<p>I'm attending McGill this fall and I'm kind of worried about how cold it is.</p>
<p>You’ll get used to it. At some point, you’ll hit a “Oh my god, it’s so freaking cold, I can barely step outside” barrier (some people hit it as early as 7C outside), after that it won’t matter.</p>
<p>Two things:
1-dress appropriately
2-don’t overdress (especially early on) and don’t turn up the heat in your living quarters to make it feel like the tropics. </p>
<p>If you wear as many layers as possible in November, you’ll never be able to handle January temperatures. If it’s too warm inside, it will just make the inside vs outside shock bigger. Neither are good for you. Learn to adapt, set your thermostat one degree lower than your comfort zone and you’ll be surprised how you won’t feel it after a while (and then you can repeat the process, in winter I set my daytime temperature to 20C, 18C at night, but it’s below comfort for many). Buy good boots and a decent winter coat once you get to Montreal, and learn to love sweaters.</p>
<p>My D is from a warm climate as well and she swears by her Canada Goose jacket. It wasn’t cheap, but amortized over 4 years, worth every penny. She also adopted Blobof’s strategy a bit, I believe – she didn’t break out “The Goose” as she calls it, until it got REALLY cold, though she was tempted. She knew if she started wearing it too early, that when the temperatures really dropped she’d having nothing left in her arsenal.</p>
<p>There are quite a few students at McGill who hail from warmer places and most seem to manage. I won’t lie and say my D hasn’t had any problems adjusting - she has had some difficulties, mostly due to the lack of sunshine and short winter days rather than the cold. The good thing about McGill is that it is in Montreal, where there is always something to do no matter how cold it is!!</p>