New Experiences from Studying Abroad

Part of the reason why I wanted to do a year abroad in the first place was to have new experiences in a different culture. I thought living in a different country for a full academic year was going to be a fantastic chance to get to experience things I had never done before. I have definitely got to have some new experiences whilst I have been studying abroad, now as the academic year comes to a close I am thinking back to some of the experiences that have really stood out to me.

 The Pep Rally          

This was just like nothing I had ever experienced before, I doubt back in the UK I will ever experience anything like this ever again. I used to be a massive Glee fan so getting to perform a dance on an American Football field was pretty cool for me!

Toronto

I’ve been to Toronto a lot of times throughout the academic year and I love it, I’ve had a great time every single time. It really is a fantastic city to visit and I have enjoyed my visits there.

Thanksgiving

Being British I have never experienced Thanksgiving before so I didn’t really know what to expect. I had a really good long weekend and got to spend a lot of quality time with the friends I’ve made over here.

Haunt    

Halloween is increasingly becoming more and more of a thing back in England, but for Halloween 2017 I went to a Halloween event at a theme park which was a new experience for me and a lot of fun.

Christmas Party

Every year at university wherever I have been living, we have organised a Christmas party of some sort. This year was no expectation, although I think 2017’s was one of the very best. Everyone pulled together to organise it and we had a lovely evening.

Snow (at first!)

At first it was actually really exciting to experience proper snow. As the winter wore on I became increasingly less keen on snow. But I have not been short of excuses to make Frozen references!

Toronto ComicCon

One of the best things I have done this year was Toronto ComiCon, I just had such a fantastic time. It was an unforgettable geeky experience.

A Relatively Easy Coursework Season To Survive

So it seems to have become a thing for me to write about Coursework Season everytime it comes around again. Previously I wrote ‘Student Life - Surviving Coursework Season’ about Spring semester 2017 and I also wrote ‘Surviving Coursework Season – In Canada!’ about Fall 2017.

This semester I had a bit of a different approach to managing coursework season. Ultimately it has meant that I’ve manged to avoid the worst of the stress that usually sets in as a result of coursework season, anything that helps me avoid stress has to be good for me.

I always write out all my deadlines on a calendar at the start of the semester so that I know what I have due when. This is a great way to get a good idea of when you need to start working on an assignment. It’s also very satisfying to cross off an assignment with a Sharpie after it’s been submitted.

Because of writing my deadlines on my calendar I realised that March was going to be a pretty heavy month for me. I’ve had something due literally every week this month and most of them have been quite lengthy assignments. It was obvious that I wouldn’t be able to go through them all at my usual pace.

Back in January I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do for Reading Week, knowing March was going to be busy I decided that I was going to get started on my coursework in advance. I also knew back then that I was going to Toronto ComiCon and I did not want to be worrying about having to do work over that weekend which further pushed me to get started in advance. 

In Canada most classes seem to have less weekly reading and more assignments. Back in the UK I was definitely doing more reading but on the other hand I was doing nowhere near the same amount of assignments. I think there’s something that I like about both ways off teaching, but I do know it’s going to be slightly strange for me to adjust back into the UK system for next semester.

So basically that’s how being smugly organised has given me a relatively easy coursework season to survive this semester.

Turn Left Moments

Recently I went to Toronto ComiCon, in my blog post about it I wrote that in “some ways this feels like a ‘Turn Left’ moment for me”. In this post I want to explore further what I meant by that.

In 2008 there was a Doctor Who episode called Turn Left. The episode explored what would have happened if Donna Nobel had turned right instead of left and never met the Doctor, the answer was that things would have worked out a lot worse for everyone. In my opinion it is a seriously underrated episode, very powerful and very emotional.

The basic concept of the episode is essentially that a single moment can change things for a person, that concept has resonated with me for years. Maybe not everyone would agree but I think that there are moments in our lives that change things for us. I sort of think of these as Turn Left moments.

