In German, there is this ancient saying:
„Wenn jemand eine Reise tut, so kann er was erzählen.“ (Just Google translate it…)
And since we have been on the road for more or less 2 weeks straight there are lots of things to report.
Most of us started their journey on May, 3rd with their flight to Toronto, Ontario. Around 6436 km and 10 h later they touched Canadian ground. The plan was to spend 2 days acclimating to the Canadian environment before we would meet our Canadian partners for the official start of the project on Sunday evening. Together, us Germans decided to check out the Niagara Falls on Saturday and the Toronto Islands on Sunday.
The alarm rang early. You must know that the species student does not like to get up before 6:30 am. Fortunately, most of us could not have slept longer anyways on that day, since the jet lag had hit us quite hard. Also, getting up for an 8 am train that takes you to the Niagara Falls is a little easier than getting up for an 8 am lecture in rainy Stuttgart. But I’m digressing.
When we arrived at Niagara Falls in the late am, we had to deal with an obstructed view due to rain and fog. But once the sky next to the Falls finally cleared up, our group was pretty impressed by this natural spectacle. The trip was a great prelude to our project and functioned as a team building measure since we had never been together for an entire day before.
With only one day left to the start of our research, we decided to spend Sunday like a real local would do it – getting a sunburn while going for a walk on the Toronto Islands. These islands provide not only a great view of the city’s skyline (pure Instagram gold) but also a lot of nature and a big theme park with rides and other fun activities. By Sunday, many of us had already turned into Tim Horton patrons who know the lyrics to „God’s plan“ by hard. Perfect conditions for the upcoming start of our research, eh!
Above, you can find some impressions we gathered in Toronto, Montreal, Heidelberg & Mannheim. Right now, the different research groups are very busy condensing all of the data they collected and drawing conclusions on the basis of that data.
We are working on first reports and we will update this blog very soon with findings and preliminary results – make sure to keep an eye on our Instagram channel to not miss out on notifications for new blog posts.