My First Winter in Canada

 

 

Before moving to Canada I had limited knowledge about the country. For me Canada was a country of maple syrup, hockey, many forests, extremely cold and snowy winters, and a lot of bears around. But now that I am in Canada, I would tell my impressions about Canadian winters.

I moved to Canada from Ukraine in September 2015. It was the right time to adjust to my first winter here.  In preparation for the cold and snowy winter, I brought with me a winter coat, boots, gloves and hat to keep me warm. In Ukraine I lived in the northeastern part of the country, where we have a humid continental climate with moderately cold, snowy and long winters, which last about four to five months.  The coldest months are January and February. The average winter temperature is around -10C, but sometimes the temperature drops to -20C. Here, in Canada, I live in the western part of British Columbia, 500km away from the Pacific Ocean. Our small village has a sunny winter with lots of snowfall and average temperatures of about -10C to -13C. Therefore, comparing Ukrainian and Canadian winters, I would say the winters are similar in general. I noticed that Canadian winters are more dry then Ukrainian ones because here is low humidity.

The most interesting and wonderful parts of Canadian winters for me were their nature and wildlife. I have never seen such a beautiful scenery like here in winter. I have never seen so much wildlife approaching very close to my house in search of food.

Also, the most exciting part of Canadian winter is snowshoes. I saw snowshoes here for the first time in my life and I got some experience in snowshoeing. As I live in a private house with a huge property around, snowshoeing is a very important part of winter activities here. It seems everybody has snowshoes in our small village!

I am happy to live in the country with a similar climate to that I had before. I would probably miss the winter, if I lived in a warm country. I really enjoyed my first winter in Canada with lots of snow, wildlife, snowshoeing, nature and lots of sunny days.