Canada – Part 6: As the sun slowly rises again, Jana experiences the full Canadian winter: from frozen lakes to wilderness cross-country skiing.
If you ever have a chance to live in Canada, you should definitely travel north and experience cold weather and snow storms. That’s exactly what my host parents thought when they kicked me and my host sister out of school on Friday morning so we could start the eight-hour drive to northern Ontario first thing in the morning.
In a small town called Kirkland Lake, with about 8,000 residents, my host father’s sister lives with her family, who takes us for the weekend.
Luckily, when we arrive, the snow rides we’ve gone through have subsided, so we can jump straight into our snow gear and go sledding on a nearby snow mountain. In the evening some family friends join us for dinner and then play some games.
snow on frozen lake
The next day starts at -27 degrees – with the extra wind we felt like -39 degrees. After breakfast we head towards a frozen lake covered with knee-high snow. We go across the lake to a small island, which is actually more difficult than I thought, because we don’t wear snowshoes and are therefore drenched in snow all the time.
Because of the cold we cannot stay outside for more than an hour, even wearing warm clothes, so after reaching the other side we go back home. In the evening a campfire is lit in the garden over which we roast marshmallows.
Cross country skiing in the snow covered forest
On Sundays my host mom takes me and my host sister cross country skiing. So I’m on cross-country skis for the first time in my life – a whole new experience. We can simply rent skis and get a map along the path of the forest.
The routes are beautiful and pass through snow-capped forests. In many places we leave the first track in the snow. The weather also supported that day. It is bitterly cold, but the sky is blue and the sun is shining too.
It will be hot again in Cornwall
In the beginning I was a little unsure on skis as it is different from normal skiing, but after a while I got better at it. For my Thai host sister, the whole event was definitely even more exciting!
Jana Weber (15, Orr-Erkenswick) is spending her ten-month-old year abroad in Ontario, Canada. There she lives with a host family, attends the tenth grade of a Canadian high school and tries to experience as much Canadian daily life as possible. In the landscape she talks about her time in Ontario.
After about an hour and a half and several routes covered, we return the skis to the rental shop and head home. On the way back to Cornwall, it gets quite hot. After all, the house temperature is -5 degrees.
