The Faculty of Forestry o A lot of libraries o The Hart House: Centre of social activities. A lot of student clubs have there meetings in Hart House. Also, events like concerts or movies are taking place here. Above it, some gyms and an indoor pool is located at Hart House.

2 o Athletics centre: Here you can take part in different sports activities in wellequipped gyms or just go swimming on your own in the large indoor pool. For U of T students, all these facilities are free. o International Students Exchange Office (ISXO): They are responsible for most of the technical aspects during your time at U of T (transcripts, course registration etc.) but ISXO staff, who is very helpful by the way, hosts some parties for exchange students as well. o International Students Centre (ISC): Beside some technical stuff (health insurance, work permit etc.), this institution takes care of the social life of the international students. They provide tons of possibilities to meet a lot of students from all over the world like weekend trips to the Algonquin park, day trips to a lot of places in Southern Ontario or to events in Toronto, parties, dinners (for example for Thanksgiving) and other events. As well, they provide the English Conversation Program which is a weekly meeting with a small group of other international students and your teacher, which is a Canadian Volunteer. Depending on which class you select, you ll spend your time learning some useful things about Canada, visiting nice places in Toronto, checking out different pubs in town or just talking about whatever you want. I enjoyed my classes and would give it a trial if I were you. o Student Housing Service, a very useful institution which assists in finding a place to stay. Once you paid a membership fee (around 5 bucks per term) you can enter the office where you can find a lot of ads offering different forms of accommodation. The advantage of these ads is that the landlords are checked by the Housing Office and there is a smaller probability to end up with a suspect landlord. The biggest advantage for me is that they have several phones where you can place local calls related to house-hunting for free. The U of T campus in winter

3 The U of T campus, seen from Tartu College, 15 th floor Forestry at U of T The Faculty of Forestry, which exists for more than 100 years, is the oldest Faculty of Forestry in Canada. The faculty building is located at U of T s St. George Campus, in Downtown Toronto. Since most of the university buildings are on campus, you don t need a lot of time to get from one place to another. There are several bachelor and master study programmes at the Faculty of Forestry (Master of Forest Conservation, Master of Science in Forestry as well as a bachelor program in Forest Conservation. Above it, the faculty provides courses for collaborative programs like Environmental Studies etc. Generally, the faculty is not too big and you won t have problems to orientate yourself and get to know the academic and technical staff. Everyone seems to know each other and the staff is quite helpful, which makes your life as exchange student relatively uncomplicated. I was enrolled in some bachelor classes. Since I didn t finish a bachelor degree in Germany before, it wasn t possible for me to enrol in master courses. But there are a lot of interesting and high-level bachelor courses as well. Regarding the study contents of the forestry programme, there are some differences to our program in Freiburg. First of all, the Bachelor students not only have forestry classes but a combination of different subjects, for example Forestry as a major and Geography and Statistics as a minor. I had also some classmates who have combinations like Philosophy as a major and Forestry as a minor. Such students join only a few Forestry classes and aren t forestry experts. Generally, Forestry students from U of T don t have the required qualification to work as a member of the Canadian Forest Service ( as a classical forester ) since they aren t focusing only on Forestry but combining it with other subjects. Rather, Forestry at U of T is characterized by linking it with surrounding disciplines. There is a broad range of courses in the domain of wood science, wood products

