18:30, 30 June 2009
Quite a day at Shad so far. It's dinnertime now as I write this, and already I'm tired. It was hard to remember to write this entry. . . I'm already starting to lose track of the days.
The morning started out early, with my alarm going off at six forty-five. It was relatively easy to get up since I knew that I was going to learn something interesting today: the theme for our all-important project we'd be working on for the rest of the camp. Since I'm not sure if other campuses have had the theme revealed yet, I won't say what it is; I will say, though, that it generated a lot of discussion in my house group and quite a few interesting (or crazy) ideas. Not at all bad for our first half-hour meeting, I think.
21:47, 30 June 2009
To continue with our day. . . we had our first and very excellent guest speaker, a botanist from the university. Got to learn about plant fibres -- some people find that interesting, including (from what I observed) most of the Shads -- and it got nicely hands-on after that, when we got to look at cross-sections of plants under microscopes, and mess around with razor blades and dyes (always fun, of course). After that, we got a tree tour of part of campus -- saw some beautiful trees. I'm trying to remember some names: temperate rubber, red cedar, yellow cedar, wingnut, some pines, and of course the famous upside-down tree. I wish I had gotten a picture.
Some recreational time followed that. A fairly intense game of ball hockey in the middle of the gym, with volleyball and basketball on either side. Aside from some balls whizzing around where they shouldn't be, it was a great time -- people got to show off a bit and get moving around, have some fun. Dinner break after that was very welcome, with lots of conversations about the games and otherwise. . . I think our table got into the topic of stem cell research.
Shad Speaks after supper! Our first session, with speeches about. . . well, stem cell research; as well as a trip to Kenya, horseback riding, Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, Wikipedia (mine!), inspiration and dance, female pirates, and wilderness survival. It's not an exaggeration to say that I heard some of the best speeches by students I've ever heard. Great to hear such a variety. I wasn't even a tiny bit bored. And I'm really looking forward to hearing the other forty-five. . . as I type now, I'm hearing a discussion on someone's upcoming speech on Communism. Looking forward to that. . . .
I think snack starts now, so I'll wander down and see. Busy day. Canada Day tomorrow! I'm hoping for fireworks.
Gillian Manley
Shad Valley UBC
Hometown: Truro, Nova Scotia
Monday, June 29, 2009
Hurray! The second day has come! It was quite intense trying to learn everyone's name yesterday. A new day has come and hopefully, I will get to learn more names and soon, I will know them all!
I woke up at 7:05 and took a shower. We left our residence and ate breakfast at the cafeteria. Afterwards, we came back to the residence and played several games to ''break the ice''. I suggested a game of ultimate rock-paper-scissors. It got really intense and everyone was yelling and cheering!
After the games, we went to a class about the design process in engineering. We took a break to eat lunch in class. The class was five hours long, and most of us did not expect to be in a class the second day at Shad Valley. Following the class, we went to the cafeteria to eat dinner.
Then came the P.A.'s Shad Tile presentations. It was really fun to learn about them. Scott's presentation was the best because he took 10 minutes to talk about his blanket... that he found last minute... that he never actually cherished in his childhood. He wanted to show us that he's spontaneous and he never plans things out, he goes with the flow.
For the rest of the night, we made a party for Emily, another fellow Shad. The party was great, but I did not stay up long, because it was getting late. Sure, 11:30 is not that late, but I know that MANY adventures are to come and every bit of sleep will help me enjoy this fantastic 4 week trip that will help me open my horizons and live on my own!
Denis Cormier
Shad Valley Université Laval
Hometown: Lutes Mountain, New Brunswick
I woke up at 7:05 and took a shower. We left our residence and ate breakfast at the cafeteria. Afterwards, we came back to the residence and played several games to ''break the ice''. I suggested a game of ultimate rock-paper-scissors. It got really intense and everyone was yelling and cheering!
After the games, we went to a class about the design process in engineering. We took a break to eat lunch in class. The class was five hours long, and most of us did not expect to be in a class the second day at Shad Valley. Following the class, we went to the cafeteria to eat dinner.
Then came the P.A.'s Shad Tile presentations. It was really fun to learn about them. Scott's presentation was the best because he took 10 minutes to talk about his blanket... that he found last minute... that he never actually cherished in his childhood. He wanted to show us that he's spontaneous and he never plans things out, he goes with the flow.
For the rest of the night, we made a party for Emily, another fellow Shad. The party was great, but I did not stay up long, because it was getting late. Sure, 11:30 is not that late, but I know that MANY adventures are to come and every bit of sleep will help me enjoy this fantastic 4 week trip that will help me open my horizons and live on my own!
