Things to consider for upcoming exchange students to UPEI

I've collected some important stuff here for potential future exchange students going to University of Prince Edward Island.

Accommodation

I spent the semester in residence, Bernardine Hall, which is intended for freshmen and exchange students. Now if you want to book your room from residence, do it right after you have received required documents for applying, which should be early in the summer if the semester starts at fall. The rooms crowd up fast. One thing that surprised me was the rent, which was approximately 700 CAD per month. So be aware. You could also apply for Blanchard Hall (I'm not sure about Andrew, I think it's only available for older students) which is a lot more spacious and a bit more expensive than Bernie. Blanchard Hall is your choice if you want to have your own separate bed room. But life in Bernardine is very easy if you get along with your roommate (and if you don't, you can apply for a change) and want to pay less. If you live in residence, you have a quick access to campus facilities such as the dining hall, lecture halls and the sports center, and of course, other students and friends.

Apartments outside campus are probably a lot cheaper, but further away. If you choose this option, make sure your transportation to the university is smooth. There's also a fairly large student village next to campus called Brown's Court. You might wanna check this out, too.

Meal plans

Unless you are a natural born cook, I highly recommend taking a meal plan. With one you have an unlimited access to the dining hall depending on the plan you have taken. There are 5-day and 7-day options. At first, I took the 5-day plan but then switched to the 7-day option because I realized that I was to spent quite a lot of time in Charlottetown, and less weekends out of town than I had planned, so I didn't mind having a weekend-access to the dining hall. You probably want to have a meal plan especially if you live in Bernie, because the cooking facilities are not very good. In Blanchard, again, every dorm includes a kitchen. The dining hall is also a social meeting place most of all. I do not enjoy eating alone - so eating and socializing is the way to go!

Getting to Charlotetown

For heaven's sake, don't fly to Charlottetown because it's ridiculously expensive. Charlottetown does not have an international airport so the only way to get there by plane is to take an internal flight, which means that your first stop would probably be in Toronto, Montreal or Halifax. If you want to save a lot of money (and loose a bit in time), fly to Halifax and take the shuttle or bus from there. By doing this, in comparison to few other students I saved hundreds of euros!

Wireless network in Bernardine

The wireless connection is often a bit slow and laggy so you might want to buy a cable for your laptop. That's what I did. If you don't want to bring your own, they aren't too expensive to buy from Walmart.

With these factors in mind, on you go.

It's been fun but it hasn't been real fun, or has it?

I didn't post another entry as soon as I was hoping for. The early activities and courses riveted me along, so it was difficult to prioritize... The semester is already past the half-way mark, so it's finally time to sit down and reflect for a moment. A lot has happened so I will try my best catching the most of it. Time flies, as one Steven once clarified.

What I simply like the most here is diversity. UPEI is one of the most international universities per student in Canada. You can enter the dining hall any time of day and have a seat in a table next to people that are literally from all around the world; burkha-wearing Muslim twins from Egypt, a Sudanese refugee living in Kenya, fellows from Nigeria communicating in broken English, or a guy from Morocco living in France, not to mention a student from Connectitut having roots in Italy. In addition, such nations as Sweden, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Egypt, Japan, China incl. Hong Kong, Holland, France, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Taiwan, represented in our group of exchange students. I'm among the few exchange students that don't get to speak their native language, a fact of which I'm actually quite pleased about. For instance, the Spanish-speakers along with the Chinese and Japanese formed their circles quickly. I don't mind that, but for me, I'm totally swimming in the bottomless sea of non-Finnish speakers.

From ISO to NSO

The International Student Orientation (from August 30th to September 2nd) was a nice three-day set of activities from which the most interesting ones were probably a visit to the Cavendish beach and seeing a traditional Irish music performance. I was to find out that a half of the exchange students did not even participate into ISO because they were arriving later. I actually made the most closest friends from those coming after ISO.

NSO was a totally different thing, a little hard for a 25-year old to adjust. Youngsters aging from 17-19 breaking out from their homes for the first time, screaming and yelling in enthusiasm, attending non-alcoholic parties (drinking age limit is 19) and party like never before. I can do nothing but respect their ability to enjoy and be happy, it's just very different to what I've used to do, not just from the non-alcoholic point of view, but I guess you just tend to laugh at different thins when you are 25 as opposed to 18. For these reasons, not too many exchange students took part in the activities, some of them were fun though, for example the pool party - a chance to feel like a teenager playing funny games in the water.

