About London, Ontario
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About London, Ontario
SCho06 Thu Jun 12, 2008 11:59 pm
I have depency to make whatever discussion into a broad topic so I decided to start here where I can scale down as I go.
When most people hear "London" they think it's London, England. But just as there's Paris, Ontario, there's London, Ontario. What? You didn't know there's Paris in Ontario? That's another topic. (see what I mean? I go off topic easy)
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, approximately 2hr drive West from Downtown Toronto(or T.dot as they call it, strange folks), and 2hr drive East from Windsor(or even Detroit). It's the 15th largest city in Canada with population of approximately 360,000, where 10% of that population is made of university students. Surprising, no? London is a beautiful city decorated with surviving historical buildings and addition of post-modern buildings representing Brutalistic style. There are two distinguishable post-secondary education in London, they are; University of Western Ontario and affiliate colleges(Huron, Kings, and Brescia), and Fanshawe College.
Seasons in London vary greatly from those of Vancouver. Summer starts out warm to hot to a bit of humidity, though not as bad as Toronto. Winter is often cold with occasional heavy snowstorm, but not bad enough to have fun outside.
Do you like to party? Then night life is London may be just the thing. With just over a dozen bars and clubs located in Downtown London, you're night will not go unentertained!
Okay, enough wikipedia and tourist info and what not. I'll talk about personal experience of London.
London is a major univeristy city. Middle of the city is downtown where you can go out and have fun after a long day of studying and work. There's plenty of bars to choose from, as long as you're legal and not a horrible drunk, you won't have to worry about getting kicked out, being thrown in the drunk tank, or having your ID confiscated. Just to the north downtown is where you will spend most of the time, given that you're attending UWO. Western is located 5 min drive away from downtown. It's not a very large school, it may even seem tiny compared to many other places, but that would imply better attention. I'll talk about UWO in another post.
London has 2 major malls and a dozen strip malls or so. There's Masonville Place at the north of the city, and White Oaks Mall to the south. It is a metropolitan city so there's plenty of other places you're familiar with, like Canadian Tire, Rona, Home Depot, etc. Depending on your shopping habits, London's shopping industry may not completetly satisfy you, but they are improving. The first Banana Republic in London is opening this summer, and American Apparel just opened in downtown.
Weather is one of the extreme you'll find in a Canadian "city". Of course there's worse, but London isn't all butterflies and happy either. Summer is hot and a bit humid because of the surrounding lakes, but it's bareable. Temperatures go up to 35 degrees celcius, but feels like somewhere 40 on strongest days. I won't bring up spring or autumn, cause you won't notice them too much. Winter start and stops abruptly, and goes low as -25 including windchill. London has seen the worst snow storms in the past two years. My first year in London, we had snow pile 3 feet high for two days. Classes were never cancelled, expect one exam date because of the snow. We had "part" of the school shut down because of a bome threat, and another one having to do with service building malfunctioning(more school stuff in school post).
If you need to be in the "big" city, you can simply take Greyhound or ViaRail out to Toronto, they'll take you directly to downtown. Or if you're overflowing with cash and you don't know what to do with it, take the plane! It's only 30~40 min flight. If you have a car, you better hope it's nothing expensive you don't want out to be weathered, it's just a little over 2 hours away from Toronto.
Overall, London is a nice quiet place. It's an excellent place to study away from many distractions, as long as you don't go insane from being slightly out of touch. An occasional trip to Toronto does good to a person.
Here are some sites for info on London:
http://www.london.ca/
http://www.londontourism.ca/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_ontario
http://www.lfpress.com/
http://www.uwo.ca/
When most people hear "London" they think it's London, England. But just as there's Paris, Ontario, there's London, Ontario. What? You didn't know there's Paris in Ontario? That's another topic. (see what I mean? I go off topic easy)
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, approximately 2hr drive West from Downtown Toronto(or T.dot as they call it, strange folks), and 2hr drive East from Windsor(or even Detroit). It's the 15th largest city in Canada with population of approximately 360,000, where 10% of that population is made of university students. Surprising, no? London is a beautiful city decorated with surviving historical buildings and addition of post-modern buildings representing Brutalistic style. There are two distinguishable post-secondary education in London, they are; University of Western Ontario and affiliate colleges(Huron, Kings, and Brescia), and Fanshawe College.
Seasons in London vary greatly from those of Vancouver. Summer starts out warm to hot to a bit of humidity, though not as bad as Toronto. Winter is often cold with occasional heavy snowstorm, but not bad enough to have fun outside.
Do you like to party? Then night life is London may be just the thing. With just over a dozen bars and clubs located in Downtown London, you're night will not go unentertained!
Okay, enough wikipedia and tourist info and what not. I'll talk about personal experience of London.
London is a major univeristy city. Middle of the city is downtown where you can go out and have fun after a long day of studying and work. There's plenty of bars to choose from, as long as you're legal and not a horrible drunk, you won't have to worry about getting kicked out, being thrown in the drunk tank, or having your ID confiscated. Just to the north downtown is where you will spend most of the time, given that you're attending UWO. Western is located 5 min drive away from downtown. It's not a very large school, it may even seem tiny compared to many other places, but that would imply better attention. I'll talk about UWO in another post.
London has 2 major malls and a dozen strip malls or so. There's Masonville Place at the north of the city, and White Oaks Mall to the south. It is a metropolitan city so there's plenty of other places you're familiar with, like Canadian Tire, Rona, Home Depot, etc. Depending on your shopping habits, London's shopping industry may not completetly satisfy you, but they are improving. The first Banana Republic in London is opening this summer, and American Apparel just opened in downtown.
Weather is one of the extreme you'll find in a Canadian "city". Of course there's worse, but London isn't all butterflies and happy either. Summer is hot and a bit humid because of the surrounding lakes, but it's bareable. Temperatures go up to 35 degrees celcius, but feels like somewhere 40 on strongest days. I won't bring up spring or autumn, cause you won't notice them too much. Winter start and stops abruptly, and goes low as -25 including windchill. London has seen the worst snow storms in the past two years. My first year in London, we had snow pile 3 feet high for two days. Classes were never cancelled, expect one exam date because of the snow. We had "part" of the school shut down because of a bome threat, and another one having to do with service building malfunctioning(more school stuff in school post).
If you need to be in the "big" city, you can simply take Greyhound or ViaRail out to Toronto, they'll take you directly to downtown. Or if you're overflowing with cash and you don't know what to do with it, take the plane! It's only 30~40 min flight. If you have a car, you better hope it's nothing expensive you don't want out to be weathered, it's just a little over 2 hours away from Toronto.
Overall, London is a nice quiet place. It's an excellent place to study away from many distractions, as long as you don't go insane from being slightly out of touch. An occasional trip to Toronto does good to a person.
Here are some sites for info on London:
http://www.london.ca/
http://www.londontourism.ca/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_ontario
http://www.lfpress.com/
http://www.uwo.ca/
SCho06- Number of posts : 9
Year Graduated : 2006
Registration date : 2008-04-16 -
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