4 and paper technology. As well, the centre for environment provides many different science and social science courses in the field of environmental studies. So when your academic focus lies more in these areas or when you focus on classical forestry but just want to broaden your horizons and want to look into contiguous aspects or want to get an overview about forestry in Canada, you have tons of courses you could choose. What you shouldn t expect is a large number of courses which are dealing with detailed questions of classical forestry like the discussion of ideal crop tree number, rotation time, harvest method etc. There are some courses, but you don t have a large choice in this field of study. Courses Generally, studying at U of T is quite different than at my home-university in Germany. Self studies, assignments and readings play a more important role at U of T. Canadian students are normally enrolled in at max 5 courses per term, which means around 7.5 to 10 hours of lessons per week. Sounds like a laid-back time, eh? This was my first thought as well. However, when I had the first class meeting and got my first course outline, I came back to reality recognizing that studying at U of T is associated with tons of homework. In addition to passing over the content of every lesson, there is a lot of extra work to do for every course. You normally have at least 2 exams (midterm exam and final exam) per course. You also have assignments like presentations and papers during the term, which are all part of your final mark. Additionally, you normally have a noteworthy amount of readings to do every week. So finally, most exchange students end up doing 3 or 4 courses, which is definitely enough to keep you busy. One of the noticeable differences compared to my every day s life at my home-university was the fact that studying mostly not includes meeting your classmates but rather working alone on readings, papers or presentations. I came to terms with it by meeting my friends for lunchor coffee-breaks. So libraries will be one of the most important places for you on campus and besides huge Robarts Library there are libraries in nearly every college (U of T is divided in different colleges, and every student belongs to a certain college, which isn t responsible for lectures and tutorials but more for administrative stuff.). One of the nicest libraries on campus is the library at Munk Centre. You will be surprised how fancy a library can be, so check it out, you ll have enough possibilities. Registration for courses Actually, you have to choose the classes you want to take in advance. I did it as well but I made a lot of changes after arriving. Regarding forestry courses, this wasn t a problem at all. Normally, there is still space in the courses and if not, there sometimes is an exception for exchange students. Also, most of the courses at other faculties had free space short before the term started. I would recommend you to enrol for more courses than you actually want to take. There are huge differences in quality, difficulty and workload, but since you are new at U of T it is probably difficult to assess a certain course in advance. However, it is possible to enrol in up to ten courses. After having seen a lesson and having talked to classmates and teaching persons, it is often easier to decide which courses you finally want to keep. Also helpful is the Anti-Calendar provided by the Arts and Science Students Union (ASSU), which provides information about how students evaluated a certain course in the years ago ( However, latest during second week you should make your decision and drop the courses you don t want to join. Basically you are allowed to drop courses even after several weeks. But since workload is rising fast, it makes sense to focus only on classes you really want to keep since it is just not possible to work on more than five courses for several weeks.

5 When you are interested in doing some forestry field trips, don t wait until you get the official enrolment forms from U of T since this could be too late for registering for field trips. Just send an e- mail to the Faculty staff as soon as you know that you will go to Toronto. They will give you information if there are some field trips taking place. I joined a 9 days fieldtrip (Methods of During a field trip in Central Ontario Forest Conservation) to Central Ontario in the week before classes started and I would strongly recommend you to join a field trip if you have the possibility. At first it is the best possibility to learn about Canadian Forestry. Since there are no large forests close to Toronto, there are actually no excursions during the term except from day trips. Above it, it is a good possibility to enjoy Canadian nature and to really get to know some of the other students Housing In the following, I ll give you some useful information regarding accommodation in Toronto. Basically, you have different possibilities: First, you could live in a student residence. Most of student residences belong to U of T. These residences are normally located on campus. If you are interested in living in one of these residences, you should ask ISXO or Housing Service which residences you basically can apply for. Second, there are some residences which aren t belonging to U of T ( but are located close to campus. When you think about living in a residence, be aware of the following facts about student residences in Toronto: Some residences are only available when you stay for the whole academic year (September until April). In some residences you have to move out during the winter break (Mid December until beginning of January) as long as University is closed. Some residences provide a meal plan, which means that meals are included. If there is a mandatory meal plan, you can t decide if you want to participate but just have to pay for it, if you use it or not. Generally, most of the official U of T residences have a meal plan and you have to stay for the whole academic year. So when applying for a residence, always check these facts. I lived in Tartu College, which is an independent residence where you don t need to stay the whole year and where you don t need to choose a meal plan you also can cook by yourself if you prefer it. If you want to live there, you should apply as early as possible. Some facts about Tartu College: The residence is an 18 floor building, located very central next to Bloor/Spadina intersection and directly next to U of T Campus. You share an

6 apartment with 5 to 6 students. The rooms are quite small (less than 10 square meters), but they are fully furnished in a clever way and therefore provide more room to live and store your stuff than you would expect. Above it, every apartment has several bathrooms and a large living room with kitchen, which are cleaned by a cleaning lady every week. Last but not least, Tartu College is quite cheap. It costs $ 500 per month you barely will find something cheaper which is located so close to campus. There are some negative aspects about Tartu, for example the fact that the heating can t be adjusted exactly and therefore it could become warm in winter (and in summer in apartments facing south). Also, you normally don t know in which suite you end up so it is always somewhat luck what kind of roommates you get. But in total, I can really recommend Tartu College and most of my friends which were living In Tartu liked living there. If you don t want to live in a residence, you can rent an apartment or search for shared housing. The most important place to search for housing is the website craigslist ( You ll find hundreds of offers there. When you don t make an arrangement with a residence in advance, it shouldn t be a problem to find a place to stay after your arrival. But you should arrive a few weeks before classes start. Depending on your demands and your luck, it can take between two days and three weeks to find a suitable apartment. As I already mentioned, an important institution in terms of accommodation questions is the student housing service of U of T. It is located in the same building as the ISXO. They provide general information, tons of ads and offer free local calls. Toronto When I decided to go to Canada, Toronto was actually not my first choice. The only thing I knew about Toronto before was that they have this large tower and that it is quite big. So I thought it is just a very large concrete-jungle without individual flavour. However, I went to Toronto and not to one of the other partner universities in Canada for different reasons and finally, I am pretty glad that I ended up there since my associations regarding Toronto were totally wrong. In the following, I ll mention some of the facts which make Toronto a really great place to live, in my opinion. Toronto is the capital of Ontario and located in the South-eastern part of the Country. With its 2.8 million inhabitants, it is Canada s largest city. However, Toronto is actually located in the middle of a huge accumulation of many larger and smaller cities and for really getting out of town (in terms of leaving the area covered with buildings and getting into real nature) you have to go 50 kilometers by car. But this was actually not a problem, although I love nature and always lived in smaller cities close to nature. Toronto has a lot of parks in the city. Also it is located directly on huge Lake Ontario with its green shoreline and the Toronto Islands. So there are enough places to satisfy your need of green environment during the week. (High Park, Don Valley, Scarborough Bluffs and the Toronto Islands are just a few of them). Even outside of the parks, downtown Toronto is not at all a concrete jungle. Large areas in central Toronto are made up of residential areas with small townhouses, each with front- and backyards and as soon as you leave the busy main streets, you find yourself in small quite streets with large trees on both sides.