COURSES & PRACTICALITIES

After a bit of a hassle I chose only three courses out of maximum five. Most of the computer science courses I would have wanted to pick were scheduled for Spring semester. So I ended up taking Professional Practice from Computer Science, Money and Financial Institutions from Economics and Global Issues which is a mandatory course for every UPEI student. People have considered me mad since I took it voluntarily, but as I was selecting courses back in Finland it felt like an interesting choice, for it is a unique course only arranged in this university, aimed to develop critical thinking and writing. According to other freshmen, the bad part of the course is the vast amount of writing it requires, two papers both over 2000 words. However, one of the aims of my exchange period was to improve my oral and writing skills in English even further, so it seemed like a reasonable course to attend. The first essay is already a piece of history, and the second is due in two weeks.

Living in residence on campus, at least to a Finnish exchange student, is slightly expensive. If you want to look for cheap accommodation, private market is the place to go. There is a trade-off for sure for the apartments outside campus, but I strongly recommend to consider them. Meal plans are simply awesome, for $15 a day you can as much as you can, anytime of the day from 7 am to 9 pm. Food selection varies from home-cooked food to burgers and pizza, so it is totally up to the student whether he or she wants to eat healthy or not.

TRIP TO MONCTON AND HALIFAX

The campus was going to be empty, since all Canadians went back home for thanksgiving (Oct 10th) to eat turkey. That was a good opportunity for us to leave the island for the weekend - an act some of the people living in PEI have never done. Leaving the island is also an act that costs 40 dollars. Arriving is free. Getting in and out of the island happens through Confederation Bridge, a massive 13km long pile of concrete established in 1997. It took four years to build and cost 1.3 billion Canadian dollars.

We arrived in Moncton, New Brunswick, the only officially bilingual province of Canada. It was a Friday evening, and we settled in to our hostel after having toured the city with Nash Zangio who brought us there. The evening continued with lunch at a pretty lively restaurant in which the Spanish community, Aaron, Isaias and Ignacio, joined us. When the small and pricy portions of food were enjoyed with red wine, a process supported by a Jazz band playing on the background, the only option to remain was to enter the main nightclub of Moncton, Cosmos.

Moncton, New Brunswick

Halifax was such a nice, beautiful city. Half-seriously we joked about having second thoughts of the university we had chosen to do our exchange semester in. Halifax is on the seaside, providing a lengthy waterfront to walk on in the harbor. The city overall is very pedestrian-friendly, there are not much cars in downtown because of its building density and street narrowness. Overall, an atmospheric and vibrant city definitely worth visiting.

Citadel Hill, Halifax, Nova Scotia

LIFE ON CAMPUS

My daily routines have consisted of studying, eating, socializing and sports. The campus is pretty small and compact, everything is close, a reason for which I have visited downtown rather rarely. Dining hall is just next to the residence and the longest distance to class is probably four minutes away, so complaints about practicalities can not be made.

The sports facility offers many different activities free of charge. The last time I did sports this much was probably ten years ago when I played soccer in a team. Since I am not often heavily drowned with homework, I have made myself involved in such sports occupations as squash, racket ball, table tennis, soccer, gym, volleyball and badminton. There is something going on every day.

On weekends we have been watching hockey matches, sitting the evenings, studying, going out to downtown etc. And during the previous weekend we celebrated Halloween, a thing I had never done before. There was a big party at the campus bar, The Wave. I had to buy my ticket second-hand, since they were all sold out in a day. I decided to dress up as a rock star, which was done in an economical and globalizing way: the leather jacket and gloves were from Tom (US), the eye-makeup from Anna (US), the nail polish from the Netherlands and the hair gel from Youssef (Morocco). Here is how I ended up looking that day:

Cleopatriatic Anna from Missouri, US and me

The end of year is starting to rise in the horizon. For those who did not know, I'm heading to New York for Christmas and New Year's. Friends from Finland will fly over to meet me there. Times square, museum of natural history, NHL - beware!

Knowing how poorly inside matters transcend on paper, I will do it anyhow by commenting on a phrase so often heard from Tom Clark (not Kent): "It's been fun, but it hasn't been real fun." Well, I vigorously claim the opposite: it has been real fun.

Arrival

It's been two weeks since my arrival. I wish I could have posted an entry earlier, thus not letting the fresh memories get out of my mind, but the beginning hassle with its orientations and activities kept me busy for the time being. Anyhow, it's been great so far.

