Tag Archives: campus

U of T Relay For Life 2016

Events, Guest Blogger, On Campus, ,

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The most common misconception about Relay for Life is that it’s a physically intensive marathon only open to the strongest athletes for participation. Not true! The word “relay” also promotes the notion that a competitive race is being held and further strengthens this misconception. For those of you who have heard about Relay, you’ve probably experienced sentiments of hesitancy and confusion. Doubts may have raced through your mind as you began to question your physical ability and lack of exercise in your daily routine.

The truth is that Relay for Life is a non-running event. Running shoes and physical agility are not required to attend. The only challenging part about relay is staying up till 1am, but from 5pm-1am, strangers become a community as they unite together to fight an important a cause close to their hearts. Relay for Life is a fantastic fundraising event filled with enthusiastic individuals fighting for a cancer-free tomorrow. It’s a night to remember and honour those we have lost, to continue to raise funds for cancer research, and to celebrate with a full event line-up.

Cancer affects us all, whether it be a family member of our own or a friend who has been impacted. The impact of cancer is impossible to ignore, but on March 11th, University of Toronto’s Relay for Life Committee invites you all to participate in the event to fight back against cancer. The goal is to fundraise as much as possible, but for a registration fee of only 15 dollars, you’ll receive a t-shirt, luminary, and supply of food to keep you energized. A night of comedy, music, food, and open-mic awaits and all you need to do is spend 2 minutes online to register. You can bring your friends and create a team online or even join by yourself and we’ll handle forming a team for you! Any friends or family are welcome to participate as well as non-U of T students. If you can find some time to spare one Friday night, you can make a difference. All proceeds from the event will go towards the Canadian Cancer Society. Join us in participating in this event and help those who need it most.

Register or make a donation here, and find us on our Facebook event and cause page.

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Food Trucks on Campus – A Series

Food & Drink, , , , , , ,
Every Friday, 12 – 3 pm, I’m starting to see a bunch of gourmet food trucks on the University of Toronto campus. More often than not, there are also hoards of students standing in front of each truck. As much as I would like to call myself a “foodie”, the truth is I’m a bit hesitant spending money – well, my own money – to try out new foods. If the food isn’t up to my expectations, I feel like I’ve “wasted” my money and that makes me feel like crap. Judge me if you will, but that’s student life for you. In such situations, I must say I concur with Drake that sometimes money is over everything and it very well quite often is on my mind…
If you’re like me and feel it’s too much of a risk to stand in long line-ups for food that tastes like God knows what, fear not. I’ve made it incumbent on myself to go learn more about these food trucks and snap a few photos just to see what they have to offer.  If I know a little about them, next time I see them around, I’ll be more willing to grapple with a throng of students just to grab a bite.
First up in my campus food truck series is Blue Donkey Streatery. They were parked on St. George Street when I recently came across them. It’s essentially Greek fare on the go. The couple of guys working there, Mike, Ron and Evan quickly whipped up their signature food for me: fried calamari pita stuffed with Greek salad, tzatziki and fries, served with garlic Ouzo mayo. And, for dessert? Honey pita sticks – lightly fried and dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon.
I mean the pictures speak for themselves. This seems like it would make a pretty appetizing lunch doesn’t it? Give it a go if you ever see them around or follow them on Twitter /Facebook to find out where they’ll be next so you can get your hands on this goodness!

blogUT explores U of T with My City Lives

On Campus, , , , ,

blogUT has been busy working behind the scenes with My City Lives to film and showcase a number of hot spots at the University of Toronto St. George Campus. September is just creeping around the corner and we know there’ll be a ton of new students joining us, many of whom will have no clue of where to go or what to see on campus (ah, to be a froshie!). We wanted to provide a resource to better acquaint these newcomers to our lovely campus. Lord knows we needed it back when we started at U of T. And seriously, what better way to do it than through a video series introducing all the different spots to visit on campus?!

Oh and to those of you who aren’t newbies to the university but still find yourselves lost sometimes? Don’t worry, this is for you too! And to be honest, while we were filming these little snippets, we discovered so many spots we had never been to or even heard of before! It just goes to show that no matter how long you’ve been in one place, you never stop finding new things to do or see!

We’ve got quite a few videos up and ready for viewing, so be sure to check them out on the My City Lives website or just click here. Oh and if you’re wondering who these mysterious “My City Lives” folk are…they’re our friends who have developed an online platform that gives us the chance to capture and share our daily experiences around the city on video. Presented on an interactive map, these web stories show exactly where each video was filmed so you can learn more about the city based on the stories and experiences of your fellow citizens. Pretty cool, huh?

