Riccardo Levi
My Crazy Fun ICE Experience
As a person that has experienced the Integrated Canadian Experience (ICE) I have learnt that I am capable of a lot more than I expected. I have had a fun time as I experienced a real Canadian experience. This year as a grade we got to tour Toronto, go to Wanakita, Winter Camping and unfortunately because of COVID-19 the grade was unable to go to challenge week. As a student I got to learn about how to interact with people that are not in your class and got to know better the people that I don't have class with. It was fun interacting with other people from other classes and getting to know them. Also since I wasn’t born in Canada, ICE made me have a better Canadian experience and got to learn a lot more about Canada. As a Canadian I learned that before you travel around Canada or somewhere you should learn more about the place you are going to. I also learned that Canada has way more history and things to learn about than I expected, like the Canadian allies during war, the type of things that Canada and the US trade, how important of a trader the US is and all the different landscapes there are in Canada.
I think that Winter camping was an amazing and such a unique experience and I think that it took the Canadian and it made me work harder while doing the activities and making the quinzhees.
This was such a fun and challenging time because you had to think about everything you did because it could end in a bad way and you were stuck far from the main Campsite. It also made me think about the people that lived in that situation and had to hunt their own food and stay in the freezing cold for the whole day, plus we were not experiencing the actual cold that people in the North experience every day.
I thought that Toronto Island was an amazing experience because it was really fun and got to be free on the island and take some videos with all my friends. I have gone to Toronto Island before but I felt like I got to explore way more on the bikes and got to see the different things you could do on Toronto Island and Toronto. This experience got me to expand as a student because I got to know other people from other classes better and it was also one of my first ICE trips and it was really fun. As a Person I thought that Wanakita was such a fun experience because we Got to know most of the people in the grade and got to have a lot of fun with the activities. Also it was my first time experiencing what I would be able to do throughout the year and what it would be like to do a lot of other things with the class. Wanakita was really fun and got me closer with my best friends that I have at york now and I also got to know more the teachers and my mentors that would help me through the year.
Thanks a lot to Mr. Aitkenhead and all the ICE Teachers that helped me through the year and coached me through ICE. Hope you all had as much fun of a time like we did, have a great summer.
Riccardo - Ice Final.mp4