That bowled me over!

Well yesterday I went bowling at bowlarama to help Stong win the Stong Spirit Cup. I shocked myself by getting three strikes. I haven't had a strike for years. Check out the cool yellow school bus we got taken to the bowling alley in. I also continued working on my very tricky essay, but I feel it is finally coming together. The day before I went for a nice meal in the underground restaurant, the fajitas are heartily reccommended. They also had live music in the form of the joys, a trippy, rocky band!

Work

Today I am going to get a lot of work done as I have been given far too many essays to do, but hey you have to make the best of a bad situation. If anyone asks for me I will be in the library :)

Spotlight!

Well, the story telling night was very interesting. We had this women whose name was BJ, yes she claimed that was her real name, who told us a couple of stories. We then had to hold the talking stick and tell stories to everyone else. There were a few exchange students there, but many were in fact returning students who had just been abroad. I met someone who had just come back from York, which was cool. I also got on well with a returning student from Keele. From Toronto to Stoke, interesting journey! I got up and told stories about Evil Eye in York and funny stuff that has happened to me and Baz. The crowd loved it. Loads of people told their story, but at the end a large group of scandinavians came up to me and said 'you were ze funniest'. It was fun! At the end of the night there was only four of us left and the bar staff. It was held in this campus bar called the underground. One of the staff members singing using the mic for storytelling. We then had an impression off to see who was best using the mic. He did Yoda, I did Mickey Mouse, he did the cookie monster I did James Bond and so on. What we did not realise at the time was that the feedback loop went into the main restaurant and hundreds of students could hear what we were doing. Oh the embarassment, but it was good fun!

En Garde!

Well after a hard day of lectures I thought I deserved a break from Korean History, so I went ot my first fencing meet. The coach is a lady from Russia who in her youth was a master of arms. I am looking forward to getting lessons from her. They were very confused when I turned up wearing my University of York fencing club top; after explaining why I have one they all want one. Tonight I have a story telling session with York International, which should prove interesting. I'll let you know how it goes...

Take me out to the ball game!

Well what a fun day it was yesterday. I saw my first baseball game and it was great. It was the Toronto Blue Jays versus the New York Yankees and in a huge upset the Blue Jays won 6-4. It was played out in a huge stadium previously known as the SkyDome, now the Rogers centre. Its amazing the stuff they do at baseball games. They gave away a brand new car, a years supply of ice cream and 100s of dollars worth in gift vouchers to lucky fans. They even have a FedEx van come out to the pitch and deliver the game ball. I could not leave a baseball game without getting a couple of souvenirs, so I grabbed a blue jays cap, programme and one heck of a foam finger. I have always wanted one of them. Afer enjoying the game I went to a nice irish pub in the St Lawrence District where I enjoyed a tasty meal!

Thank you!

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all family members who have sent me good luck cards/e-mails/photos.

As it is the Toronto film festival at the moment I felt it only right to include a picture of Toronto City Hall, featured in many films, to celebrate!

From the air it looks like an eye, which is supposed to represent that the council is always watching you! Scary stuff eh? (NB eh is a word, which every Canadian uses far too much!)

Happy Endings!

Lectures are into full swing and boy do they know how to work you! I have three essays each 20 pages to write in the first four weeks. A little harsh I say! Notable events that happened this week involved me winning a Kit Kat Chunky. I would just like to emphasise the chunky part. This was no ordinary Kit Kat! In order to gain this phenomenal prize we had to name as many fruits/films Julia Roberts was in until only one remained. I hear what you are saying, how did he manage to keep both bananas and the runaway bride seperate, but I assure you it can be done. Just train hard and you will be rewarded. That is not the only competition I have won this week (the audience gasps). I also managed to repeat the word cauliflower multiple times without showing my teeth or laughing. Once again I am sure you are thinking how could such an amazing feat be accomplished by one so young, but I pulled it off. My reward, half a pretzel, one of the mini ones! I'll admit that prize was far less exciting! Also in the news this week, I found myself travelling back on the bus through a rough neighbourhood. I knew it was rough because the day after I was there someone was shot. Anyhow while on this bus, laden with shopping, the driver suddenly stopped the vehicle, turned around and said, you all have to get off the bus, a cyclist has just bounced into us. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but usually the bus bounces into the cyclist, not vice versa lol. There is no need to panic though, the cyclist pedalled off albeit slowly, we all love happy endings!

