Settling in Toronto

How are ye,

Have to say, enjoying Canada, completely settled in, got to know a few more exchange students from lakeshore campus, there’s a lot more of them there then at north campus. Its mad how I’m nearly done the semester here, feel like I zoned out for some of it because it went so fast!

Went to Chicago, it was probably about 12-14 degrees there and I though it was roasting compared to Toronto. We ate at Alinea, a 3-Michelin star restaurant. Chicago as a city was really nice, I actually preferred it to Toronto, just nicer to look at and we just had a good laugh there, it was only a short 3-day trip but hopefully I'll go back in the future.

The exchange group is being treated very well, we’ve had a good few trips and activities, we went skiing (I wasn’t the best at this!), also had a hockey game and basketball game and went to Niagara Falls (have to say I thought it was gonna be bigger!). The weather her has been very nice recently hit 28 degrees for one of the days and might have skipped class to go get burnt on the beach! Everything has come to life, Spring has really changed the place and made it more enjoyable, there's turtles, frogs and fish in the ponds now, also seeing more birds and geese here, might have even got a tattoo of a goose with James.

We did our menu for Chefs Table, James, Ben and myself were in a group, I was on starters, James on mains and Ben on dessert. I have to say I was very happy with the dish; I made a confit duck fritter, basically shredded the duck after cooking it and rolled it and breadcrumbed it, this was served with a watercress, pickled shallot and fennel salad with roast plum and bone marrow mayo with a red wine jus.

I’ve decided I’m going travelling to Calgary and Banff and Vancouver at the end of the semester. I’m going with a few people I met in the exchange, hopefully it all goes well. 

Overall, looking back on the experience I can say I’ve enjoyed it, don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much! I’ve gotten a new appreciation for SETU too. The food in Canada needs improvement and the ingredients could taste more like their meant to, however, I think opening a nice place over here with nice food could make a lot of money!

If you can get past the food, the expense, and living in a small room then you'll enjoy it, don’t take it too seriously, have a laugh, and enjoy the time off!

All the best, 

Callum