{"id":39981,"date":"2019-11-19T07:23:12","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T12:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=39981"},"modified":"2019-11-18T07:26:08","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T12:26:08","slug":"surviving-the-winter-at-u-of-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/11\/19\/surviving-the-winter-at-u-of-t\/","title":{"rendered":"Surviving the Winter at U of T"},"content":{"rendered":"December 21 marks the first official day of winter, but U of T students are already facing the wrath of cold winds, piles of snow, and longer commutes. Winter truly tests my tolerance level, but I have a few strategies to survive the cold.\r\n\r\n<strong>Avoid the outdoors as much as possible <\/strong>\r\n\r\nAs much as I like the outdoors, I do not enjoy walking around campus in the winter. This is why I take advantage of staying indoors as much as possible. I discovered that there\u2019s actually a lot of shortcuts and alternative pathways to get to my classes.\r\n\r\nLots of buildings actually connect, so I go from building to building to get to my next class in order to minimize my time spent outdoors as much as possible. Although this might involve a bit of a detour, it is still <em>way <\/em>better than walking outside in the freezing cold to get to my class that\u2019s on the other side of the campus.\r\n\r\nThankfully, all my classes are very close to each other, so during my breaks, I tend to stay in the same building my lectures are in, or in nearby buildings so I don\u2019t need to go outside.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>Plan ahead <\/strong>\r\n\r\nIf you\u2019ve been reading my blog posts, you would know that I\u2019m a commuter. Let me just say that commuting is an absolute<strong> <em>mess<\/em> <\/strong>in the winter. What would normally be a 1-hour commute turns into 1.5-2 hours\u2026 and this doesn\u2019t just apply to rush hours.\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_39984\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39984\" style=\"width: 172px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_0695.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-39984 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_0695-172x300.jpg\" alt=\"picture of people lining up\" width=\"172\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_0695-172x300.jpg 172w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_0695-768x1343.jpg 768w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_0695-586x1024.jpg 586w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_0695.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 172px) 100vw, 172px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-39984\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">commuting in the winter means long wait times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nWhat\u2019s even worse than a delayed GO train is a <em>cancelled <\/em>GO train. It\u2019s super frustrating but these kinds of events are inevitable. Thankfully, none of my morning trains have been cancelled before (knock on wood!), but I have had an evening train get cancelled last winter during a big snowstorm. If I suspect that my train could get cancelled due to the weather, I always arrange an alternative ride.\r\n\r\nPlanning ahead for transportation doesn\u2019t just apply to my commute. In the winter, <em>everything <\/em>takes longer. Even <em>walking <\/em>takes longer because all the students are trying to avoid slipping. I try to avoid the frustration of being late for a class by leaving earlier. If I have an exam, I take the earlier train, even if it means arriving <em>way <\/em>earlier (because arriving 2 hours earlier is better than being late for an exam!).\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>Coming prepared<\/strong>\r\n\r\nLayers, layers, layers! It's so important for me to layer in the winter. Not only does it keep me extremely warm when I'm outside, but when I'm indoors, I can take off some of my outer layers so I don't feel too muggy. The usual winter essentials, like scarves, mittens, and hats are a must for me too.\r\n\r\nI also find it really useful to bring a hot drink in my thermos to my classes, since it helps keep my drinks extra warm throughout the day.\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_39986\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39986\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_0056.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-39986 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_0056-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"picture of a cup of coffee inside a building\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_0056-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_0056-768x1024.jpg 768w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_0056.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-39986\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">enjoying my hot coffee indoors!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nWinter is coming, stay warm everyone!","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nDecember 21 marks the first official day of winter, but U of T students are already facing the wrath of cold winds, piles of snow, and longer commutes. Winter truly tests my tolerance level, but I have a few strategies&hellip;\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/11\/19\/surviving-the-winter-at-u-of-t\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Surviving the Winter at U of T&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/11\/19\/surviving-the-winter-at-u-of-t\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Surviving the Winter at U of T&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":377,"featured_media":39982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1,58,82,67],"tags":[1905,153,12887,172,12411,25506,6683,237,696,1804,441,1837,15734,25780],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39981"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/377"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39981"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39998,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39981\/revisions\/39998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}