Saskatoon is a very pleasant place in which to live.  Situated in the middle of Canada's vast prairie heartland, Saskatoon has many assets.  It is a pretty city, built on the banks of the South Saskatchewan river.  The entire river valley is now park land, with bicycle and walking paths, boating facilities, picnic sites, and other amenities scattered along the riverside.  There are numerous other parks and recreation areas, as well.  Small enough to be safe and friendly, Saskatoon is still quite cosmopolitan, with many restaurants serving a wide range of cuisine, a good public transit system, a wide variety of stores and shopping centers, churches of many denominations, and outstanding cultural amenities.

The City of Saskatoon has three professional live theatre companies, several amateur theatre groups, a professional symphony orchestra, the Mendel Art Gallery, several private galleries, Wanuskewin Heritage Park, the Western Canada Development Museum, several smaller museums, the Forestry Farm Park and Zoo, a yearly international multicultural folk festival (Folkfest), an annual festival of experimental theatre (The Fringe), and the annual Jazz Festival.  For sports fans, in addition to the wide range of intercollegiate and intramural sports teams, there are the Marquis Downs racetrack, the Knights of Columbus Indoor Track Meet every winter, the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Canada Major Junior Hockey League, a stake in the Saskatchewan Roughriders Canadian Football League team (based in Regina), the Saskatoon Hilltops of the Prairie Junior Football League, and numerous other events.  The city is also noted for creative writing, painting, and other fine arts and crafts.  Credit Union Center seats over 11,000 people, and has attracted many interesting special events and concerts to the city.

The Province of Saskatchewan has a large hinterland of rivers, lakes, and forests, in addition to the famous wheatlands.  Activities such as skiing (especially cross-country), wind-surfing, canoeing (including white water), hiking, golfing and curling are all popular.  There are numerous provincial and national parks within the province.  Moreover, the Canadian Rockies, featuring, Banff and Jasper National Parks, are only a day's drive away, and make a popular excursion, especially during ski season.  The Calgary Olympic facilities are all within reach as well.  When a break is needed, it is quite convenient to travel elsewhere.  Regina, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg are all within a day's drive of Saskatoon.  Saskatoon's modern airport offers good service to points throughout North America, with easy connections to international destinations.

Saskatoon has a continental climate.  This makes the winters cold (we like to say "bracing"), but since the weather is dry, the cold is tolerable.  You will need to allow money for the purchase of good winter clothing, including boots, parka, hat, gloves, etc.  It is best to buy these locally, if possible, so that you get climate-appropriate items of sufficient warmth.  Saskatchewan summers are particularly nice:  warm days, cool nights, and lots of sunshine.  In fact, Saskatoon is Canada's sunniest city.

Finally, it should be emphasized that, despite the tone of much of this document, graduate studies is not all work and no play!  Faculty and students in the Department have a lot of fun as well.  In the past few years social events including hay rides, variety nights, wine and cheese parties, a night at the races, curling mini-bonspiels (for the coveted 'Golden Broom' trophy), pizza gatherings, bowling extravaganzas, picnics, barbecues, softball challenge matches, soccer matches, pool parties etc., have enlivened the Department and enhanced collegiality among students and faculty members.