A Mexican woman who attended Olds College in an exchange program chose to look at the positive side of the difference in climate between her country and ours.
Rosie Fonseca, 47, visited Olds College and Central Alberta as part of the Proyecta 10,000 program which helps Mexicans perfect their English language skills and provides them with an opportunity to learn about Canadian culture.
While here, she encountered snow.
"In Mexico there is hot weather and in this place it is cold, but we enjoy it because we never, never saw the snow," she said during an interview with the Albertan. "I enjoyed it and I took a lot of photos, because in our country it doesn't happen."
In addition to taking classes to improve their English, the participants took part in many activities to learn about Canadian culture including a trip to Drumheller to learn about dinosaurs.
At the end of their trip late last year, Fonseca and her counterparts staged a play which combined Mexican culture with vignettes featuring some well-known Canadians.
The play was about the Day of The Dead (Nov.1). In Mexican culture, the dead live on in a kind of limbo. The belief is they will stay around the living; even come and visit and eat with them. That belief was showcased in the animated hit film Coco.
"The people press on again and they enjoy all the things that they liked when they were alive," Fonseca said.
In addition to showcasing some famous Mexicans who have passed on, the play highlighted famous Canadians like comedian John Candy, Terry Fox and Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie.
"They did six different skits and she was a part of the Terry Fox skit," says Jenn Wood, international programs administrator at the college.
"There was a man who was just diagnosed with cancer and she came and offered him comfort and tried to console him and then that's when Terry Fox emerged from his grave," she adds.
"The three of them had conversations about what it means to have cancer and how they feel and maybe give them some hope about recovering."
