'Never felt safe': Student reveals why she regrets choosing Toronto for her uni exchange

Student exchange programmes are a perfect way to experience a new way of life. 

Living in a foreign country will push you to step out of your comfort zone, meet people from different walks of life and adapt to a new environment. 

With that said, it's also important to do your homework before flying off to a new place. 

In a post on Lemon8, user Kaede shared her experiences while on a student exchange programme. 

She did her student exchange at York University in Toronto last August. The programme was till the end of December, but she cut short her trip three weeks prior, flying back home on December 3 instead.

In the post, she mentioned how crucial it is to do proper research.

High cost of living

"Everything was crazy expensive," Kaede mentioned in her post. With high taxes and a tipping culture, she highlighted that eating out can cost a bomb. For a typical meal that costs $45, expect to fork out $58.95 in total, what with the additional 13 per cent tax and 18 per cent tip.

Domestic travel also isn't cheap in Canada. Kaede mentioned that flight tickets can cost around CAD$200 (S$196.26) to CAD$400, while in Europe, flights can be as cheap as $15. 

Housing rents are expensive as well. "Exchange kids at my school [York University] were not allowed to [stay] in dorms and the lowest [rent] I could find was around $1,800 a month per person," she explained in the post.

Life in Toronto 

She rented with two other people who were best friends, so she found it hard to create a bond with them. "I couldn't click with [them] but [it] could be my fault too," she explained. 

Outside her rental home, things were bleak as well. She shared that she "never felt safe" being an Asian girl. She encountered racial and xenophobic slurs like "ching chong" and "go back home" during her time in Toronto. 

Even on public transport, Kaede couldn't catch a break as she was spooked by multiple announcements about an "assailant on [the] train". 

On top of that, public spaces weren't clean, with "shit and pee on the streets".

In the comments section, she also talked about meeting "zombies" or drug addicts.

All in all, she found her student exchange traumatising. 

The comments section was filled with empathy, with one user sharing how she didn't gel well with the people she was living with in Europe. 

AsiaOne has reached out to Kaede for more information, but she declined to be interviewed. 

Another Singaporean student's overseas experience 

With Singapore being very safe, it's normal for Singaporeans to rank safety as their number one priority when travelling overseas. 

A Singapore student, known as Chri5tie on TikTok, was travelling in Europe and had varying experiences on how safe she felt in different countries.

Last December, she rated these countries based on her experience in a TikTok video.

For context, Chri5tie was in Europe for an extended period of time as she was on an overseas exchange programme in Poland.

She rated Poland's capital, Warsaw, 10 out of 10. In all of her five months there, there were no racist encounters and she "felt pretty safe" walking home alone at night.

However, other European cities didn't fare that well. 

She rated Paris a zero out of 10 when it came to safety as she was always on guard for pickpockets. 

Rotterdam scored a four out of 10, as she experienced her first and only racist encounter here.

Other cities like Berlin, Bratislava in Slovakia, Interlaken in Switzerland and Seville also ranked high on her list.

READ ALSO: I survived a pickpocketing attempt on my first day in Europe - here's how

venkat.gunasellan@asiaone.com

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