A Canadian Winter Story
By Meryem Chahboun
April 16, 2021
It’s 5:30 pm and I just recognized my mother among the waves of parents coming to pick up their children from school. On this rainy evening of late September, my mother is visibly stressed and annoyed with the weather. We head to the main street to catch a taxi. I want to tell her about this new recipe I invented but she is not listening. It is a dire struggle to catch any form of transportation on the very first rainy day of the season.
On October 26th, 2019, twenty years later, she is six thousand km away, in Morocco, and I just woke up to this:
A little less than three months ago, I moved over to Canada with a newcomer’s dread: the first snowfall announcing infamous Canadian winter. It’s fifteen to nine and I need to leave in order to make my 9 am class but this clearly surpasses my priorities. This is the day I have been gearing up for the past months. I have seen snow four times in the past and have experienced negative temperatures only once – this is definitely a big day for me. I run back down the stairs into my basement apartment, changed my shoes, put on a “head heater”, a pair of gloves, and a wool scarf. I should be okay… And I was.
Don’t get me wrong, my apprehension was justified. It was cold, the vicious wind felt like it was targeting my bones underneath the layers of insulation I was wrapped in; and a few days later the roads became icy, and I regularly fell miserably to my misfortune.
But it was not too bad. I quickly learned to translate degrees Celsius in layers of clothing, a quick look outside gave me the hint for footwear, and the speed of wind directed my choice of accessories. I even learned to appreciate the poetics and dynamics of winter, started looking forward to the holidays, adapted my hobbies, took up skiing, and made friends to play board games with on cold winter nights.
Nevertheless, there are a few things I wish I knew…
- Most of the Canadian population lives South of Milan (David Taylor, 2015)
The University of Waterloo – together with all its satellite campuses – is located in Southern Ontario. To put things in perspective, have a look at this map lining up some global landmarks with major Canadian cities using their latitude. It looks like winter in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge region and the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area can’t realistically be too bad! Well, perhaps a bit chillier than a cold Parisian winter then…
- It’s rarely below -10° C, and when it is it pretty much feels the same
The key is to adjust how you interact with your environment rather than treating it like a permanent threat you need to protect yourself from. For instance, time when you leave your house to spend as little time as possible, waiting for transit, work out logistics with friends or relatives who own a vehicle for some carpooling when you need to go to the store, and planning to take your trash out during the most favorable outside temperature… The bottom line is, the longer you stay outside in the cold, the more preparation you need. I prefer to look at it this way rather than the generic “it’s cold in Canada, you need an expensive down coat”. Though, I am not advising you to stay indoors the entire winter season. Rather, I am inviting you to reflect and better manage your movements in a new environment you are still getting used to.
- Understand how insulation works
Having come to Canada as an architecture graduate student, I took a selection of courses during my first term at the University of Waterloo, School of Architecture, that introduced me to the Canadian building culture and especially the technical aspect behind it. The course that taught us the design of high-performance enclosures for cold climates was, in many regards, very useful, especially to internationals.
- Seal good, seal strong
Like the layering of environmental barriers within a wall, go shingle fashion. Meaning, have your coat run over your pants covering the junction, and then have your pants run over your boots protecting the junction. Junctions are the meeting point of two element’s material. They are known in building science for being the weakest spots that need to be safely sealed using different methods including the “shingle fashion”.
- It’s all about the foundation.
Keep your feet warm. Insulating your footing is primordial to your well-being during winter as we insulate the building foundation from frozen soil.
- Layer up… smart
Heating does not work like most people think it does. In fact, it is less about the heat flow generated and more about keeping the said heat where we want it to stay, by preventing it from “escaping” from weak spots. In buildings, these are windows and glazed areas while in clothing, the weakest spots are again, the junctions. Therefore, insulating and perfectly sealing the seams is important and preserves the generated heat in your body. With that in mind, if you will be active outside, walking or practicing a physical activity, you might need fewer layers than if you were to stay static waiting in an outdoor line.
- Understanding the materials
Some brands offer technical fabrics with specific features and novel technologies. While those are worth trying, they are not vital. Moreover, sometimes their price point keeps them rather inaccessible for most students. Nevertheless, materials are important especially if you plan on living in Canada for an extended period and would like to try some of the winter activities. For example, investing in good ski gear. Many of the items will often come in handy. Snow pants and snow gloves are particularly versatile, and extremely useful to have. This will broaden the spectrum of activities you can engage in during winter from hiking to tobogganing and tubing.
- Essentials vs nice-to-have: Identify the differences
While keeping in mind the above and building up your own strategy as you go is enough for you to enjoy Canadian winter, there are some fun, more sophisticated gadgets out there worth checking out: tech-friendly gloves will spare you the unpleasant feeling of frozen fingers while quickly using your phone in the cold, electric footwear dryer will keep your shoes dry and cozy for you, and traction footwear with metal grips will prevent some of these ridiculous falls on icy sidewalks. Not all of them; because you do need a solid collection of those to build YOUR Canadian Winter story!
All in all, you will figure it out and you WILL NOT freeze in the process!
Cheers,
Meryem Chahboun