Final Report of my Studying- and Internship in Abroad Experience in Toronto, CA and USA, respectively by Gero CoppelDear Prof. Spiecker, Mrs. Stadler, and Bachelor Plus Students,This final report is organized in Fall Term- and Winter Term report. In order to organize this report even further I subdevided both term reports into several subdivisions. In the closing section you will find some images I took. If you have the feeling that my final report does not answer all of your questions entirely, feel free to contact me: (gero.coppel(ät)gmail.com) Fall Term Report The City Toronto is an extremely huge and interesting city located in the most densely populated area of Canada. Culturally, it offers a lot ranging from bars, cinemas, the huge Lake Ontario, the parks, the huge quantity of small exotic stores and of course the neat business buildings of downtown. I enjoyed the first comparatively warm months a lot when I discovered the city by bike. It was quite interesting for me to see that almost all the nice places that Toronto offers are accessible very easily on foot or in my case, by bike. Therefore, I cannot recommend using the (for a major city very weak) subway system during the warm summer months. Especially, since it is very expensive (a monthly pass costs 100 CAD for a Student; I bought a bike for 80 CAD). Students of the next exchange generation should be aware of the fact that Toronto, but also Canada in general is very expensive in regard to almost everything. Grocery costs (restaurants and fast food can be cheap, though) are approximately 30-40 percent higher than in Germany. However, traveling within Canada or to the US, which is very close, is surprisingly cheap. There are several places or streets that I can highly recommend: (not comprehensive!) - Bloor Street West: many nice bars, independent music clubs, “cheap” restaurants. Especially recommended is Bloor Cinema, an oldschool cinema. - Yonge Street/Dundas Square: Incredible contrast between the massive skyscrapers of Downtown located at the southern end of this famous street and little shops. Dundas square is similar to Time Square, always crowded and filled with street musicians. In its neighborhood there is one of the biggest and most impressive shopping malls of Toronto (Eaton Centre). - Kensington Market: cute stores, dreamily atmosphere, multicultural community - Toronto Island: closest (and almost only) possibility to escape the city. Offers nice beaches, forests and a breathtaking view of Toronto Downtown. - Chinatown: cheap and tasty food, cheap electronic devices, cheap barber stores and clothes, etc. - Little Italy: similar to Bloor street West but different types of buildings. Not many Italians, though. Also, a nice selection of bars and restaurants. - Hearthouse Farm: Hearthouse (at the north corner of St George Campus) offers the possibility to visit the farm the the University owns. It is located almost two hours north of Toronto, very scenic and relaxing. Normally you can visit the maple syrup factory, where you are welcome to taste the products:).- Scarborough Bluffs: Limestone formations with extensive green areas; one hour east of Downtown by public transportation.- CN Tower: expensive but you get rewarded by a breath-taking view.- Toronto has a djungle of libraries. My favourites were Robarts Library (Huron Street),Pratt Library (very beautiful, near Queen´s Park) and Knox College (Huron Street).

The University: As being a forestry student I belonged to the faculty of Arts and Science, which has a total of approximately 70.000 students. When I first arrived on the campus I was overwhelmed by its size, beauty and its central location. St. George Campus is the campus of Toronto`s three where all the Arts and Science lectures are held, exams are written, tutorials take place. As an introduction to Toronto`s university life I recommend not to join the frosh week (I did it!) since the only things I learned were cheering and dancing, what did not meet my expectations regarding getting Information on the rules, facts and organs of the University of Toronto (UofT). Instead of joining the frosh week I recommend the introduction programs provided by the Centre of International Experience (CIE) (these are for free!). This center provided all information I needed for my start at the UofT. The CIE is also the place where Marc Arnold can be contacted. He helped me a lot in terms of dropping, adding and exchanging courses, information on health insurance, etc. The CIE does also organize trips to National Parks, Niagara Falls as well as parties and workshops. As an exchange student you won`t get lost at the UofT! The University of Toronto has a lot to offer for its students. There are many gyms which you can visit for free, an overwhelming amount of clubs where you can get involved in (reaching from movie making and editing to Debating clubs and sport clubs). I joined the photography club. As an exchange student you get the same amount and the same quality of services a local student gets with the only difference that you get it for free! My courses:I started with a total amount of five courses: Business and environmental change, GISI, Science of Soil, Conservation of Canadian Forests and Agroforestry. Very soon after the start of the lecture period I noticed that the University system of Toronto works very differently if compared to the system of the University of Freiburg. Exchange students of the next generation should be aware of the fact that studying in Toronto is more time-consuming than it is in Germany. They should expect graded assignments, presentations in an almost weekly rhythm as well as two exams per term (midterm exam + end term exam) - per course! Taking the subjects seriously means doing a lot of readings and turning in all the assignments in time which requires an efficient time-management necessary. But back to my five courses: I saw myself overwhelmed by the workload the five courses caused. So I forced myself to drop two courses, Agroforestry and Business and environmental change. I decided to do so because I was not able to find the time for discovering the city, doing trips and participating in social life anymore. Most exchange students I met took an amount of either three or four courses (An amount of three courses is needed to be enrolled as a full-time student (which is for example important for many student housing services who do often not accept part-time students). According to Marc Arnold, five courses are only recommended for exchange students from English-speaking countries. After my decision to drop two courses I focused on my three courses, which I enjoyed a lot and put much effort into. I finished them successfully with high grades. Many courses require the students` participation via discussions, presentations, etc. (of course it depends on the amount of students per class, which is generally low in the small forestry department). Academic resources such as labs or libraries appear to be luxury if compared to Freiburg. For students who don´t feel confident in terms of academic writing can make appointments with the writing center, where official employees review assignments and term papers-for free. Academically, I have learned incredibly much. I gained a lot of knowledge in regard to making use of library resources, scientific writing , doing presentations

