Oklahoma students tried out curling with Olympic gold medallist Jamie Korab while stuck in St. John's
The group experienced multiple delays on their journey to Dublin
A group of eighth graders from Tulsa, Okla. headed for Dublin, Ireland ended up stuck in St. John's for two days — and made the most of their surprise stopover with a curling lesson from an Olympic gold medallist.
The students had two days of sightseeing and exploring, and even got to try out an iconic Canadian sport with Waterford Valley MHA and Olympic champion curler Jamie Korab.
"It's kind of interesting that we landed in a place that has a lot of Irish culture," said Jenks Middle School principal Nick Brown. "So we're really looking at it as a bonus."
The group also received chocolates and a personal letter from Premier Andrew Furey welcoming them to the province.
The troupe visited Cape Spear, The Rooms and the Basilica in St. John's, making the most out of their pit stop.
They were headed to Dublin to study science and agriculture but ended up experiencing a few bumps in the road, leaving Tulsa on the morning of Feb. 12.
A delay in Chicago led them to miss their next flight. When they finally got on a plane headed to Dublin on Thursday, it had to land in St. John's for a medical emergency.
Luckily, EF Educational Tours Canada, a student travel company, stepped in and was able to get their local representative Michael Holden to bring the students around on Friday.
Their stay was extended by another day after their Saturday morning flight was cancelled due to high winds — another novel experience for the preteens.
"We're from the southern part of the United States, so we don't really have weather like this," said Brown. "[The] kids are making snowballs and throwing them at each other."
Brown said he was impressed and grateful for Newfoundland's hospitality during their 48-hour stay.
"This will be something that these kids will remember the rest of their lives," he said.
Trying out curling
When Korab heard about the stranded eighth graders, he pulled some strings and got the kids on the ice.
"People are stranded here, let's show them a good time," said Korab.
"Rather than having them hang around a hotel room, give them an experience they've never had, and maybe [they'll] go back to Oklahoma City and Tulsa and say, 'Hey, we tried curling and it was about a lot of fun.'"
Learning how to play curling was an exciting new experience for the students, said Brown.
"There may be an Olympic curler from Jenks, Oklahoma in our future that we don't even know about," he said.
For students Gretta Richardson, Isabel Englebrecht and Zeke Catterson, getting to try out curling was their favourite activity in Newfoundland.
"It was really cool and exciting, [but] it was really hard to put that rock out," said Englebrecht.
While Englebrecht said she knew about Newfoundland from the musical Come From Away, the others said they hadn't heard of the province before.
WATCH | Being delayed at YYT was a bonus for Oklahoma students travelling to Ireland:
"I didn't know it existed," said Catterson.
While they missed out on a few days in Dublin and had to spend hours in an airport, the students were pleased with the opportunity to experience another country on their trip.
"It's actually like, really beautiful.... If I hadn't gone here, I would have never like known how pretty it was," said Catterson.
The group was able to fly out of St. John's successfully Sunday morning.
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