12 March 2010
Toronto
10 November 2009
So If any of you have managed to chat to me since I’ve been away, you will most likely realise that this is not in fact my 2nd week (which you would assume from the lack of blog posts) but that I have actually been here for over 2 months and what a two months it has been. So I left you with idea of me having street meat and watching squirrels running around downtown, oh and of course studying. Well its all still there but now a lot less green and a lot colder.
So lets start with school (and work up)! The first thing I had to face at Ryerson was to choose exactly which courses I was going to take for the Fall Term. There seems to be a lot more freedom for students in the courses they can do and when they could do them. For example, I decided in the end to take all 2nd year classes but some people in my 2nd year classes are taking a mix of 2nd and 3rd year classes. It does get confusing as to who you will see when and where but I have even heard people utter the words ‘oh maybe I’ll just fail that class and take it up next year.’ Probably not the best thing to mention but this option does still include paying for the class again. So I would rather just do it first time around. Though I would imagine this would be slightly harder to do in Newport as the school here seems a lot bigger and as you can see has a different structure.
Photos by Hannah McKimm during her time at Ryerson University, Canada
So when it came to choosing classes and they told me I should really only choose 4, of course I had to challenge myself and choose 5. For anyone who is thinking of coming here next year/ term, listen to them when they recommend 4! It is a lot of work taking on 5 classes, but I have really learnt a tremendous amount from each one! I wont bore you with it all, but one thing I will never forget is when our production lecturer invited Torben Johnke, ASC to speak to us about Cinematography. His tip: Keep it simple. So I’ll try that with the rest of this blog!
Even though I have been doing a lot in school (apologises for calling it school, I have just become conditioned to calling it that now instead of University) I have been able to fit a few other things in a long the way.
October 9th brought Canadian Thanksgiving (different date to America) and I was privileged to share this with a real Canadian family followed by a campfire and movie outdoors (not sure if this last bit was to traditional). Of course I had to try my first piece of warm pumpkin pie with whipped cream on the side and have now totally fallen in love with it. It is definitely something I will try to cook when I get home.
Some other firsts that I have encountered during my time here – a drive-in movie and Canadian root beer, a winter hat being referred to as a tuke and I guess you could add to that my visits to a few tourist stops around Toronto including the local hospital. I did end up stepping off a step wrong and tearing ligaments in my foot. I do wish I could make it sound more glamorous or at least adventurous, like leaping on the CN tower (the trademark building of Canada) but I’m afraid that would be lying.
It may sound unbelievable but it is only now that I am really getting used to living and study in this humungous city of Toronto. I do miss the green hills and rolling streams on Newport at times, so you havn’t been forgotten. Only a few months to go now until I’m home so I’ll hopefully squeeze a few more blogs in before then – possibly one on my NYC trip with the Image Arts faculty this weekend.
No, not this time but Hannah McKimm's been up to alot in Toronto
Newport student Hannah McKimm begins her term of adventure studying on exchange in Toronto
Rhiannon Tate begins her new feature reporting on her 3 month exchange from Wales to Canada