and using software. Housing Finding an accommodation was comparatively difficult for me. As already mentioned the prices for any kind of accommodations are very expensive in the Greater Toronto Area. After a long period of writing applications for housings I received a confirmation letter from Tartu College in early September, where I moved into. It is located 500 m from the forestry department and is located on Bloor Street West. I lived there for one month (Price: 560CAD per month) in a flat together with five graduate students. I had a great time living there and made many friends during that time. Tartu provides a kitchen and two bathrooms for every flat, a common laundry room and slow internet. The bedrooms are small but often with a great view, especially from the 18th floor where I lived. Nonetheless I decided to move out in October because I got the opportunity to move into an old house belonging to the non-profit organization “Coop housing”. The old Victorian house I lived in since then is located in the vicinity of Tartu College. I do not regret the step of changing my accomodation. In Coop I lived together with 12 people (mostly exchange students). We have had a meal plan, which means that every evening a couple is cooking for the whole house. House Chores (cleaning the entry way, kitchen cleaning, house shopping, etc. were distributed to every member of the community every week. Eversince I lived there, I have the quality of my English increased rapidly. Students who decide to move into one of the COOP houses have to pay between 500 and 780 CAD per month + 150 dollars for the meal plan, which I expect to be significantly cheaper than buying food individually. Coop´s management organizes events and parties and helps you out when you encounter problems but is strict when somebody is not willing to contribute to the community life. So far I enjoyed my life in Toronto. The fall term has provided me with plenty of interesting experiences. I found awesome friends very quickly, learned how to manage my time efficiently, saw overwhelmingly beautiful cities like New York or Montreal and learned a lot in the subjects I was enrolled in. I want to thank Professor Heinrich Spiecker, Marianne Stadler and the DAAD who made this phenomenal exchange program possible, for all their support. Sincerely yours, Gero Coppel Winter Term ReportDear Prof. Spiecker, Mrs. Stadler, and Bachelor Plus Students,As you know, my last term, the winter term, has ended on April 30th. As I have already stated in the Fall-term Report, living and studying in Toronto has been an extraordinary, as well as a formative and mind-expanding experience to me.As I did for the Fall-term report I will split this report up into the sub-sections University, Activities and Housing.UniversityAS I did in Fall term I started with an amount of 5 courses. After the term’s first three weeks I dropped two courses. One course (carbon-free energies), because it was too hard and called for an engineering background. The other one (bioenergies) because it turned out that it had nothing to do with what it was supposed to and was very poor in the provision of information in addition.