7 Side street in Downtown Toronto Winter day at Toronto Islands

8 Surrounding Area Regarding weekends, Toronto is a good place to start trips to different places in Ontario. You can make day trips to some of the many conservation areas around the Greater Toronto Area (for example the Halton Conservation Area just one hour west of Toronto: Also, legendary Bruce trail, Ontario s longest hiking trail is not too far for day trips. ( Finally, there are many Provincial- and National Parks which are somewhat further but which are definitely worth a weekend-trip (For example Algonquin Provincial Park or the parks around Georgian Bay). To get to the point: It sounds weird but although Toronto is Canada s largest city, it is quite a good place for people who like nature and outdoor activities. (More information about parks and conservation areas in and around Toronto: More about Provincial and National Parks in Ontario: and Canoeing in Algonquin Provincial park, weekend trip with the ISC

9 Snow Tubing in Snow Valley Ethnic Diversity An important component of Toronto s character and another fact which makes Toronto a great place to live is its ethnic diversity. With a rate of more than 50% of inhabitants which weren t born in Canada, Toronto is considered one of the worlds ethnically most diverse cities. Many immigrants keep some parts of their culture, and you can see it everywhere in the city. Some districts are clearly dominated by one immigration group, for example Chinatown, Chinese stores in Dundas Street Greektown, little Italy, Korea town or little India. But virtually you find marks of many different cultures everywhere in town. There are churches, temples and synagogues from many different religions. As well, perhaps more interesting for you, you find restaurants from all over the world.

10 Singers giving a concert during a street festival in Little India, Gerrard Street Major City Not least, there are some positive things which you find in every major city: A prospering cultural life with many theatres, musicals, concerts, sport events and festivals. The ISC kindly sends all this information in their weekly newsletter or even organizes collective visits for international students. Besides some sport events, I enjoyed different festivals in the city, which often are made up by concerts, fireworks or cultural events and which are mostly free. Also mentionable is the good transport connection in Toronto. You have a direct bus connection to many cities in Canada and the US (New York, Montréal, Chicago etc). Of course there is a large airport as well, which makes it easy to head for farther destinations during your holidays. When you plan to fly to places in the US, you should check the ticket prices not only from Toronto but also from Buffalo as departure location. This US city is only a 2 hours bus ride away from Toronto, but sometimes, flights to US destinations are way cheaper when booked as a domestic flight within the United States.

11 Joshua Tree National Park, California Thanks to a large airport and cheap flights, escaping from Canadian cold and heading South for a few days is quite easy and not expensive Luckily, the typical disadvantages of living in a major city aren t in high gear in Toronto. I already mentioned the many parks and trees in the city, which make Toronto to a greener place than you would expect. Luckily, crime rate is not high in Toronto, which is considered one of the safest major cities in Northern America. Also, it is quite clean. In many travel guides, you find the anecdote that film teams, which sometimes shoot some scenes in Toronto for films which are set in New York, first have to distribute some garbage in the streets and on the sidewalks. Weather Due to its location in the eastern part of the North American continent, you perhaps would expect a typical continental climate. However, Toronto s climate is strongly influenced by the great lakes, which diminish the continental characteristics. Winter is colder than in Germany, from December to March you normally have maximum temperatures between 5 degrees above and 10 degrees below zero. It is mostly quite windy in Toronto, which makes the temperature feeling colder than it actually is. But don t worry about the winter; it is colder than in Germany, but not a problem. The advantage of the cold is that you barely have rain but mostly snow during the winter which I clearly prefer. You don t have snow permanently in Toronto, but when you go up north on weekends, you have enough snow all winter long so many possibilities for outdoor activities like snowshoe hiking, snow tubing etc. The best time in year is fall season, I would say. Whereas summer is quite hot (up to 35 degrees) fall temperatures are between 20 and 25 degrees and therefore more convenient. When I was there, we barely had rain during the whole fall and temperatures still reached 25 degrees in

