University: Saint Mary’s University
City: Halifax
Country: Canada
Continent: North America
Field of study: art and design
Study type: semester abroad
Accomodation:
When I arrived in Halifax I didn’t have a place to stay. I spent the first few days in a hostel, from where the apartment search began. Contrary to previous experience reports, which I had relied on, finding an apartment turned out to be more difficult than expected. Only after 10 days, through luck and contacts, did I find a room in a house. From my experience I can recommend two things: Either you take care of accommodation in one of the residences at the university, which is not exactly cheap, but I only heard very few negative things from my friends who lived there. Or, if this is too expensive for you and you prefer to live off-campus, you have to be aware that it is not that easy to find a reasonably adequate room. In addition, you must expect
If you want to search for off-campus accommodation online, you can do so at the following websites:
www. Kijiji.ca
www.easyroomate.com
www.rentadonkey.com
I had the best experiences with the first two addresses. I can also recommend the off-campus housing office at Saint Marys University. Check jibin123.com to see best cities to study in Finland.
I was one of the few Germans who didn’t study business administration or similar courses. Since I am studying to become a primary and secondary school teacher in Germany with English and theology as my main subject, I took the courses “Religious Studies – love” and “English – Masterpieces of Western Literature”. I also took the Advanced Oral and Written Spanish course. I can highly recommend all three courses, although the reading effort is particularly high in the English and theology courses.
In summary, I would say that the workload during the semester is significantly higher than in Germany, but at the end of the semester you are not so stressed about learning. However, the level is significantly higher in Germany! So if you can manage the reading effort during the semester, you have a good chance of achieving grades in the AB range.
Life/fun
Life outside of the university is very interesting and diverse. There is no shortage of opportunities to party from Wednesday to Saturday. The only “rest day” on which there was almost no party was Sunday. From the clubs downtown, in my experience, the “Pacifico” and the “Taboo” are particularly recommended, but the Alehouse is also worth a visit (on Wednesdays they serve chicken wings and a pitcher beer for 10 dollars, which is very expensive by Canadian standards). is cheap).
Halifax also has a lot to offer for sports enthusiasts. The university’s free gym is highly recommended for exercising yourself. When the weather was nice, I often went jogging in Point Pleasant Park near the university, a beautiful nature park that leads to the sea. Highly recommended!
In any case, you should also watch a football and an ice hockey game of the SMU, and there are also basketball games, which are certainly interesting. Halifax’s own ice hockey team, the Mooseheads, are also worth at least one visit. In contrast to the SMU, there is an entrance fee here ($10), but you also get a more professional ice hockey game.
The cost of eating out in Canada is extremely high. Fruit and vegetables are the only things that are reasonably comparable to German prices. Alcohol and cigarettes for smokers are almost twice as expensive as in Germany. Canada is a very vegetarian-friendly country. I n supermarkets there are shelves with many vegetarian options that I have never seen in Germany.
Flight
I booked my outward flight with Condor for 400 euros. The good thing about this was that Condor flies directly to Halifax from Frankfurt from April to September. This saved me long stays at airports and unnecessary stress, at least on the outward flight. Since I still wanted to travel and the dates for the possible final exams will unfortunately only be set towards the middle of the semester, my choice was a good one in retrospect. So I was able to fly straight back to Germany from New York. Overall, with 800 euros for a return flight, I didn’t pay more than people who had already paid for both flights in advance.
In summary, I can say that my semester abroad in Halifax was an experience that I wouldn’t want to miss! My English and Spanish have improved a lot during this time. I have made a lot of friends, both German and international, and the experience of studying at Saint Marys University has helped me a lot!
MicroEdu is an organization that makes a lot possible. The application process was very easy thanks to the help of the organization and the field reports also helped me a lot. So I can only recommend you to do a semester abroad at the SMU in Halifax, it’s definitely worth it!
