1 week at the York campus

It has been a week since I landed at the York University campus and one thing that has been hard to miss is the cute composting cone scattered across the campus. These cones are open from the bottom and one has to just drop organic waste into it. I did not want to attract too much attention by digging deeper into it. Will find out more once I get to meet more people.

The university has a strong focus on sustainability and has many related ratings to its credit. My room mate confirmed that this is indeed a good place to learn about sustainability. So, provisions for garbage segregation is one thing that I expected at the campus. Though there isn't any facility (or I haven't figured out yet) for composting within the residential buildings, I have made it a point to keep organic waste separate and drop it in the nearest composting bin.

The next interesting thing that I discovered is a

community maintained vegetable garden

within the campus. Individual plots can be rented out for 20$ and one can grow whatever one wants, the weather and the deers/rabbits permitting. I might start by watering and deweeding the community part and earn my way to an individual plot - if I find the time for it. I have been warned repeatedly by my seniors about 18-hr work days once school starts.

Moving around using public transport has been fairly easy considering the campus is located on the outskirts and the nearest subway station is a good 20 min bus ride. The bus stops are many and close to one another - my reasoning is that it is very difficult to walk even a few meters in winters. I have also heard some stories about wild animals sneaking up to you. TTC, the Toronto Transport Corporation offers discounted re-usable tokens that cost 2.5$ (3$ without discount) for a one-way ride. It is interesting the way the transfers - from one bus to another bus, from bus to sub-way and vice versa - work. When transferring between a bus and a subway train, things work on trust - they trust that you have paid for your one-way ticket. I did take some time to adjust to this system. The transfer ticket (for transfers between buses) is hard to mess around with, as I found out when I (unintentionally) used an expired transfer ticket. Of course with a monthly pass or a day pass, it is much easier and cheaper to move around.