So what are some of these moments for me? Well…

2005 – Watching Rose

·         On Saturday 26th March the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who aired, I watched it, and 13 years later I am still a Whovian. I honestly cannot stress enough what an enormous impact Doctor Who has had on me. Genuinely it has changed my life.

2012 – Starting to Write Fan Fiction

·         I suspect most people might be a little bit embarrassed to admit that they used to write Fan Fiction, I’m not. Writing Fan Fic was the first time I ever really wrote something for myself, and the first time I wrote for fun. Essentially because I was a Fan Fic writer I discovered that not only do I enjoy writing but I’m also pretty good at it. I wouldn’t have chosen the degree I am doing if I hadn’t found that love of writing through my Fan Fic experience.

2012 – Going to Disneyland Paris for the First Time

·         I think a lot of people assume that I have been a massive Disney fan for years and I grew up with the movies I love today. That’s not actually the case. It was a trip to Disneyland Paris in 2012 that really awoke my love of Disney. It is because of that trip that I am Disnerd. This trip also influenced me in another way in that it was responsible for me beginning to get into keeping a scrapbook.

2013 – Grant Gustin is the Flash

·         I bet a lot of people assume I have been a superhero fan for years and years but actually, as with Disney, it is a lot more recently than you’d probably expect. Really it all begun with Grant Gustin being cast as Barry Allen in The Flash. I was already a big fan of Grant from his role on Glee and so when he was cast as the Flash I knew I had to watch the series to see more of him. But getting into the series had another consequence, I got seriously into superheroes!

2016 – I Bought a Tiana Doll

·        Just one doll isn’t going to make that big a difference is it? I was so wrong! One Saturday in February 2016 I bought a Tiana doll, as you probably know Tiana is my favourite Disney Princess. A few months later I decided maybe I should buy dolls of the other Disney Princesses that I really love, but only a few of them. From there it just grew and grew. My love of dolls also developed into making clothes for them and rooms for them to be displayed in. As of March 2018 I currently own 38 dolls!

2018 – Toronto ComiCon?

·         Maybe it’s too early to say right now, but Toronto ComiCon sort of feels like it’s the next of these Turn Left moments in my life. I had such a good time and now I really want to go to more conventions. I also want to get more into cosplaying because it was a lot of fun.

I Had The Best Time At Toronto ComiCon

From Friday to Sunday I was at Toronto ComiCon, I was there for the full three days and I had a fantastic time.

I was not entirely sure what to expect in all honesty, I knew that it was a relatively big convention and that was sort of it. As cliché as it sounds, it sort of felt like coming home. I am a massive geek – we all know that – and getting to spend the weekend with other geeks was a great experience. There’s just such a positive energy and a great vibe from everyone that’s sort of hard to properly describe, but I hadn’t really ever felt anything like that before, these are my people.

I’m sure people are wondering who I got to meet/see. I saw Megan Follows (Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables), John Wesley Shipp (Henry Allen/Jay Garrick from The Flash), and Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi from Star Trek). All of them were great people and I am definitely glad I saw their panels.

I bought quite a lot of stuff whilst I was there, but I was prepared to buy quite a bit. Might do a haul to show what I bought.

Toronto ComiCon reperesents two firsts for me. It was the first really big convention I have ever been to. It was also the first time I have ever really properly cosplayed. I cosplayed Nightwing on Friday, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) on Saturday, and 90s Superboy on Sunday. Probably out of the three of them I enjoyed being Nightwing the most.

In some ways this feels like a ‘Turn Left’ moment for me. One of those moments where because of one choice things change for me, like going to Disneyland Paris in 2012, Grant Gustin being cast as the Flash in 2013, or buying a Tiana doll in 2016. I sort of feel like things might be about to change for me because of Toronto ComiCon. I really want to go to big conventions again and I want to get into cosplay.

If it’s not obvious from the amount of positive adjectives I’ve been using throughout this post I really enjoyed myself! I had a great weekend. The time flew by and on Sunday afternoon I was sad to be leaving Toronto. I love going to Toronto, it’s a great city, so I am truly glad that I had such a fantastic convention experience in a city that I love so deeply.