Important Tips For Surviving Toronto

Housing

As an exchange student you have three options when it comes to student housing in Canada. You can live on campus, in a flat outside the campus or under the bridge (natural habitat). Living on campus is very expensive and you have to have a meal plan which is mostly fast food (note: eating when you want is not an option). If you want to have your own kitchen you have to pay even more. However, this option is not usually available for bachelor students anyway.  You can also live in the village which is right outside the campus with relatively new houses. The rooms are good and cheaper and bigger than dorms. You don’t necessarily need to have a room when you get to the university since there are more than enough empty rooms to choose from. If you are a party person and do not care much for the classes you may consider living downtown. It is better for your night life experience; however, it is about an hour from the university campus.

A on campus dorm building of York University

Getting around

To get around in Toronto you need a token. You use the same kind of token for metro, bus and tram. There are several ways how to buy these tokens. At a metro station you can buy them at a booth using cash and talking to a live human being – that’s if you like talking to Canadians. You can also buy the tokens at the campus in a building called InkBlots. If all the above mentioned methods fail, you can purchase the tokens in the bus. However, you have to have exact change and it is 50 cents more expensive.

A token, tiny right?

      Remember:

• You must use one token per ride. They are about as small as the 1 euro cent coin.
• Trip planner (from address to address):  http://www.ttc.ca/Trip_planner/index.jsp (Canadian version of 9292ov.nl) 

Weather

Toronto is a city full of sunshine. However, the sun may fool you into thinking it’s actually warm outside. Big no no! Do not forget your sweater at home because it is usually chilly, even with the sun. In the “occasional” case of rain it is the best to hide and wait it out (and be late for classes). It is usually a heavy flow but only for a short while.

Health care

As is explained very well during the orientation, you have to pay for the mandatory health care of 250 dollars per semester.

Cell Phones

European cell phones do not work in Canada because they do not use the same sim-cards. This means that you have to buy a new phone. Bell is the phone company offering the cheapest phones. They also have some really good options, such as, monthly contracts or prepay. You do not have to be Canadian to get a contract and you also do not need to have a MasterCard. What they may not tell you is that there is also 13% tax added to the price of your contract. This means that the amazing starting price of 25 dollars for you contract is what it is – a STARTING price before taxes.

The phone company

Cancelling your contract should not be a problem. All you have to do is call them 30 days in advance and tell them that you would like to cancel your contract. They will ask you several questions about your contract and why you are cancelling and then they will call you back and you are done.

Miscellaneous (also including visa)

Make sure that your electronics work on 110V such as hair dryer, straightener and laptop charger. Make sure to bring adapters with you and bring a couple of extra ones just to make sure you have enough.

You do not need a visa if you are in Canada for less than 6 months and you have a document saying what you will be doing there (pretending to study).

There are no taxes on the prices yet so you always have to add those afterwards (some prices are just too good to be true).

 Special thanks for this article goes to Xenia Fink a 3^rd year IBA student who went on exchange to Toronto and was so kind as to provide us with all of this first-hand information.

-- Maja  V.