Experience report Trent University Study program: Liberal Arts and Sciences/University College Exchange semester: Fall Academic year: 2017 2018 Host university: Trent University Country: Canada I General information about the school Trent University is located in Peterborough, which is a small city about 2 hours away from Toronto. I spent most of my time on campus, since this is quite a big and beautiful place where you can eat, study, sport and hang around with friends. The campus is a 20-minute bus ride from downtown Peterborough. The city itself has nice cafetarias, restaurants and bars, where you can spend your time if you are not on campus. The university has approximately 8000 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students. Of all these students, nearly 700 are international. Because of the relatively small amount of students, I felt part of a close-knit community. II Practical information Kate Logan is the head of the International Office of Trent University and she sends the pre-arrival information right in time. She organizes several coffee hours, in which you can drop by and ask all your questions, but if you want to change courses at the start of the semester, it might take some time before you receive a response. A visa is unnecessary when studying at Trent University for a semester. If you stay less than 6 months in Canada, you only need to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorization online, which costs about $7 CAD. The arrival was organized very well, as Trent picked up all international students at Pearson International Airport. Orientation week The day after the arrival at the university, the Trent International Orientation week started. This is a week in which you meet all the international students, get to know the university campus and see parts of Peterborough. This is followed by another introduction week, which is held for all new, first year students. Highlights of this week are the Fair Play event, in which all first year and international students start off on the sports field and have an evening of fun activities, and the minute-to-win-it game, which clearly shows the spirit of the different Trent colleges. I loved these events, they are typically American! Besides, there was a color run, a cultural concert and canoeing on the river. Housing Nearly all first year and international students live in residences provided by Trent University, mostly on campus. After the approval of the exchange agreement with the host university, guidelines are sent to you which explain how to apply for housing. Trent University offers single, double and triple rooms, which are divided over the colleges Gzowski, Otonabee, Champlain and Lady Eaton. I lived in Gzowski Annex, a residence which is located 10 minutes from the campus by bus. Because this building is not on campus, it has its own cafetaria where you get 3 meals a day. Personally, this is the only residence of Trent that I would not recommend. The building is quite old, the food options of this cafetaria are limited and it is further away from most of your (international) friends on campus. However, all the other buildings on campus, and especially Lady Eaton Annex and Champlain Annex, 1
are good places to live for a semester. More information on the various housing options is available on the website of Trent University. Living Costs As I did not live on my own in the Netherlands, the living expenses in Canada where higher than my living expenses during my studies in Tilburg. Moreover, costs in general are somewhat higher than costs in the Netherlands. Because all international students at Trent University have a meal plan, through which you can order your meals in the cafetarias on campus, the additional costs for food are quite low. I spent most money on housing and the meal plan. Together with paying for housing, you get a transit pass for free transportation in the Peterborough area. Additional money I spent on transportation was mostly for the Greyhound bus rides that I made when I went to Toronto. Thus, my monthly costs mainly consisted of (euro): * Housing + meal plan: 900 * Transport: 15 * Books: 120 (total!) * Miscellaneous: 180 Academic calendar For the Fall semester, the arrival date was the 29th of August. The semester started at September 11, and the last lectures were at December 6th. The examination weeks took place from December 7 until December 20th. In the last week of October, there was a reading break in which there were no classes. This week in the middle of two exam weeks is genuinely meant to study, but many international students use this opportunity to visit places in Canada or even the United States. I volunteered for the international office at the Open House of Trent University, and together with other foreign students, I explained the possible future students what studying abroad is like and that it is a valuable addition to your studies. Social activities Trent University organizes many activities for all of their students. All colleges have their own college weekends with lots of fun activities, such as movie nights and day trips to the Eaton Centre in Toronto and the Warsaw Caves. Several activities are organized during the Trent Homecoming weekend, in which many regional and national sports teams come to Trent for tournaments, and to which students and alumni come to enthusiastically support their fellow Trent students during the games. Furthermore, there are organizations and clubs for nearly all different interests, varying from volleybal and cheerleading to mathematics and Unicef, and they organize formals and team activities as well. Moreover, the International Office has amongst other things coffee hours and gingerbreadhouse competitions, and organizes trips to the Niagara Falls and the Toronto Christmas Market. All in all, there are lots of really nice opportunities to explore the country, hang around with friends, meet new people and enjoy your time! Although I have been quite busy with studying and finishing my assignments sometimes, I had the opportunity to visit other areas and see some of the amazing places that Canada has to offer. I visited Toronto several times during the semester, an amazing city with lots of modern buildings, a beautiful skyline and nice restaurants. Examples of the places you can visit are the CN tower, the Toronto Islands, Nathan Philips Square and the Toronto Christmas market. I myself participated in the 5k run of the Toronto marathon, which was a really nice experience too! Besides, there are lovely coffee places everywhere (e.g. Dineen, Tim Hortons), which is especially nice in the sometimes extreme cold weather in December and January. 2
