By Hayley Boyer

I’ve been in Calgary, Canada, for roughly 10 weeks now and I’ve had so much fun so far. Certain aspects are definitely different or difficult but they’re greatly out weighed by all of the good things.
One of the hard aspects I personally faced was finding accommodation. The University of Calgary does have multiple halls buildings but they fill up quickly. I applied pretty early and was still wait-list ed until I landed in Calgary. I had, however, found an off campus housing option. The university thankfully supplies international students with quite a few websites that have rental listings and are more trusted. There were good filtering options to find places within a close range to uni, and to fit whatever budget or utilities I needed/ wanted. It was definitely a bit stressful trying to find off campus options, but I started looking early enough so I was sorted when I landed (thankfully). It’s a pretty good spot in the suburbs too.

One thing I’ve found fun is travelling and exploring the area. Not having a car while abroad definitely makes things a little bit harder, but it’s not impossible! Getting familiar with the local transit network was one of the first (and best) things I did in my first week(s) in the country. Uber/Lyft can get expensive quickly, especially when compared to public transit costs. Obviously there’s times where an Uber is more practical, but general travel is really easy when you’ve taken the time to understand the public options. The first few weeks I was in Calgary I was picking random shop locations on my nearby transit routes as an excuse to both explore my surrounding area and get familiar with the ways I can get around. With enough investigation, some amazing places can be found. The bus trip I took to Canmore is one of my favourite day trips so far.