Queen’s University- Rachel Smith
Hello all and happy new year! We’ll start the year by hearing from Rachel as she reflects on her first semester at Queen’s….
“I’ve done so many new things since arriving! When I first got here the weather was still super nice so I went on a boat trip on Lake Ontario with the people I’m living with. I also took a ferry out to one of the thousand islands one weekend. My housing group had a big thanks giving dinner which was great because I got to try all the Thanksgiving food that I’d never had before and it was super fun because everyone was together. One of the highlights of the year at Queen’s is Homecoming, which is kind of like the Canadian answer to Raisin and involves the whole of the student body getting together to party.
I have also been able to travel a little bit too. The international centre ran a trip to Niagara Falls early on in semester which was amazing to see and also a really good opportunity to meet other study abroad students (there’s so many Scottish people here!). I also went to Toronto for a weekend with some friends and got to see all of the touristy sights (we‘re all British) as well as trying all the Canadian foods (poutine and beaver tails are a couple of favourites). I also recently went to watch a local (ice) hockey game which was really exciting, but it’s helpful to have a Canadian on hand to explain the rules.
I’m finding classes here quite different to back home in St Andrews but I’m really enjoying all of my courses It been really interesting to take some classes that I wouldn’t necessarily have been able to take back home. Also, there’s much more of a major minor system here so its fun to meet people in class who are studying completely different things to me.”
