Observations

On Saturday morning I woke up to a transformed campus. Everything was covered in snow and it continued to fall. I was so excited by the prospect of going out to play that I yelped for joy. Obviously, since I grew up in the Bahamas I never experienced snow until I came to Richmond. However, in the three years since I've been here, this weekends snow fall has been the biggest we've ever had.

Sadly, I couldn't go out right away as I would have liked, in fact, I didn't get a chance to really let loose until after dinner, around 8pm. I headed out to Boatwright Beach to meet up with all the other Bahamians - we had planned a snow party. As we took pictures, ran around and threw snow at one another, I noticed that another group of students had come out to have fun as well. A few of the Bahamians left and what was left of our group merged with the other students. I watched how our interactions with one another and noted how, although we were for the most part strangers, we were able to talk and laugh with one another. Our mutual love for the snow and a desire to take advantage of an atypical kind recreation (at least for UR students on a Saturday night) quickly built up a relationship between us. The students helped us Bahamians figure out how to slide down the beach with dhall trays, sitting, standing and in pairs. They were patient with our questions and our fears and cheered for us whenever we made it down the hill in triumph. We reciprocated this friendly behaviour, encouraging the brave ones in their more daring feats and commiserating with those among them who were a little more timid, like us.

I marvelled at how well we all fit together, as if we had been friends for ages instead of not even an hour. It was a great example of how sport can really bring people together despite realities (such as age or religion) which might prevent them from doing so in any other situation.