The Ex-cellent day

Last week I went to the Ex (NB after this post I will have caught up with myself in time terms). the Ex is the Canadian National exhibition (CNE). It is mainly made up of sideshows and exhibitions. One such exhibition was the butter sculpture corner. Yes, you heard that right, butter sculptures are in fact entertainment in Canada. There was also a giant inflatable cow and a demonstration of battery hen farming, which shocked me to be honest. There was a lot of stalls selling/giving away stuff. I managed to bag myself some free tax return software, not bad for a days work. I also got myself a little ice hockey picture thingy of Mario Lemieux, player and owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins. I also saw a guy getting shot out of a Cannon, went on a huge ferris wheel, which was kinda unsafe as it tilted pretty dangerously and it had no safety bar. I saw a in-line skating/bmx/skateboarding stunt show which was cool. Finally the evening was capped off with a huge fireworks display set to music over Lake Ontario. It certainly was a spectacle to behold. Check out the picture I took!

Beauty

One thing I have noticed here is that the moon looks amazing at night. It takes on a very reddish tone that makes it look just like Mars. It is breathtaking, especially when I view it from my ninth floor window. It's also nice to think that its the same moon people I know at home are looking at, at the same time. To illustrate the natural beauty of some of the areas of Canada check out these photos I took while on my boat cruise.

On the beautiful briny lake!

Last Sunday I went on a nice relaxing boat cruise on Lake Ontario. Check out the photo of me on the boat sailing past some very cool looking skyscrapers! I have started work now and it is very heavy. Lots of essays, research projects, readings, so I am going to have to knuckle down. For some reason I am doing lots of third and fourth year courses, not quite sure how that happened! I have been to freshers fair now and joined the economics society (Woohoo/shoot me!). They are like a protection racket, you get access to past papers if and only if you join them and they charge you 5 dollars for the privilege! I also joined fencing and went to an excalibur newspaper meeting. I might try and get some stuff published if I find myself some time.

Once in a lifetime!

Later in the week I went on the downtown adventure all around Toronto. Our team had to take crazy photos. About ten of us got on the bar in the hard rock cafe and danced to YMCA. Ryan would be so proud! They even gave us the indian head dress and the builders hard hat to wear, preferably not at the same time. I also had my photo taken with the hooters girls and with some rather scary looking greyhounds. We also successfully managed to build a human pyramid before a rival team collapsed us causing bruises galore. After our busy day we all met in Caseys, a rather nice restaurant downtown. After that I joined the live studio audience on Canadas own much music channel. Woohoo! I was on TV! The show involved us watching music videos and then clapping for them whether we liked them our not. Ah, how fickle television is. It was great to be in a major TV studio though and to observe all the stuff going on!

"Would you look at the wingspan on that!"

Another busy day lay ahead for me on the Saturday. First I went with the international orientation people to Toronto Islands. These are a group of beachy islands just off the coast of Toronto and are home to scenic woodland and a small themepark for little kids. It also has a nude beach apparently, but I never did track that down. We had a huge ultimate frisbee tournament which my team won. The prize was free cinema tickets. Can't say fairer than that! During the frisbee tourny there was also an amazing airshow showcasing jet fighter talent and the canadian version of the red arrows. They also had what looked like B52 Bombers flying around! After a packed lunch we then had a sand castle building competition. I suggested to my team that we build a sand sculpture instead and thus we created an alligator! Check out the photo below, we won first prize. The prize was a York University frisbee. Perhaps it was time for another tournament!

