Emily Dea

Looking back on the ICE year!

Through the course of the year, there have been many moments in my ICE experience that have evolved my Canadian character. From our very first school trip to camp Wankita. Where I met the new students who would be spending the rest of the year with. The moment that sticks out the most is our winter camping trip.

Our grade drove two hours to a camp called YMCA Pine Crest (Link to Website ). After getting all settled in we were put into rotation groups, I was put with people from other classes some I have barely talked to all year. In the three days at camp, we did many fun games like camouflage, a version of hide and seek, and ball hockey. With these and the other activities, I felt I grew closer to the people in my group. When I had to talk in front of my group or the grade I knew a larger fraction so I felt more comfortable around them. This experience helped me grow confidence and when going back to school I would know more people in my classes. At the end of the day everyone went out to the frozen lake, and I can not forget how beautiful it was that day. Very few clouds in the sky, sunny and crisp. The nervousness I felt before coming to camp disappeared while I appreshate the beautiful Canadain North. On the lake, our grade was introduced to the Artic Games which are the traditional games of the Inuit. After playing blanket toss, spear throwing and the high kick. My favourite was the blanket toss. The objective is for someone to stand on the tarp and the team members would fling them high in the air to see the carabao or other animals. For safety reasons we used a stuffed animal and it is much harder than it sounds. After playing all of the games I felt more connected to the Canadain native people and their heritage.

After the three days at the camp, our class snowshoed to a campsite and stayed there for three nights. On this trip, I grew closer to my classmates. The trip was long but we all had to work together to get there. Each person would have a job to help get things done at camp. We had people navigate us, some cook dinner, dishes, build a fire and more. We grew close in the sense if one person was gone we would be missing a huge component of the group. After we got settled we had to start building our quinse where we would all be sleeping the following night. It took us almost five hours but we all contributed to pilling snow or stacking. The people who finished there qunise would help others finish there until everyone was building. At the end of the day, it grew much colder, everyone was in a bad mood and wanted to go home. Then someone said a really funny joke which lighted the whole mood and it felt a little less cold. I connected to my classmates and learned about them when we reflected on our days. Our class would sit in a circle and we would talk about the good and bad, we all had a good laugh before we went off to bed. On this trip I gained a few IB learner traits, I was a risk-taker when I had my doubts about sleeping in a quiet and almost didn't. None the less I had a very supportive friend who convinced me to do it and I am so happy I can say I did. The morning after we all spent the night in the snow everyone congratulated each other. When everyone was back at school we had lots of inside jokes from that trip. Now I am more open-minded to try new things after my experience at winter camping. I also have a seporte blog on winter camping ClickHere!

A big thanks to the ICE teachers, advisors, and parents for making this year much more enjoyable.

Here is my ICE Final task about how COVID-19 affects amature athletes PODCAST