Next to my trips to Toronto, I visited Vancouver for a couple of days, a city which is a beautiful combination of nature and urban life. Other trips I made were to the Warsaw Caves to hike, to the Niagara Falls to see the famous water falls, to New York to celebrate New Year s Eve in Central Park, and to Ottawa to skate on the Rideau Canal. One of my friends from Tilburg University stayed in Toronto for her exchange, so I visited her several times during the semester. Besides, I made friends with a lot of international students of Trent too, and because of all the general events and activities, I became friends with Canadian people as well. Culture shock I did not experience a major culture shock when studying in Canada, but there have been more differences than I expected. The positive differences that I experienced are that most Canadian people are friendlier, more laidback and often willing to help. Moreover, many Canadian people love being outside, and there are lots of outdoor activities. However, something that I disliked a bit about Canada and eating on campus is the food. Although there are really nice places where you can get some good food, a lot of restaurants offer fastfood. Therefore, I would recommend to apply for a room in Champlain Annex or Lady Eaton Annex, two buildings just off-campus, as they have appartments with a shared kitchen. This gives you the choice to eat on campus if you want to, and cook if you want to avoid the fastfood. III Academic information All courses are offered in English, which has not been a problem for me, since my LAS program at Tilburg University is in English too. I took the following courses: Course code Course ECTS Exam Prerequisites IDST 1001H Human 6 Written None Inequality ANTH 2500H World Food System 6 Written Permission of instructor WMST 1001H Thinking 6 Written None Gender GEOG 2810H Canada s People & Places 6 Take-home exam GEOG 1030H or permission of instructor I really enjoyed all of my courses at Trent, and if you are interested in international development, I would definitely recommend the courses Human Inequality and the World Food System. The professor of these courses knows a lot about the relationship of the Western and non-western world, and the global inequality that exists regarding food systems. Therefore, the lectures are a major flow of information from the professor to the students, but this is compensated for in the small-scale seminars. In these weekly seminars, there is plenty of opportunity for interesting discussions and answering questions. Because of the small groups, teachers know your name and it feels really familiar. This also holds for Canada s People & Places, a course with weekly lectures and seminars as well. Although there were not many students in this class, I really enjoyed learning something about the history, geography and future challenges of Canada as a country. For Thinking Gender, I had one lecture per week and an online seminar, in which students participated in group discussions via Blackboard. The professor of this course was really enthusiastic, and definitely made the course more fun! 3
The workload of the courses at Trent University is higher than the workload of the courses that I followed at Tilburg University. Whereas my courses in Tilburg mostly consisted of a mid-term, a written paper and a final exam, Trent has more courses with weekly assignments. This makes that the workload is more evenly spread over the semester, and leads to a lower workload in the study weeks just before the exams. This makes that many international students use their reading week more as a holiday. Thus I can say I definitely spent more time on my study, but I really enjoyed my courses and I had good results in the end, so the hard work was worth it! I would definitely recommend to study abroad for a semester, as it has been the best decision in my life! With stepping out of my comfort zone by going on exchange, and living on my own in another country, I got to know so many international and local students and see so many new places, which made my exchange extremely valuable. Trent, with its beautiful location, facilitates a huge amount of events, which give students the opportunity to meet new people and enjoy the Canadian culture every time again. I learned that there are a lot of beautiful places in the world, and I am looking forward to discover them. Because of the many (student) organisations that Trent has, and the help they offer in all possible ways, whether it is to answer academic questions, with any struggles you might have when being far away from home, or with finding a host family for the Christmas break, I felt part of the Trent community and loved every minute of studying there. This, together with all the friends I made and places I visited, made Trent feel like being home away from home! I will never forget this amazing experience! While visiting Vancouver The Niagara Falls 4
Campus of Trent University Enjoying the snow with my floormates A hockey game of the Ottawa Senators 5