Winter at Canadian Wonderland

The Friday noon started with the Sauve Scholars were getting busy with the dinner preparations to take to Lac Des Iles, a beautiful winter recreation spot, 60 minutes north of Montreal. We left from the lovely Sauve house at 5pm on February 18, 2011. Oh, on the way, we made a new song called “Chicken Curry” which had a long story behind within the Sauve House. We will tell you later. Actually this was the second Sauve Scholars song after “ Anuma”. After one and half hour drive, (all thanks to sweet Lisa, Kyle and Andrew who were the designated Canadian drivers) we arrived to see a beautiful cottage, nestled in the middle of dark and silent forest. It was really calm and was indeed quite an contrast to the city.

The cottages were extremely beautiful and furnished. But gender discrimination: girls were in one house and boys were in the other. I was sure Rooz- who is a super feminist from Iran didn’t like that. Then we laid the dinner table for our lovely hosts: Nancy (You can call her our mom or our principal), Davis and Tassie, Ann and Arnie. The dinner was off course The famous Sauve house special “Burmese Peruvian Smoked Chicken Curry, Palak Paneer, Rice and Tortillas” After the long drive, the wine, beers, happy faces and nice conversation was just what the doctor prescribed with the Indian meal. Being the first night at the cottage we were on an exploration mode, fooling around with Nancy’s Piano, the Fooz ball game was definitely making more noise than anyone else would have liked it. That was a night of Discovery. Kyle, used to play Piano in the Sunday school, so did Lilit. I got down to teach them a pretty innovative Card game called named “the Hong Kong Show” which I had practiced this all through my Medical years in Myanmar. Even the Indian Genius, Amruth, ended up with a headache at the end of it all! You can imagine how difficult it was.

Just as we stepped out of Nancy’s cottage to go to David and Tassies, it started snowing suddenly. We did not mind it so much because we were all excited about the cross country skiing the following morning. At that night, I slept like a baby as fortunately I did not share the room with Arcie. You will know more about scholars after reading this blog.

Next day, we went to Ann’s house, it was near a big lake. We put on our winter gears and got a quick training on how to ski. We were so excited to ski especially for those of us who have never skied before in our tropical countries. We practiced up and down in the boulevard. Then we started. We fell more than we could stand. I stopped counting after 100 when Dami was Skiing. He fell down from the first activity till the minute he had to get into the car to return to Montreal. It was hilarious and so much fun. We skied the entire morning in the sunny beautiful weather until our stomachs demanded for food. Then when the Stomachs revolted in mutiny, we ran home to Ann’s and we bit into whatever we saw. I can never forget that Canadian soup that was a good awesome combination of broccoli and chicken. After warming by the fire and laughing over each other’s falls we decided to run back to the hill to ski. By this time, we were more familiar with skis and so we skied in the deep hills and took in the breathtaking beauty. I broke one pole while I was falling down from the hill. The day passed by so quickly and we came back to our cozy cottage. We had a bunch of guests from around the lake for dinner. Dinner was yummy Biriyani and salad! Then the scholars started our famous “Anuma” Dance with the drummers Dami, Tope and Carlos. The song and the dance was so catchy that everyone present started dancing we danced till our legs hurt. Somehow, despite having a very long day, none of the scholars seemed to be at any less spirit to dance the ‘Anuma Dance’. The Dance! The Game! It was superb!

Sunday 20 March 2011: Woke up to the sun shining on my face that beautiful morning. We had another lovely Canadian sport - The snow-shoeing. Before that, wrestling game happened between boys. It was fun. Three people, Kyle, Andrew and I had to try to throw Big Dami into the snow. Then we started our snow shoeing trip up the mountain towards the lake. The trail was really pretty with pine and maple trees by our sides. On the way, we learnt from Anne how to get maple syrup and the habits of beaver. We saw the trail of bears, rabbits and turkeys. It was an incredible view from the top of the mountain: the mountains, the forest, the lake and the snow. Then we made a fire to warm up and rest. We were totally relaxed. We made Bannocks and grilled hotdog over the fire. I felt like I was with family. I suppose, I knew that I was with family.

The crazy sauna competition happened when we got back to Ann’s house. We had a deal between scholars as to who could stay longer in the freezing cold lake where we jumped in to take a dip after the Sauna. It was insane. Kyle and Stobo! You guys have to do my garbage duty until the end of the program. Arcie and Dami agreed to make a draw after staying 3 minutes in the icy water with the temperature -10C at that day. It is for one to imagine how cold it was in the water and how crazy we were! That is the Sauve Scholars for you! The carrot cake and the apple crisp was just simply delectable after dinner. Oh, I shouldn’t forget to mention Mafia game! If you were a Sauve scholar, you should not miss playing this one. The rules will be handed over to the future Sauve Scholars as a ritual. The game was so intense that night. Even Ion and Simone, our executive director and communication director, ended watching the game until 1 am in the morning. With Temi and Jessica we could never make a decision but hats off to Lilit, who by far is the best at negotiation and our very intelligent villager Michelle!

The last day dawned so quickly. We said good bye to our lovely hosts at the cottage before heading for dog sledding. It was an experience that I can never ever forget. We had delicious hot chocolate there and we learnt how to lead the dogs sensibly. We got familiar and friendly with the dogs and we put them on to the sled. We never had the chance to see the scenery because we were focusing on steering the dogs to our destination. I fell down twice from the sled but I managed to travel in the old means of transportation after all.

I will be lying if I do not mention that this winter camp experience was the most awesome experience I have ever had in my life, second only to the Sauvé experienceJ