Now our friends at MCL say, “Let’s Magellan our city” and now we’re calling all of you to Magellan our campus!

In the meantime, here’s a sample video where we show you around Hart House…quite literally the “Hart” of U of T, bringing together all of the different colleges and students on campus together to experience life outside of lecture halls, labs, and tutorials!

*If you cannot view this video, please click here.

Overheard on Twitter

Whimsical, , , ,

twitter

Just for fun, I started searching Twitter for Tweets written about U of T. I have been saving them as favorites over time. Here are some funny ones I have found:

  • @shaelaska: “why doesn’t u of t have buffyology? http://bit.ly/fXmt3“
  • @StephenAlain: “I hope it storms superhard and washes u of t away…”
  • @Gregory188: “Campus is abuzz with fresh faces ready to have their dreams and GPAs crushed by U of T.”
  • @paulmarai: “The purell to student ratio at u of t is astonishing.”
  • @thegrubby1: “Latest report on uoft girls: so far, classics has the least hot girls per capita of any class, even Dostoevsky…”
  • @Zadkiel: “shared a cab with a belly dancer and a uoft grad….interesting end to an evening.”
  • @AakankshaT: “Overheard a bunch of froshies complaining about hard UofT is & how they hate first year..wanted to smack ’em. It just gets worse so shut it.”
  • @inesrosa: “‘As a man you spend all your time waiting on bitches’ – overheard while walking thru campus. Charming.”
  • @arahslife “I will not be setting foot on the U of T campus for three weeks and that makes me feel so good inside. Soo GOOOODD”
  • @meghansauve: “$7,439.04 tuition. The sum of outrageously expensive and 4 cents! U of T, you are completely mad.”
  • @timylee: “@alextruong It happens. I once got an email from U of T congratulating me on my enrollment to their Dentistry program. Prob an email typo.”

Speaking of Twitter, blogUT is on there now. Follow us! And for more stuff overheard on campus, check out the Facebook group.

Earthcycle

Entertainment, Events, Film, Food & Drink, Music, On Campus, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Earthcycle

Earthcycle, also known as Environment Week, is coming up at U of T from September 21st to 26th. With over 25 things to see and do — all incorporating the theme of climate change and the environment — you might get overwhelmed with what you want to check out. Here are some of blogUT’s event picks for Earthcycle.

Workshops and Tours

Container Gardening Workshop
Thursday Sept. 24 from 1pm – 3pm @ International Student Centre Veranda

Learn about city gardening – grow your own food

Trinity College Green Roof Tour & Lunch
Wednesday Sept. 23 from 12pm – 2 pm @ St. Hilda’s College Residence

Students from Trinity College, the first University of Toronto signatory to the Presidents’ Climate Change Initiative, will provide a tour of their green roof and free lunch to visitors.

Food

Hot Yam vegan lunch
Thursday Sept. 24 from 12pm – 2 pm @ International Student Centre, Baldwin Room

A $4 vegan lunch by the Hot Yam! — a healthy environmental alternative to fast food and animal products.
Continue reading Earthcycle →

How to make book buying a breeze

Survival Tips, , , , ,

The new school year is rolling around and the course textbook list is out now on the U of T Bookstore website.

books

Before you head on down to the bookstore and leave a dent in your credit card, you might want to try to:

  1. BUY YOUR BOOKS USED

    You can get used books from a number of places, including:

    a) Book exchange websites, such as TUSBE (my favorite)
    b) The UTSU book exchange
    c) Websites that sell used books, such as abebooks.com and even Amazon
    d) Your friends!

    Don’t forget that the U of T Bookstore also sells used books, but you might be able to get a better deal if you look around other places.

  2. BUY YOUR BOOKS FROM THE DISCOUNT BOOKSTORE

    If the book you want is the latest edition and you can’t get it used, then your best option is to buy it from the discount bookstore, located across the street from the U of T bookstore. The price difference isn’t crazy, but it’s probably the cost of a cheap meal.

  3. SEE IF THERE’S AN ONLINE VERSION

    Sometimes if you Google hard enough, you can find a PDF version of a textbook you can view for free. You might prefer to have a hard copy of all the pages to carry around, though it can be handy for those times that you don’t have the book on you.

To make sure you are getting the right book for the right price, remember to:

  • Check the ISBN number of the book you want with the one you’re buying
  • Look around at the prices people are offering for the book and see if you can get a cheaper deal
  • See if the book is actually “Required” for the course; I often find that I don’t even use books that are “Recommended.”

If you have any tips on buying or selling textbooks, leave them in the comments!