{"id":9069,"date":"2011-10-14T14:28:44","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T19:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/UpbeaT\/?p=9069"},"modified":"2011-10-14T14:28:44","modified_gmt":"2011-10-14T19:28:44","slug":"i-from-foreign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2011\/10\/14\/i-from-foreign\/","title":{"rendered":"“I From Foreign!”"},"content":{"rendered":"In the dialect of my home country, this phrase \u2014 in more ways than one \u2014 says that I\u2019m not from around here. These would have been the words spoken from my mouth four years ago as I arrived in downtown T.O. for the first time.\n\nI had no clue where I was, what I was doing here, or where I was going to fit in this great big city that I now called my home. If you\u2019re an international student like me, then you\u2019re likely to have had a similar experience, carrying an identity that, for the first time, didn\u2019t match anyone else\u2019s.\n\nBut as time progressed, I realized that being \u201cfrom foreign\u201d was not such a bad thing, and even more comforting was the realization that I was not alone! There are over 8,000 international students at U of T from over 150 countries around the globe, and innumerable resources on campus to help you feel at home here.\n\nBut this plethora of information can sometimes be just as daunting as the changes that you\u2019re facing. I\u2019m here to sift through the fluff and shed light on the best that U of T has to offer its out of towners.\n\nFind People Like You<\/strong>\n\nOne of the easiest ways to transition through a change in your life is to have someone that\u2019s been there and done that. I-Connect<\/a>\u00a0is just that: a volunteer mentorship program open to all U of T students with a mission to help you in your cultural transition to university, to Toronto and to Canada. There are few things better than learning from someone else\u2019s mistakes!\n\nAsk Questions<\/strong>\n\nIf you\u2019re anything like me, your first two months away from home have been crazy: you\u2019ve experienced your first university party, your first Canadian Thanksgiving, and you\u2019re about to experience your first winter (it\u2019s not so bad \u2014\u00a0follow these guidelines and you\u2019ll be fine!<\/a>).\n\nThere a lot of firsts, and you\u2019ll be experiencing them even well into your third and fourth years at university. Places like the Centre for International Experience<\/a>\u00a0at the lovely Cumberland House (33 St. George Street) are overflowing with people who want to help you transition into your new life and answer any questions that you may have, so don\u2019t be afraid to ask. They\u2019ll help you with immigration issues like student and work visas, they\u2019ll host you for holiday dinners, they\u2019ll even help you do your taxes!\n\nGet Involved<\/strong>\n\nThis is purely based on personal experience, but I\u2019ve found that getting involved outside of class has spurred my quick acclimatization to life at U of T, so much so that \u2014 to my parents\u2019 detriment \u2014 it\u2019s given me a life here that I don\u2019t want to leave. Student life\u00a0at U of T has all the answers and there\u2019s a great page<\/a> on their website with links to literally every way you can get involved on campus!\n\nBe Yourself!<\/strong>\n\nThis is by far the most important thing that I\u2019ve learned in my four years at university. I\u2019ve found that what set me apart from everyone else was that I was different, that I had a different childhood, that I came from a different culture, that I spoke a different language (well, kinda).\n\nThe more I embraced my otherness, the more fun I had, the better my experiences became, and the more friends I made. This is the one time in your life that you\u2019re allowed to be anything you want to be, and all the things that made you the oddball in high school are the things that will set you apart in university, and make you awesome. So don\u2019t be afraid to get out there, experience all that U of T and Toronto has to offer, and feel free to steal my mantra: \u201cWhen in doubt, get up, dress up, and show up!\u201d\n\n~ Chad","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\nIn the dialect of my home country, this phrase \u2014 in more ways than one \u2014 says that I\u2019m not from around here. These would have been the words spoken from my mouth four years ago as I arrived in…\n<\/div>
Continue reading ““I From Foreign!””<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
Continue reading ““I From Foreign!””<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":0,"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":[1758,59,62,65,70,58,66,82,67],"tags":[890,6487,25506,1837],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}