Out of province?

It isn’t easy to leave the good food and friends that are located in your home town, and it doesn’t get any easier when your home is an airplane ride away. There are a few things that are useful to know about Ontario you may not have known otherwise.

The Milk

Milk comes in bags, which means you’re going to need a milk pitcher to drink your milk. Generally speaking, you don’t pour your milk directly into the pitcher, but should cut a small hole in the corner of the bag and place the entire bag into the pitcher instead. This keeps most of the surface area of the milk enclosed, and keeps the pitcher clean as well. If you want your milk to be completely closed, most grocery stores sell cartons of milk alongside the bags.

The GTA

You may hear fellow students say that they’re going to the GTA, Sauga, or Tdot, for the weekend. What does this mean? The GTA is the Greater Toronto Area – this is the area surrounding Toronto (Tdot) which includes cities like Milton, Brampton, Mississauga (Sauga), Markham, Richmond Hill, and Oshawa.  It’s split into five major regions: Halton, Peel, York, Durham, and the City of Toronto region. The major highway which leads into the city of Toronto is the 401.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Unfortunately for you, if you come from another province, you’re going to either have to give up your own hockey team, and start cheering for the Toronto Maple Leafs, or you’re going to have to stick by your hometown team. If you’re not into hockey, no worries! Leaf fans will still attempt to talk to you about the team from your hometown, and you can always just tell them you’re actually interested in the Maple Leafs.

Driving

If you’re planning on staying here for more than three months and driving, you can apply for an Ontario driving licence. The driving licensing program in Ontario consists of 3 classes; G1, G2, followed by the G. In order to receive a class G1 licence, applicants must pass a written test. Two road tests are required in order to receive a class G licence.

 If you already carry a licence from another place, you may be able to skip the waiting period between the first and second stage – but that depends on the type of license you have.  There are also driving restrictions for each class. Class G1 drivers must be accompanied with a fully licensed driver, and are unable to drive on highways. Class G2 drivers are only able to drive one passenger under 19 years of age from midnight to 5am. The Class G licence is the full licence at which you may drive without any restrictions.

Canada’s Wonderland

Located in Vaughn (a city just north of Toronto), Wonderland is Canada’s largest amusement park that also happens to hold the most roller coasters, as of right now, it has 16. Each year they attempt to add another roller coaster to the park alongside special attractions. This year’s attractions include Dinosaurs Alive! (an animatronics dinosaur themed kids area), Starlight (a nightly sound and light show), and the newest roller coaster, the Leviathan.

Waterloo Region

The Regional Municipality of Waterloo actually consists of three cities: Kitchener, Cambridge, Waterloo, as well as the townships of Wellesley, Woolwich, Wilmot, and North Dumfries. Waterloo’s city centre is referred to as Uptown, while “downtown” usually refers to the Kitchener city centre. All three tri-cities are connected by the Grand River Transit. Waterloo actually has its own airport – the Region of Waterloo International Airport located in Breslau, although most travelers prefer Toronto’s Pearson International Airport for convenience.

Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with everything right away, one of the great things about moving to a new place is being able to explore and discover things on your own.