International students sample Canadian winter with fun on the slopes

The first winter tubing trip for Algonquin College students this year was held Jan. 26.

The 25 students traveled by bus from Algonquin to the Sommet Edelweiss ski area, with 20 of them from a different country as international students.

For some, their first experience with snow was thrilling.

“I started loving the snow,” Kirtan Shah said, after trying winter tubing for the first time. Shah came to Canada from India two months ago, and his next activity is skating on the Rideau Canal. Shah is also planning to bring his family to try winter tubing when they come for a visit.

“Loved it, it was so much fun,” said Priyanka Pai, an international student from India after trying winter tubing for the first time in the year and a half she has been in Canada.

The group reached the desination around 10:30 a.m. and everyone was back in the bus by 1 p.m., with some wishing they had more time to try different activities.

“My butt touched the snow and it was the worst part because I didn’t know, but I learned now,” Pai said. Many students changed their tube after the first time they tried it because it was too big or too small for them.

“I thought it will be cold and all of my clothing will be wet, but by the time we start running around, I started feeling warmer and the time passed by very quickly,” Nan Zou said, a first-year nursing student who came from China a year ago.

“That was the first time I did an activity this winter,” Shiyu Xiao said, a first-year general arts and science student who came to Canada a few months ago.

At the end of the trip, Ryan Mullin and Leanne Jarrett, two of the trip organizers, took charge of getting everyone back in the bus where most students had a small nap on the way back to Algonquin.