With the recent influx of snow descending on St. John’s, our campus has been redesigned in a flurry of winter beauty and spirit. This winter beauty may be nothing new to St. John’s locals and other domestic students of Canada. Still, we must remember that only some on campus are familiar with the frozen phenomenon in person.
With nearly 4,000 of Memorial University’s 20,000 students hailing from over 100 countries, it is no surprise that many first-years on campus have never seen snow.
In celebration of the fresh snowfall, The Muse interviewed an international student about their first experience with Canadian winter. We invited a first-year engineering student from Dhaka, Bangladesh, to weigh in on his thoughts surrounding the flurries.
“It’s okay,” the student stated during the interview.
The Muse inquired about his prior snow experience, and he replied that he had never seen snowfall in person. This fact did not seem to significantly influence his emotional reaction to the snow.
“It’s alright. It’s kind of cold. That’s okay, I guess. I’d really like to get to classes. I have a lab in ten minutes,” said the student.
Eager to find out what most of our equator-adjacent student population has to say about the snow, The Muse asked about the general attitude towards the sudden weather changes among the student’s friends.
“They think it’s okay,” he commented.
He clarified that this would be his final comment on the matter by turning and walking toward the Core Science Facility. However, shortly after the interview’s completion on Thursday, the twenty-fourth, The Muse received an email from the interviewee requesting to change his official stance on the snow.
According to student reports, a large-scale snowball fight event occurred outside of the Gushue Dining Hall around the time of the email. The student we interviewed was heavily involved, reportedly losing the fight to a fellow engineering first-year.
“It’s melting down my back,” he hastily wrote. “This is a nightmare.”