MONCTON – Guodong Wu knew his first Canadian winter would be quite the experience, but he never imagined he would have an outdoor freezer in his backyard.
Global News first met Wu and his business partners, the Fangs, in December. The two families had immigrated to Moncton from southern China last spring and opened a coffee shop in Dieppe.
At the time, Wenqi Fang was looking forward to winter. That was before a series of blizzards dumped more than 300 centimetres of snow on the region.
“The storm I don’t like it. I hate it,” Fang said.
Wu said this winter has been far beyond what he could have imagined.
“After the first storm we were trying to clean my deck in the back yard, but after the second and third storm we just left it there. Too much snow. I can’t do that.”
Fang said she has never seen snowbanks so towering — in southwest China, they never got more than a light dusting of snow.
“I sent a picture to my mother and my mother cried,” she said, adding that her mother was worried she might actually be in danger.
Justin Ryan from the Multicultural Association of Greater Moncton said this winter has been overwhelming for a lot of newcomers to the province. He teaches newly arrived families how to make the best of winter.
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“You’ve got that kind of climate shock if you come from a place that you have never seen snow and you’re not used to it. When you come to this and you suddenly realize what you’ve got to do, it’s like well I can’t do outside it’s too cold.”
The Wu and Fang families say this winter hasn’t changed their minds about making a new home in New Brunswick
“Maybe I want to learn how to ski.” said Fang.
Wu is keeping a more distant outlook.
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