I'm going to start this blog just by presenting the notes that were made during the trip from Helsinki to Halifax. I will post another entry (hopefully soon) covering such topics as international student orientation (ISO) and new student orientation (NSO), life on campus, meeting people from all corners of the globe, courses etc. Until then, here we go.

Current location: Reykjavik, Iceland
Current time and date: 17:28, Aug 29th 2011

I arrived to Keflavik airport approximately one hour ago. I went to look for something eat and found myself a rather dry hamburger and basic french fries. Connecting flight to Halifax departs at 18:40, boarding starts at 18:10. I have to buy some more food to take with me to the plane.

A few minutes ago there was an announcement saying that the flight to Halifax is OVERBOOKED! The shipmen I met later enlightened me by telling that overbooking happens quite often because of repetitious "no-shows." The airport personnel were asking if it was ok for a few volunteers to travel to Halifax on the following day and get some extra bonuses. Well, at least I will not annonunce myself to this tempting deal because I have bookings for a hostel night today and for the PEI shuttle in the morning. I bet there are not too many volunteers for this arrangement.

Looking out through the airport windows, the ground is grey and it's completely flat, except for one thing: Iron Maiden's painted aeroplane was right next to our Halifax boarding gate.

Current location: Halifax Airport, Canada
Current time: 21:46, Aug 29th 2011

Actually and fortunately several volunteers were found to catch the flight on the following day. The bonuses made the deal.

Two Canadian shrimp-catching shipmen, the second mate (third in command) and a cook, came into my table for beers right after I had finished writing my first journal entry. They brought their ship to Iceland for maintenance since it was cheaper all the way down there than in Canada. They told me several things about Prince Edward Island, for instance that there are no hard rocks on the island, so they have to be imported from mainland. Producing and using concrete might be a bit more expensive here than inland.

Current location: Charlottetown, Nova Scotia
Current time and date: 9:19 pm, Aug 30th 2011

The flight went okay, I sat next to two sports team girls. The other asked for me to switch places with her mom. As I had nothing against this request, quite the opposite since my upcoming seat was next to the corridor in the 13th row and my current place was in the back of the plane where the noise is louder. So after the plane took off, I went to the new seat.

I tried to watch No String Attached, but I could not finish it because of its boredom. As an avid consumer of movies, I can not remember a time when I had to stop watching because there was simply nothing in there. Though I must admit that my headphones felt a bit uneasy on my ears. So I grabbed and read the first chapter from God Is Not Great - Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens, a book I got from my brother, who happens to have the most innovative selection of books in three different genres: atheism, atheism... and atheism.

There was a lot better movie during the flight from Helsinki to Keflavik: The Adjustment Bureau. The movie had made a very neutral impression with its trailer so my expectations were not high. But it didn't take long until the movie had already evoked a few interesting thoughts, this time about relationships. I might not be the most objective critic since I've become quite sensitive on the subject. Nevertheless, the one good question the movie pointed out was: can a couple form such a strong symbiosis that they suck out the life of each other and make no progress as individuals?

I stayed the night at Halifax Backpackers to which I was transported by an airport shuttle. Loaded with travel tiredness, I didn't socialize with anynone but went straight to bed. The PEI shuttle picked me up at 6.45 am, so I managed to get a decent 7-hour sleep.

In front of Halifax Backpackers at 6.40 am

I arrived into the campus around noon. The PEI shuttle I took was one hour late because of traffic caused by road reconstructions in both ends, Halifax and Charlottetown. International Programs Coordinator, Sherilyn Acorn, was waiting for me. She told me the most crucial necessities and brought me to my residence, Bernardine Hall, an apartment building mainly for first year and international students. Someone called Jerry gave me the keys to my room which I am sharing with a student from Japan, Seyia Kendo, who had arrived to Charlottetown earlier. After having entered my room, I was soon caught into the depths of desperation: I'm on the other side of the world, totally alone and with no friends around. I knew they were to come, but I had my right to moan for a while.

Seiya stopped by in the room soon after my arrival. We greeted, he had even brought me a Japanese card and a sushi keyring. How nice of him. I wish I had brought him something. :( He was going downtown Charlottetown with his (what, like eight of them) friends from Tokio University where he studies. Later in the evening when he came back and I was just about to go grab something to eat, we decided to go together, which was nice. We went to KFC and then to Tim Hortons, a combination that I hope is not about to become a habit.