The shakedown

Wednesday was international orientation day. Very info heavy, but again free meals and an improvisational comedy show. If you have never seen one before I highly reccommend it. In the evening I went to the Docks Nightclub in downtown Toronto. It has a very different feel to the clubs in England. Due to new legislation it is smoke free and as most people were under drinking age no alcohol was served. They also had pool tables actually on the dance floor. Every person who enters though has to pass through security much like that found at an airport.

The Time Machine

Another day, another crazy event. Today I travelled to the Canadian National Exhibition (The Ex) to a huge medieval show called medieval times. It was really great! Each college is assigned a knight who then competes in a tournament for your honour. It was very cool and showcased some real horse talent. There were also sword fights galore and paper crowns for you to wear. Oh yes, real medieval paper crowns. It was very realistic. They serve you a banquet as well. One course of which is an entire chicken!

The birds and the bees!

Today I checked out the campus. With nearly 50,000 students it fairly crowded. York University was founded in 1959 and has spread rapidly offering all sorts of crazy courses. You can do elective modules in rock music and weight lifting. Unfortunately my home uni said that they were not quite academic enough. Who would have thought, eh? Today was another frosh event. It was pretty strange stuff! We had a sex talk with a local celebrity called Sue Johansson. She has a show called the Sunday night sex show here apparently. She is old, wrinkly and stood up in front of us demonstrating the joys of a vibrator. In England when it comes to sex they would simply give a leaflet. But no, here it seems they do things very visually. Canadians are very vocal and outgoing, thus when Sue reveals that girls have twice as many nerve endings down below compared to boys, the Canadian girls started the chant 'boys suck'. It was a very strange experience, but it put forward a good message.

A Scary Day

This was the big day for all the other froshers (for some reason this is what new people are called, note the 'o') to move in. After sleeping 12 hours straight to get rid of my jet leg I travelled down to the ground floor for a free BBQ. Only one hamburger per person I was told. There was a nice salad though that tasted just like pesticide. Apparently they are not quite so stringent about what goes into food here. It was nice nonetheless and I met a couple of people, Kevin a commuter from Toronto and David, a business extradonaire! I also collected my frosh kit, which had free sweets, campus clothing and as many leaflets needed to start a small bonfire in.

After that I took part in the first frosh activity, building a mascot. The most obvious choice for a mascot was of course a peacock. A natural choice for the blue team. The blue team comprised of the Kaiser and Iroquois floors. I am on Kaiser! After Dudley, our badminton playing, kineasiology studying peacock was deemed the best we all went to the frosh opening ceremonies. Later that night I went to an electric tea party where you draw on each others shirts with crazy highlighters. All in all, not a bad day!

The beginning of something grand!

On the 27th August I arrived in Canada to begin my exchange adventure for one whole year. Yep you heard that right, one whole year of being stranded in a strange country with only a cuddly penguin for company! The flight was fun. I travelled with Air Transat and was sat next to this old Canadian Lady whose parents came from England. She was very friendly, but kinda panicked me when she told me that the thunderstorms were so fierce that iif you are on the phone during one lightning can go down the phone line and kill you! The airport in Toronto is huge and I had to wait in the customs line for ages, but I eventually managed to get to York University. It was then with my two very heavy cases, backpack and shoulder bag that I realised i was on the ninth floor. Luckily with some expert baggage handling and the assistance of a young Vietnemese guy I made it to my room. It's not too shabby. It has a great view of the rexall tenis stadium, note the banner displaying Maria Sharapova prominently. The Rexall Tennis Stadium is the home of the Masters Tennis Series. Check out the photo for my bedroom view. It looks great at night too!

Who would have thought six sides could be so much fun?

Welcome to the Cube. Cool and swish this will provide users to interact with none other than Phil himself. Keep up to date with Phil's Canada Adventure and beyond. Marvel as we go on a journey into the cube!