The best part about the biomedicine programs at KI are the extensive opportunities to go on exchange abroad. Canada was my third (!) time abroad during my 5 years at KI. During the third semester in the bachelor's program, I went to the Netherlands with eight other classmates to take the courses in immunology and physiology at Leiden University. During the sixth and last semester, I went to Trinity College in Dublin to write my bachelor thesis, and for the master thesis I was eager to go further abroad and chose University of Toronto in Canada. Apart from U of T being a really good university, I'm a huge fan of big cities with skyscrapers and all of that. The fact that the main language spoken in Toronto is English and not French was also appealing. I also was curious whether Canadians are as friendly as they're rumored to be. Similar to Swedes but nicer sounds like a winning combo.

Application to U of T

Since I was going during the last semester of the Master program to write my Master thesis, I applied through the International Visiting Graduate Student program (IVGSR) as I was doing a research project and not taking any courses. Information on the application progress can be found here: https://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/prospectivestudents/Pages/International-Visiting-Graduate-Students.aspx

Finding a Project

U of T is a huge university with about 60,000 students. There are three campuses: Scarborough, Missisauga, and St George. The latter one is the main campus located in downtown Toronto and the one where you'll want to find your project group. I was simply going through the different faculties and research groups and emailed PI:s.

Getting There

If you have a Swedish Passport, you don't need a VISA or study permit if you stay in Canada less than 6 months. All you need to do is get an electronic travel authorization (eTA), which you get instantly by just filling in some information and pay 7 Canadian dollars (CAD) which is like 40 SEK. See https://www.canadaetavisa.org/. When I booked plane tickets, the cheapest and fastest choice was flying with Iceland Air with one hour transfer in Reykjavik, which (if booked in advanced) cost about 4000 SEK return.

Finding Accommodation

See boende/accommodation.

Toronto Pearson International Airport is the major airport in Toronto, from which it's pretty smooth to get to downtown Toronto. Either you take the bus called "the Rocket" which goes to Kipling station, from where you can take the metro (cost about 3,50 CAD) or you take the UP Express to Bloor (north downtown, cost like 6 CAD) or to Union station (south downtown, for some reason cost like 12 CAD). Being used to the public transport system in Stockholm, you won't get impressed by Toronto's (the TTC), that's for sure. But my 3 experiences with living abroad taught me that this is usually the case, being spoiled with the superiority of Stockholm. Also, TTC is pretty expensive (112 CAD for a monthly student pass) so it's worth living close to campus and just buy tokens for occassional single journeys.

Since I was only doing a project, the only interaction I had with U of T administrative stuff was fetching my T-card (student card) at Robart's library (which was superfast and easy), and paying for the Health Insurance (UHIP) which turned out to be trickier if you didn't have a Canadian bank account.

 Overall, the living costs in Toronto are quite similar to Stockholm.

• A TTC monthly metropass for students is about 700 SEK, single journeys around 20 SEK. I lived near campus and mostly walked everywhere. They love throwing salt everywhere so it's never icy on the streets during the winter. There is also a huge network of underground tunnels called PATH, in which  you can get around most of downtown. When it gets super cold during the winter, a lot of people use these. You can also bike, but being used to the Dutch as well as the Swedish bike paths, there are way less dedicated bike paths in Toronto. It's a city mainly built for people with cars and they are pretty aggressive.
• My room in a shared student flat was around 4500 SEK a month and included internet, heat, water, electricity. Generally it's more expensive to rent in Toronto, but it is way easier to find somewhere to live than in Stockholm. Hence in reality, it's as expensive in Stockholm unless you're lucky to get your hands on a rent-controlled lease.
• When it comes to groceries, it varies a lot depending on the product. Meat was a lot cheaper, whereas fish was way more expensive. The supermarket where I lived had 10% student discount tuesdays and wednesdays, so keep an eye open for that.
• Eating out in restaurants is also cheaper. And there is so much good food! Toronto, supposedly being the second most multicultural city in the world, has several different areas dedicated to food (China Town, Korea Town, Little Italy, Baldwin street!). During a week in February/March, they had Winterlicious which is a week where hundreds of restaurants offer a really cheap 2- or 3-course prix fixe menu, both for lunch and dinner.
• An important thing to keep in mind is that all prices are excluding tax. So whatever something costs, you have to add 14% tax to it. In restaurants and pubs, you're also expected to pay at least 15% in tip.
• As KI has an agreement with UofT, all the tuition fees are waived except for the mandatory Health Insurance (UHIP) they force you to purchase. I had my own studying abroad insurance that seemed to cover exactly everything that UHIP covered, so I tried to opt-out of the latter but they refused for reasons I still don't get, so it's better to just get UHIP. At least you get access to the excellent Canadian health care system and you don't need to pay any fees whatsoever (in addition to the insurance that cost 51 CAD/month of enrollment).
  

I found accommodation through Tartu College, which is a 18-story student resident located in the north-west corner of the St George campus. For about 4500 SEK a month, I got a private room in a flat shared with 5 other girls and a great view over the city and the CN Tower. The price included internet, electricity, water, heat and all of that. I think the price was reasonable considering the location and the standard (I saw dorms that were cheaper but trashier and supposedly had problems with mice and roaches).

