CREDIT: RANJINI CHAKRAVORTY
Hetvi Mehta and Ranjini Chakravorty enjoy the snow fall in London.

“Canada changes its colour [three times] a year. I think that is something beautiful,” Hetvi Mehta said, when she first came to Canada this fall.

As the international students start getting cozy at their new home away from home, they experience cultural as well as climatic variations. Some smile, laugh and cheer as they write a brand new chapter in their journals, while some stick their noses at the climate.

I got to meet a few international students from China, Panama and India who were planning to make their first snowman in their backyard during the winter break. Some of them are also accepting snow fairy challenges.

Enith Evans from Panama saw snow for the first time in her life.

“It never snowed in my country,” she said. “I have been constantly keeping a check on the weather apps, awaiting the snow.”

“But one fine morning I wake up and look through the window. My porch was covering itself up in a white blanket. It was snowy, white an perfect all around.”

The international students are shop hopping, finding the best outfit for the season. The winter gear they say makes them look bubbly.

“Stay warm” is a usual greeting they smile with these days.

Walking past the International Centre at Fanshawe, I met two sisters from India, and they are excited about the natural frost over their Christmas tree.

Nivedita explains that being from a tropical country they used to frost their Christmas trees with cotton, but it would be for the first time that snow would cover their Christmas tree, and they totally love it.

Weather experts have confirmed that it would be a milder winter this year. But don’t forget to be geared up. Warm boots, fleece jackets and colourful mittens are all you need when you make your way through the snow, throw snow balls at each other and have the lovely holiday making snowman.

Let it fall on your face. Let it kiss you. And when everything will go beneath the white blanket of snow enjoy the last colours of this picturesque country.