12 November. It is a great time for outdoor activity, and you shouldn t miss getting up north in late September/early October to enjoy the leave colouring during Indian summer. Nightlife As you can imagine, there are tons of bars and clubs in Toronto. I won t make a huge list now, you ll find it out by yourself automatically. However, there are a few places I want to mention anyway. Two of them are just nice pubs as there are probably hundreds in Toronto, the third one is a must see I would say. - Madison Ave. Pub ( This place is always a good choice in summer since it has several patios, is fairly cheap and is located close to campus. - Green Room ( Not a real patio, just a nice pub close to campus. - Panorama Bar ( Located on top of a high-rise building, this fancy bar offers a great view of the Toronto Skyline. In summer, they even have large patios with sofas on it. Drinks aren t cheap, but this is not a place you go to get wasted anyway. Drink some cocktails and enjoy the view. Don t forget your camera, and call them in advance to make a reservation and to check if there is a dress code. Living Costs I was surprised how expensive live in Toronto is. I don t know anything about costs of living in other European countries, but compeared to Germany, you can expect monthly expenses about 50% higher than at home. Of course, this is only a rough estimate since it depends on your personal way of living. The following information can help you decreasing your expenses. - If you live not too far from university, buy a bike instead of a monthly subway ticket (costs about 100 bucks/month). You find used bikes in Craigslist for fairly less than 100 bucks, and it isn t a problem to resell them there, even when you leave in winter. I would recommend you to buy a bike also if you live in walking distance to university since campus is large and it can take up to half an hour walking from one place on campus to another. Above it, a bike is a good way to get around in Toronto. There are only few hills and enough small side streets. Even in winter, it is not a real problem as long as you cope with the cold since snow excavation is taking place very fast. - For buying groceries, don t go always to the small convenient stores close to your house or to fancy super markets like dominion, which are mostly pretty close. Instead, take the subway and go to a no frills (discount store) once in a while, it is fairly cheaper. Regarding fruits and vegetables, there are some cheap places in Kensington Market and Chinatown. Lunch Possibilities for lunch on campus aren t that good. There are some cafeterias and a small food court, but it is mostly fast food (Subway, Burger King, Tim Hortons, hot dog stalls) and it could happen that you start appreciating the canteen-like cafeteria of your home-university. If you are in need of something better from time to time, there is also the possibility to go to one of the many good restaurants close to campus, for example on College Street, in Chinatown or on Bloor Street west of Spadina Avenue. Normally, there are affordable specials during lunch time.

13 Public Transport Toronto s public transport system is considered as one of the best ones in North America. However, compared to Germany, it isn t that cool. I had the feeling that you can t fully rely on the schedule, also it seems that different lines aren t really synchronized, so especially at night or when you rely on buses or streetcars, it could take a long time to arrive at your destination. Only when you live close to a subway station, you can be sure to get along with public transportation relatively fast. As I already mentioned, I preferred buying a bike. However, it is always good to live close to a subway station in case you have to go to farther locations or in case it is really bad weather. Toronto Outdoor Club One more information for friends of outdoor activities: An easy way to join outdoor activities is becoming member of the Toronto Outdoor Club ( Membership is free and it is rather a casual association of outdoor interested people. As soon as you are a member you have acces to the activity calender with manifold events (hiking, bird watching, climbing, cycling, skiing etc). Volunteers are organizing trips and when you want to join a trip, you just have to register for it. Mostly, you ll get there by car and after registering for an event, the volunteer will organize the car-pooling. Unfortunately, I only joined one trip since I discovered this great institution just a few weeks before I left. It is definitely a great possibility to get out in the woods for people without a car and to meet some locals. By the way: When you need some outdoor stuff (snowshoes, sleeping bag, ski gear whatever ) and don t want to buy it: At many outdoor stores (for example Mountain Equipment Coop, Europe Bound, Marathon Store all located bunched together in King Street just east of Spadina Ave.) you can rent this stuff at popular prices. Conclusion Altogether I really can recommend every student to spend some time abroad; it is for sure a beneficial and exciting time. And when you have the possibility to spend your time abroad in Toronto: Don t hesitate to go there, it is a great city! Any other questions? Just send me an ! Daniel.Landwehr@gmx.de