Doing my Year abroad in Ottawa (ski resorts, fit in, 2014)
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Hello everyone I'm a student from Ireland studying business economics, as part of my course I do a year abroad at one of my universities partner universities of which I picked Carleton in Ottawa and I had a few questions as I'm stressing about my decision.
From what I have read a lot of people say that Ottawa doesn't really have an existing night life compared to the big cities such as Toronto and Montreal, I'm quite a sociable person and enjoy going out for the night but I was wondering if I will really notice the difference ? As in my life I have lived in Belfast and Swansea both of which even compared to Ottawa are relatively small cities with populations around the 300,000 mark.
My second question would be is there a lot to do in Ottawa ? I would like visit a lot of places while I'm on my year abroad and was wondering is there a lot of places to visit in and around Ottawa ?
Ottawa is also 2 hours from Montreal, 4 from Quebec City, 5 from Toronto, 6 from Niagara Falls, 7 from New York City, similar distance to Boston and a bit further to Washington.
You can go downhill skiing on *ok*¨hills literally after work or dinner when you live in Ottawa, and there are awesome ski resorts in Quebec (Tremblant), and also New York State and Vermont just a few hours away.
Also the hills just north of the city are dotted with lakes with warm water beaches in the summer.
As for nightlife, Ottawa is actually a pretty good student nightlife city. The criticisms of Ottawa's nightlife are related to this: nightlife is way too student-oriented and doesn't have as much for a more mature crowd.
I've never heard many students complain about Ottawa being boring. The nightlife scene actually caters mostly to them. Too much - most people would say.
Ottawa's CMA census is around 1.3 million if you take both sides of the river. I think you will actually find Ottawa to be a lot bigger and more spread out than Belfast. Considering that you are a young whippersnapper, you should fit in just fine with the university social crowd over here. I can't see you being bored if your intentions are to "party" it up on the weekends.
As mentioned Ottawa's skyline looking north is fairly decent with rolling hills and clean fresh air.
There are lakes and beaches nearly by and if you have access to car you might want to venture out to Constance Bay and play some volleyball. It's by far the nicest beach on the Ottawa side (officially a private beach so don't go there to party and make noise late at night!!) and is a hidden gem in the summer!
This is a very active city and people there are generally more fit than other parts of Canada.
You're going to have to learn to love hockey because that is what we do here!
Some of us like myself have Irish heritage (I'm 3rd generation from Ireland near Cork I'm told). I look Irish but I'm very Canadian in everything else!
So I've just had another look over my options and I see that Edmonton may be an option I dunno wether the allocations have been taken up for there. Out of Ottawa and Edmonton which would you recommend ?
Definitely Ottawa, although the University of Alberta (which I assume is where you'd be going) is an excellent university.
Edmonton and Ottawa are virtually identical in size, but I think you'll get more out of your stay in Canada in Ottawa because of:
- better access to recreation areas within reach of the city
- a more attractive and vibrant city centre
- better access to national Canadian institutions and museums, etc.
- proximity to French-speaking Canada (another culture)
- opportunities for side trips to places in Ontario and Quebec like Toronto, Niagara, Montreal, Quebec City and in the U.S. like NYC, Boston, Washington, etc.
Seconded, and for all of the same reasons, as well as less brutal winters and warmer summers (believe it or not).
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I'm a student from Ireland studying business economics, as part of my course I do a year abroad at one of my universities partner universities of which I picked Carleton in Ottawa and I had a few questions as I'm stressing about my decision.
