Intern in Canada: Tips for Summer in Waterloo

[WiFO215]

Hey guys,
I've just landed an internship in Canada. Any advice you guys would give to someone staying in Waterloo for the summer? Any places I ought to go see if I have some free time over the weekend? Any food that I just HAVE to try? Let me know!

 

[Danger]

Hey guys,
Any advice you guys would give to someone staying in Waterloo for the summer?

Yup... move to Alberta.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Canada's great except everyone speaks French. Learn this phrase and you'll do fine.

Comment puis-je aller en Amérique à partir d'ici?

 

[nitsuj]

Canada's great except everyone speaks French.

lol, I avoid America for a similar reason, everyone there speaks American.

 

[collinsmark]

Any advice you guys would give to someone staying in Waterloo

If you're already in the habit of eating french fries [edit: typically eaten with ketchup in the US], you might want to acclimate yourself to fries and gravy.

 

[nitsuj]

That's fine for a casual meal, but if you want fancy, add some cheese curds on that! Mmmmm...poutin. lol spell check doesn't recognize our near national dish?

 

[256bits]

Canada's great except everyone speaks French. Learn this phrase and you'll do fine.

Comment puis-je aller en Amérique à partir d'ici?

Your Quebecois french is a little rusty there Jimmy.
It is customary to begin each spoken french sentence with the phrae:
"Tabernaque. Ca faites mal..."
to appear as having integrated into the local population.

 

[256bits]

That's fine for a casual meal, but if you want fancy, add some cheese curds on that! Mmmmm...poutin. lol spell check doesn't recognize our near national dish?

Yes. Sadly it is now Mcdonald Big Mac with fries. But only til the the revolution.
You may have wondered why the students are marching in the streets of Montreal and causing chaos. - not enough poutine shops commonly known as a Casse Croute and the high inflating cost of cheese curds which puts poutine out of the price range of the common man( and woman ).

 

[nitsuj]

Well there is always Pepsi & Jos Louis'...yea..now who's hittin' the culture button!

 

[ThomasT]

Hey guys,
I've just landed an internship in Canada. Any advice you guys would give to someone staying in Waterloo for the summer? Any places I ought to go see if I have some free time over the weekend? Any food that I just HAVE to try? Let me know!

Congratulations. Where are you from? What languages do you speak? Regarding your question about how to spend your free time and what local food to try -- Google. Yahoo. And of course ... experience. And tell us about your experiences.

 

[WiFO215]

Congratulations. Where are you from? What languages do you speak? Regarding your question about how to spend your free time and what local food to try -- Google. Yahoo. And of course ... experience. And tell us about your experiences.

Thanks! I'm from India. I don't know any French. I do know some German but I don't think that will be of much use here. Perhaps I should learn some French, but seeing that I'm going to an English speaking part of the country, I'm not really worried. Google's alright, but it's always nice to have a local resident tell you what you don't want to miss while you're around. Will certainly let you know how it went.

 

[ThomasT]

Thanks! I'm from India. I don't know any French. I do know some German but I don't think that will be of much use here. Perhaps I should learn some French, but seeing that I'm going to an English speaking part of the country, I'm not really worried. Google's alright, but it's always nice to have a local resident tell you what you don't want to miss while you're around. Will certainly let you know how it went.

OK, best wishes to you. As far as I know Canadien food is a lot like US food. Pretty mundane, but if prepared creatively, then perhaps quite surprisingly tasty.

 

[256bits]

WiF0215 - Waterloo is near the Toronto metroploitain area so you will have no trouble finding and locating members from your home country if that suits your fancy. Toronto has some famous tall tower there which I think they let you go up to a certain level to see the scenary from above.

Actually a little history - Waterloo sits on a swamp - drained of course and the first settler to arrive was a Mennonite from Pensylvania who I guess bought a few acres of swamp land. Not to be deterred though with his new purchase he drained the swamp, built a log camp, grist mill, school, and formed a community which later became known as Waterloo. I think the individuals name was Ezra and of course he did not do it all by himself but his name predominates. There are some surviving relics of that time around the early 1800's that you could check out.

You are not too far from Niagara Falls on the US-Canada border- an hour and a half.
And not too far from the nations capital of Ottawa - about 4 hours.
Another 2 to 3 hours from Ottawa and you could be in Montreal, Qc where you could experience some french culture which by the way is no different than any other culture in N. America, except for the french thing, and most understand english anyways considering that the province of quebec was 75% english speaking at one in the past anyways.
Since you are here only for the summer you will have missed the sugaring off season which is just an excuse to go to a "big house converted to a restaurant" in a country setting and eat a lot and then eat more. They still offer that during the whole summer and winter but then you just can't say you then went to a sugaring off festival. Sugaring off is collecting the sap from maple trees, boiling it in a big tub and making maple syrup. You might want to take some of that back with you as gifts back home.

You can go see lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and maybe do some fishing, waterskiing or other fun stuff in cold water. I do not know if you can eat the fish with three eyeballs though.
You can extend yourelf further west to see Lake Superior and lake Michigan which are the last 2 of the 5 Great Lakes which I think are the largest fresh water lakes in the world. By fresh it is meant that it is not salty, and not necessarily fresh to drink because fish do poop and pee.

You will find restaurants Italian, Greek, Vietnamese, Indian, japanese, Polish, Chinese etcetera for what suits your fancy in most metropolitan areas if you do not like Canadian food which is meat vegetables and potatoes with desert and coffee - an all around well balanced diet. and don't forget bread and buns.

Tea is not as well established a drink. But you will find that if you investigate enough you will find a certain store in that will sell what you are used to in drinks and food so you do not get so homesick.

By the way you can't see it all in one summer.

 

[WiFO215]

Thank you so much 256bits! I certainly won't be able to see all of that in one go seeing that I'm going to work and not to tour. I hope to see the Niagara falls at least. Let's see how much free time my adviser leaves me.