University of Western – Ivey London, Ontario, Exchange Report

KU YUEN YUEN, CIRCLE IS/ FINA, YEAR 3 SPRING 2017

Part I Monthly Activity Log

• January I went to , Canada before 1st Jan because I celebrated New Year’s Eve there. That was my first time celebrating the special moment of every year in a foreign country. After that, I went to London, where the school located, to participate in the orientation activities. Ivey provided lots of opportunities for us to meet new people. Every semester, there will be around 20 – 25 exchange students coming from around the world in Ivey. All students and professors treated you kind and were willing to help you adapt to the new environment. You will find that you can smoothly become part of the classes and Canadians. I believe the most challenging thing that you need to face would be the chilly weather in Canada.

• February February was very intense for students. This was the month for projects and midterm examinations. Every course in Ivey was taught case-based. I finished four midterm projects and one midterm examination in February. However, you would also have a weekly holiday after midterm week. During the holiday, I firstly travelled to Ottawa, Quebec City and Kingston for the Winter Festival over there. After that, I went to the US for Chicago, New York, Boston and Washington DC. That was my first time travelling to the US, which was a great experience. London is very close to New York that you could take Greyhound, the most famous travelling coach in Canada and the United States, to it.

• March Ivey semester ended very early that I finished the semester at 31st March. This was the most intense month for me because I got one project and 7 presentations that month. I spent all of my time staying at Ivey and my apartment to finish my works. The lucky thing was the students and professors in Ivey were very nice and helpful. They helped me a lot and also taught me many skills to manage so many workloads and projects.

• April I got all my final exams end at the first week of April. After taking all final exams, I spent a month in different parts of America. The weather of America was very nice for travelling when Canada was still a bit chilly that time.

Part II General Exchange Information 1. Visa Procedures If you have Passport, you do not need to apply Visa for exchanging to Canada. While application of US Visa for travelling is needed, it will around take 2-3 weeks and HKD 1280.

2. Orientation Activities Ivey provides different orientation activities to exchange students but only one of them is compulsory. It will be held a week before the semester starts, therefore, you’d better arrive there earlier.

3. International Services & Activities Ivey’s students’ union has a team called Exchange Coordinator which will be dealing with any international services & activities for exchange students. If you have any questions about courses or anything, you are welcomed to find them for assistance. They will also hold some activities for every international students to participate.

4. Accommodations Those on-campus accommodations are not recommended because the cost is too high and the distance is too far. You could find subletting from Ivey students which could be cheaper and closer.

5. Courses Registration Courses Registration is finished online. They will send you the schedule of every semester before Add/ Drop Period. You should arrange your schedule before the start of Add/ Drop Period because many courses are very popular.

6. Teaching & Assessment Methods The teaching methods in Ivey are case studies. You are required to buy case books for all the courses you registered. You need to read, prepare and have all the pre- homework done before every class starts. The Assessment methods will mainly be presentations and multiple choices. Many of their courses do not have midterm and finals papers but you will need to do presentations.

7. Sports & Recreation Facilities The Thompson Recreation and Athletic Centre is opposite to Ivey. It is opened every day and facilities inside are varied. You will see many choices of sports inside. You just need to bring your Ivey student cards with you to get inside.

8. Finance & Banking (including currency / expenses) The currency of Canada is CAD. You are recommended to have your bank account card applied the first few days you arrived. For those students who are holding Hong Kong passport, that means do not need to apply student visa, you are suggested to go to TD Trust to apply for bank card because they just need one document proof. Remember to apply for the student card that you do not need to pay extra fee.

Expenses Items HKD CAD Air Ticket 9500 Travelling 35000 Casebooks 550 Additional School Fees 500 Healthcare Fees 200 Rental 2000 Phone Plan 160 Food and Entertainment 1500 Daily Necessities 400 Total 44500 4910

9. Social Clubs & Networking Opportunities There aren’t clubs in Ivey but you could go to the main campus of the whole university to look for any social clubs events. For networking opportunites, Canadians are very friendly that you do not need any events to meet new friends. They will actively speak with you during classes. If you want to meet more friends, you could join the night party every Thursday held in downtown London.

10. Health & Safety If you encounter any health problem, you are recommended going to the school clinic. Otherwise, you will be directly send to hospital, which is different from Hong Kong. Canada is very safe even at night that you do not really need to be afraid of safety problems.

11. Food There are many choices of food in London because many Chinese settle down there. There are three main Chinese Super Markets and many Foreign Super Markets. If you want to try Japanese and Korean food in Canada, you could also ask students in Ivey to bring you there. There are also some new bubble tea cafés in London that you could try.

12. Transportation The only public transportation in London is the London Transit, which is a bus. This bus system, however, is very inefficient. You are recommended to (if you know how to drive) rent a car or borrow others’ car for going to somewhere else. Walking in windy and snowy day would really hurts you.

13. Climate The climate in Canada is very dry and chilly. Normally in Spring semester, the average temperature is -5/6 degree, coldest could be -15/20 degree. You should better bring more clothes if you are afraid of cold weather.

14. Communication The main communication language in London (Ontario) is English. The students, however, are coming from all over the world that you could sometimes also communicate with them by using Cantonese and Mandarin. You need to be careful if you want to go to Quebec, another province in Canada, to travel because the main language there is French.

The cost of Canadian phone plans would be a little bit expensive when comparing to Hong Kong. My recommendation would be Freedom Mobile because it is cheapest.

15. Cautionary measures After you go to the compulsory orientation activities in Ivey, they will give you the phone number of police office in the university. Contacting them will be faster than contacting London Police.

Part III Items to Bring ✓ Warm Clothes ✓ Gloves ✓ Eskimo Boots ✓ Adaptor ✓ Passport and US Visa ✓ Laptop ✓ Acceptance letter ✓ Credit card

Part IV Useful Links and Contacts • Uber • Yelp • Masonville Malls: https://www.cfshops.com/masonville-place.html • FoodIsland: http://www.foodisland.co/

If more information is needed, get my contact from SBM Exchange Team by emailing at [email protected].

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