Toronto Zoo

Saturday January 30th
Today we had another activity organized by the international student office. We are going to the zoo! We left at 11.30 am and arrived around noon. It was not busy at all because it was winter, so it felt like we had the zoo to ourselves. The only down side was that all the stores and gistshops were closed as well. There was only a Tim Hortons open where we got a cup of coffee.

The first animal we went to see was the panda! This was the first time I got to see a panda in real life. He looked a bit sad though, all alone in the cold. There were also little panda cubs but they were inside because it's too cold for them to be outside already.

After that we just followed the path and saw many animals. Because it's winter not all animals were outside due to the cold weather. Also, there were little white lion cubs, but we were too late for the viewing. This means we'll be visiting the zoo again later!

There was also a little turtle that wanted to be our friend! It kept swimming again the glass and following our fingers. It was too cute and I wish I could take him home.

These owls have funny faces! 

I almost reach as much as an eagle!

This wolf just kept posing for pictures!
When we left, he left too!

I got an awesome panda cup!

Black squirrel!

Hair Dyeing Day!

Sunday January 24th
Hair dyeing day!

Because the purple/blue already faded quite a bit and my roots were back to blonde, I decided to redye it. I bought dark and light blue dye and was just going to try it out! I left the dye in my hair for about 3 hours (Don't worry, this dye does no damage to your hair), and rinsed it out in the shower. The shower and showercurtain turned blue as well, oops... It turned out really blue, you can't even tell it was purple-ish before.

Here's the result:

Eventful Day

Thursday January 21st
So every thursday I only have one class but it sadly starts at 8 am. Also it's a 'Lab' class, this means the teacher won't be explaining new materials but you get the time to do your homework. This is also the class where we get quizzes. Now I know this is every thursday, I won't be attending this class as long as I finished my homework and there are no quizzes scheduled. Because I already finished my homework for this week, I left about half an hour later.

Since I had the whole day in front of me, I went to shop for some hairdye so I could retouch my blue hair. It was about 20 minutes with the bus to get where the salon store was. Appearently it was at a great shopping square with lots of stores. After I got my hairdye I wne to look around the shopping square.

Around noon I returned to the college to wait for Berwout and take the shuttlebus home. We had an activity scheduled which the international office offered to international students. The activity was paintball. We arrived home at about 3pm and we had to leave for paintball at 5pm. We decided to have dinner in the foodcourt at 4pm.

When we were getting ready in our apartment the firealarm suddenly went off and we were ready to grab our coats and get outside untill someone annouced that the firealarm was set off on the 12th floor and you could stay in your apratment with the doors closed if you felt safe enough. Our apartment is on the second floor so we decided to stay inside untill we had to leave for dinner. At 4pm we left the building and the firedepartment was inside trying to get up to the 12th floor, since the elevators deactivated for safety. We went straight to get dinner so we didn't hear what the real problem was. You coudn't see anything from the outside, so we assumed it was just someone smoking inside.

Paintball time.
There were about 12 inernational students who signed up to go paintballing. We left in two vans, and after 15 minutes arrived at the paintball place. It was an inside paintball facility, which made me happy because it was too cold outside!
We had to sign a waiver that they are not responsible for any injuries. After that we put on overalls to protect us from the paint, and got our paintball guns. We played about 7 rounds which took about 5 minutes each. At the end there were two students who had paintballs left and went in for a 1 versus 1.
This was my first time playing paintball. It was a fun time but I won't want to play it every week. It does hurt once you get shot, though the pain fades away pretty quickly. I got hit about 5 times, and this left me with 3 big bruises.
After the last round we went back home, it was about 9 pm. After a shower we went to bed because we had to get up early for school again.

First Schoolweek

Tuesday January 12th
So today was our first real schoolday. Our first class started at 8 am! We had to get out of bed at 6 am... This is way too early! Luckily the college provides free shuttle buses between campuses. The bus was scheduled to leave at 7 am, but because it was snowing the roads weren't very nice to drive on. Around 7:15 we got on the bus and it took us straight to the York campus where we have our classes.

We forgot which classroom we were supposed to go for our first class and appearently the school network was down so we couldn't check online either. Berwout asked a library employee and they pointed us in a direction where our class could be. Luckily the schedules for the classrooms are listed on the door so we could see if our class was given at that moment. We found it pretty quickly.
Our first class was Software Portability and Optimization, and it's an interesting subject. We have to wirte a blog with all our work of the class. The blogs will be marked.

Once our first class was over we got some food in the cafeteria. Berwout had another class somewhere today but since the school network was still down, we couldn't check where to go. Eventually we got to our program office and they had a printed timetable of the classes, so we did get some classroom numbers we could try and see if we have to be there.

We both had to stay from 8am to 5pm because our first class started at 8 and our last class started at 3:20pm. I had no other classes, so I sat in the library to do some homework.

Wednesday January 13th
Our first class started at 9:50 today but sadly the buses only go once per 1,5 hours. We had to take the 8:30 bus to arrive at 9 am. Our first class was Entrepeneurship in the ICT, and we figured out our teacher is also originally from The Netherlands, Friesland. So that was a nice surprise.

This class is all about how to start your own business in a succesful way. Mostly using the internet as a tool, like social media and kickstarter. So for this class we have to think about what kind of ict related business we would like to start. I have no clue yet...

The other class I had today was PC Hardware, here we'll be learning how to build a computer and what all the components are. Our exam will be to build a computer. I'm excited to learn all of this because when I'm done studying I'd like to build my own awesome computer.

Thursday January 14th
Today I only had one class but sadly it started at 8 am, so I had to get up at 6 again... The positive side is that I have a whole day in front of me to do usefull stuff. After class I went to the nearest walmart to get some household stuff like kitchentowels, sharp knives and a fleece blanket because it gets pretty cold in our appartment. After the little shopping trip I went back to school and waited for Berwout to finish class, so we could travel back home together.

First week in Toronto

Wednesday January 6th
In the evening we arrived in Toronto after a long trip. For the first time I did not feel sick while flying which was a huge relief for me. We were picked up by Seneca College students and brought to the college residence. When we were all settled we went to sleep quite early because of the long trip.

Thursday January 7th
We woke up early and decided to find a mall and get some groceries. We ended up shopping the whole day and got some basic stuff like towels and dishsoap, and of course clothes! I'm very happy they have a hottopic over here.




Friday January 8th
Today we had our orientation day at the Seneca York Campus, and we got lost... The Seneca York campus is at the York University campus, which is huge! So when we arrived at the university campus we had no clue where to go, and we wandered around for half an hour asking people where to go. Luckily we left early so we still arrived on time at the orientation. Here we got all the information of the seneca campus and where we could go for questions. The seneca campus is pretty small in comparison with school at home.

Saturday January 9th
We moved around some furniture in our apartment. We have a two bedroom apartment so we moved both beds together in one room to create a huge bed! In the other room we created a bigger desk so we can both work comfortably when school starts.