The three courses that I kept are called Geographic Information Systems II (GIS II), Hydroecology and Arctic Ecosystems. GIS II is the successor of the course I took in Fall Term. It was therefore more detailed and more complex and provided both, theoretical and practical knowledge in a strongly exemplary way. I enjoyed this course and its high requirements a lot.Hydroecology was definitely the most mathematically and physically demanding course I have taken so far. It dealt with the coupled water- and carbon cycles of boreal forest ecosystems. The supervisor of this course has produced a widely spread and used model (Boreal Ecosystems Productivity Simulator). He wanted us, a tiny group of master and 4th year students, to understand the huge variety of steps of both, carbon- and water-cycle, their influencing parameters and the equations that try to describe them within the model. I enjoyed this course a lot. However, I found it very challenging since I lacked the mathematical backgrounds. It definitely contributed strongly to my general understanding of forest ecosystems in general.Arctic Ecosystems is a course that embraces both, the physical- and biogeography of Canada’s arctic ecosystems. Their parameters have been explained and discussed mostly in regard to global climate change.I worked very hard for my courses, especially for the first two. A higher amount of courses would not have made sense for me.ActivitiesToronto’s winter is, if compared to that of Edmonton or New Brunswick, soft. However, from a central-european point of view it is very cold, dry and of course, way too long. Therefore, outdoor activities have been reduced to a minimum. Nonetheless, I have done and seen quite a lot: Therefore, I can recommend visiting Montreal and Quebec City, especially during winter, and the frozen Niagara Falls. Furthermore, I have joined campus activities quite frequently (Basketball, Photography, etc.).My opinion of Toronto as a place to live has grown a lot-despite of its expensiveness, overwhelming size and rarity of natural spots. It is culturally extremely diverse and changes its appearance a lot with the seasons (Winter is mostly grey and sometimes almost burdensome, though). HousingI have lived at a nice victorian house belonging to Toronto’s campus coop initiative since October 2010. I enjoyed this place a lot since it provided a warm, familial atmosphere and the necessary distraction form university affairs. Internship in Nevada, USAAfter nearly 5 months of winter in Toronto I expected sunny and hot weather conditions in Reno, where my internship was supposed to take place between the beginning of June and the middle of August. Unfortunately, the whole western part of the US has experienced the coldest and wettest winter for quite a long time. Therefore Reno welcomed me with a large snow cover and actually a major snow storm when I arrived - winter was going to continue for quite a while. Nonetheless, my internship in Reno, where I worked for the Great Basin Institute (GBI) as a field assistant, was a pure success. I mainly worked in the habitate assessment project for the species American Pika, which occurs spoardically within talus fields at the highest elevations of the Sierra Nevada. I had one Co-worker, who I planned overnight habitate assessment trips with based on the use of scientific literature, GIS analysis, and according to the oppinion of wildlife biologists of the University of Reno. In the field, my Co-worker and I identified and documented the vegetation

within the habitat, documented hydrolological parameters, slope, aspect, elevation, position as well as the absence or presence of the desired species and their signs. Also, we recorded the absence or presence of species, which supposedly influence their occurence. Since the massive snow cover was a huge health risk for us the project I was supposed to work in got postponed to the beginning of July. The time interval between the beginning of June and the beginning of July I worked for two different projects: Habitate assessment for Mountain beavers, a strongly endangered species in Nevada, that spoardaically occurs in willow- and aspen-covered wetlands of montane areas. The other project I worked for delt with the trapping and collaring of Northern Flying Squirrels, which occurred in the dense coniferous forests of the region. Flying squirrels play a major role in regard to the dispersion of mycorrhizal fungi, since these consume the fungal fruiting bodies and disperse them through through their excements. The institute I worked for, which is closely connetcted to the University of Reno, has a great diversity of motives to offer these different projects to international students. The main goal of my main project (American Pika Habitate Assessment) was to accumulate a database in order to be able to identify the possible effects of global climate change to the distribution and abundance of Pika. Pika are considered to be very susceptible to climatic changes since they lack the ability to thermoregulate. Therefore, some scientists consider Pika to serve as bioindicators in regard to warming processes. My Co-worker and I did get started with the accumulation process and furthermore mapped the polygons where we found the species within ArcGIS . GBI, which is a Non Profit Organisation offeres its interns a weekly stipend of 64 USD, free housing, free usage of their trucks, weekend trips and events. I lived in one of a larger quantity of GBI-owned houses. It was located 20 miles outside of Reno -which is a smaller, more sketchy and cheaper Las Vegas- and 20 miles away from Lake Tahoe, cetrainly the most beautiful lake I have seen so far. I lived in my house together with 9 other, extremely nice interns, often only for the weekends since most of the projects GBI offered required camping trips during the week. I learned a lot of practical skills, included my knowledge of GIS into the research process, experienced the breath-taking nature of the region, learned to identify a huge quantity of plant and animal species, learned how to trap small mammals, as well as how to use telemetry,... and made gorgeous friends there.Closing, I want to thank all those who provided this unique opportunity to us, an opportunity with presumably far-reaching academic and personal consequences. Many thanks to Prof. Spiecker, DAAD, Mrs. Stadler, and Mr. Niethammer.Gero Coppel, 2011

Images

Queen Street

Downtown, View from Toronto Island

Night View from CN Tower

St George Campus, North Corner

My second Accommodation

Niagara Falls

Bloor Street West

Kensington Market

King Street

Internship: Lake Tahoe, forests dominated by Jeffrey-, Ponderosa- and Western White Pine.

Internship: View From the Carson Range down to Reno and the adjacent Great Basin in the background, Western Hemlock and White Fir dominated forests in the foreground