Otherwise, people usually use http://www.kijiji.ca/ (Canadian Blocket basically) to find accommodation. I got the impression that it is pretty easy to find accommodation in Toronto, but you have to be prepared to share unless you've got tons of Money (which most students don't).

I did my Project in the Familial Breast Cancer Research Group located at Women's College Research Institute at Women's College Hospital, which was built about a year ago and very modern. As I didn't take any courses, I can't tell you much about the Canadian education system. But the lab environment was very similar to my previous experiences: regular lab meetings, rounds, conference visits etc. I submitted and presented my abstract at the Women's Xchange Spring 2016 convention and also went to the BRCA 2016 Symposium in Montreal with my research group.

The official languages in Canada are English and French. Luckily, Toronto is part of the English-speaking areas (as my French is terrible, which I got to experience during a weekend in Montreal). The preconception that Canadians are very friendly (and say "sorry" a lot) is absolutely true. It was really easy to get to know new people and the culture is very similar to the Swedish (there is a reason Canada is sometimes referred to as the Sweden of North America). I was told that Toronto is the second most multicultural city in the world and that is really reflected in the great range of food. There's a China Town, Korea Town, Little Italy, Little Portugal etc. Eating out is way cheaper (although keep in mind that all prices are plus 14% tax and 15% tip) and there is just so much awesome food.

Just to make it clear: Canada is HUGE. Area-wise, it's the second largest country in the world. Flying from Toronto to Vancouver on the west coast is like flying from Stockholm to Morocco. Although If I'd had more time, I would have gone to British Columbia (BC) and hiked since the nature there is supposedly astonishing.

Toronto

As a registered student at U of T, you get free access to all the sports facilities with your T-card. There are three main buildings:

• The Athletic Centre - has a gym, group fitness classes, a 200 meter indoor running track, two pools.
• Hart House - kind of looks like Hogwarts, has a gym, group fitness classes, a pool, and a smaller indoor running track. Also has a bunch of other sports/classes that you have to pay for though (judo, basketball etc.)
• Goldring Centre - has a free gym, group fitness classes, and a 400 meter outdoor running track.

Other things you can do in Toronto:

• Go to Friday nights at the ROM - evenings when you can visit the natural history museum and drink and eat
• First Thursdays at AGO - evenings when you can visit the art gallery and eat and drink
• Jazz nights at Ripley's Aquarium - they have sharks!
• Visit Kensington Market
• Visit St Lawrence's Market
• Winterlicious
• National Canadian Film Day
• Eat a fancy dinner in the CN Tower 360 restaurant
• Watch Ice Hockey at Air Canada Center (even though the Maple leaves are doing terrible)
• Visit Hockey Hall of Fame
• Go ice-skating down at the harbour front court
• Watch basketball
• Get lost in the PATH
• Take the boat to Toronto Island
• Check out the many great boardgame cafés
• Check out the Distillery District
• Go running in High Park
  

Ski trip to Ontario "mountains"

The downside of Ontario is that it's not very good for skiing. So another thing I would have loved to do is skiing in either Quebec or BC. But unfortunately it was crazy expensive, so we instead joined the U of T Ski and Snowboard Club (UTSSC - check out their facebook page) for a daytrip to Mount St. Louis Moonstone. But to be honest, that hill was about as exciting as going to Romme in Sweden.

New York Bus Trip

Toronto is located about an hour and a half from the US border (where Niagara Falls is definitely worth a visit!)  New York City is also quite close, flying takes a bit over an hour. However, flying was really expensive so instead we decided to go there by Greyhound night bus. We left around 11.30pm on Thursday and arrived around 10am on Friday. It was cheap (about 600 SEK return), but be prepared for uncomfortableness. We had to get off the bus in Buffalo to go through US customs, and then there is of course the whole part of trying to sleep comfortably on a bus. But NYC is amazing and I have a secret dream of living there at some point in life, so it is definitely worth a busride from hell. 

Montreal by Train

Me and a bunch of people from my lab went to a BRCA conference in Montreal, which is about 5 hours by train from Toronto. Fortunately, people in Montreal speak both French and English. In Quebec in general however, people are not fond of Englishing.

Florida road trip

The day after I handed in my thesis, me and a friend flew to Miami (we found tickets for like 2000 SEK return), where we stayed at a hostel on Miami Beach. We also went on a day trip to Key West, went skydiving, shot 5 automatic guns at a shooting range, and went on a 2 day road trip to Orlando to visit Universal Studios (Harry Potter land!).

The best thing I ever did was being breave enough to go on my first exchange to Leiden during the fall semester 2012. It wetted my appetite for adventure and new experiences. I also loved Dublin, but even more so Toronto. I would have loved to stay longer in Toronto and maybe one day I will be back for a bit longer. If you have the slightest hesitation about going, just stop analyzing it and just go! It will be the best thing you ever did and something you will remember forever.