Valentine’s Day at STU: International Students Try Skating and Speed-Dating
While most Valentine’s Days are all about flowers, cheesy cards and chocolates, this year students decided to adventure into unusual activities.
Students laced up for a skating session at Officer’s Square, right on Queen St. Although it was a Valentine’s Day event, they hit the ice no matter if they were single or taken.
Alejandra Paredes, a first-year student from Ecuador, went with her Latin American friends for a fun afternoon. Paredes outperformed her friends, so she had to teach them the basics.
“[My friends] kept grabbing me for support since they have no experience [on the ice],” she said.
Brett McCavour, STU’s healthy campus coordinator, was lending skates and serving hot cocoa. She said this event was a great opportunity for students to “enjoy the beautiful winter that Fredericton has.”
Healthy campus started skate rentals when New Brunswick went into lockdown. Once the province reversed to Level 2, McCavour was excited to finally arrange an outdoor group activity.
“[Healthy campus] thought that Valentine’s Day was a nice day to kick it off,” she said. “We might have more events later down the road.”
Vivien Zelazny, the campus minister, was also on the ice making sure everyone was having fun. She said students need to be active and healthy, especially to maintain their mental health during the pandemic.
“The thought was could we maybe collect some skates that people could borrow and then get out and have a fun time skating around,” said Zelazny.
At night, students joined an online speed-dating event organized by STU’s International Students’ Association (STUISA) and UNB’s International Student Advisor’s Office (ISAO).
The initiative was proposed by Caridad Guerrero, STUISA’s president, after she noticed how separated UNB and STU had become due to the pandemic.
Around 26 international students joined, a high turn-out for these types of events. Alberto Chávez, another first-year student from Ecuador, was one of the participants. Ever since he arrived in Fredericton, he hasn’t had the chance to meet people from UNB.
“STUISA made this a nice opportunity to meet new people and have good conversations,” he said.
Although most of the people he actually chatted with were from STU, he did meet a couple of students from UNB.
“It was a cool opportunity to meet [and] break that barrier,” said Chávez. “It was a great way to spend a Monday night.”
This Valentine’s Day was unusual yet fun for students, whether they decided to spend the day out to skate or stay in to chat with new people. The pandemic has slowed down social life, but this is the students’ way to combat loneliness.
“I’m glad I went out on Valentine’s. My mental health needed this,” said Paredes.