Denis Cormier
Shad Valley Université Laval
Hometown: Lutes Mountain, New Brunswick
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Today's the day, huh? I woke up to find my room cramped with two huge travel bags and my carry on luggage, adrenalin pumping for the 1 hour 3 minute flight to the beautiful and historic city of Québec, in the province I had visited just the previous summer. Although the dawn of the day had passed, the dawn of the program had just unveiled itself and as I gathered my thoughts, had breakfast near my computer for the last time until the next month, I realized that it wasn’t only the flight I was excited about. Granted, I am in love with flying and nothing excited me more than boarding a plane to arrive in a destination you can call home for at least a few days, however, underneath that warm blanket was the Shad Valley program. Skipping past the airport security (who took away my water bottle for safety purposes, even before I drank it), I arrived at Université Laval with friends I already knew I’d remain lifelong friends with. There to greet us were four lovely P.A’s (NOT personal assistants, but program assistants as I later learned) who presented us with university lanyards, our room keys and a magnificent French smile (many agree that the Quebecois smile is very distinguishable).
Many ‘Shads’, as they will undoubtedly be called multiple times in this blog, managed to get acquainted with their room mates and no one seemed to be complaining – all the Shads seem like fantastic individuals with versatile backgrounds and a myriad of personality traits. This diverse spectrum of names, backgrounds and faces seemed to really get everyone’s memories jogging and almost everywhere you could find Shads asking for names and inquiring about where everyone is from. Nonetheless, it seemed that Shad Valley had a lot to teach us on the first day since all the newly arrived Shads were taken on a tour of the Laval campus and others were taken to the local centre d’achats for a snack to help with the wait for dinner at 5:30pm. Speaking of dinner, as most large educational institutions have in common, Laval has its very own dinner system and the Shads were provided with cards which allow a total of 12 items from the cafeteria with one twist – you CANNOT, under ANY circumstances, have a salad and a ‘hot plate’ together! NEVER! Hence, after a satisfactory meal and some energy to continue for the night, everyone was summoned into a huge circle and the program director, Daniel Dupuis, with the help of the rest of the staff put together a demonstration about the rules, values and the aims of the Shad Valley program. Even though most students carried these core values with them every day, everyone listened attentively and participated enthusiastically – which was in fact one of the values listed!
Finally, the night started coming to a close with announcements. For those Shads who thought that they would be doing all the activities in a large group, there was the huge surprise of being split off into different pre-assigned houses. These houses would be competing in a competition that was yet to be announced for an opportunity to represent Laval at yet another un-announced competition. In addition to this, there would also be committees throughout the weeks here at Shad, ranging from T-shirt design – my personal favorite – to decorations for the underground ‘Murales’, which are painted walls in the network of pathways found underneath the university.
As with any other blog, I cannot capture the essence of my first day at Shad Laval. I cannot demonstrate my huge affection for the city, the language, the university, the program and the people to whom I am only a stranger. Nevertheless, I have described above, in as much detail as I could muster in a half an hour of free time before dinner, the highlights of my day. Hopefully, through the mere words I have been able to shine some light on just how much excitement there is on campus for the activities that the P.A’s are secretly smiling about and activities that I hope will at least make everyone here at Shad Laval smile and keep them smiling for the entire day.
As someone confided to me today; We are extremely lucky to be here, but we are also very grateful. So thank you for reading up on today’s blog and keep tuned for future, probably more exciting days for us right here at Shad Laval.
Amit Unadkat
Shad Valley Université Laval
Hometown: Mississauga, Ontario
Many ‘Shads’, as they will undoubtedly be called multiple times in this blog, managed to get acquainted with their room mates and no one seemed to be complaining – all the Shads seem like fantastic individuals with versatile backgrounds and a myriad of personality traits. This diverse spectrum of names, backgrounds and faces seemed to really get everyone’s memories jogging and almost everywhere you could find Shads asking for names and inquiring about where everyone is from. Nonetheless, it seemed that Shad Valley had a lot to teach us on the first day since all the newly arrived Shads were taken on a tour of the Laval campus and others were taken to the local centre d’achats for a snack to help with the wait for dinner at 5:30pm. Speaking of dinner, as most large educational institutions have in common, Laval has its very own dinner system and the Shads were provided with cards which allow a total of 12 items from the cafeteria with one twist – you CANNOT, under ANY circumstances, have a salad and a ‘hot plate’ together! NEVER! Hence, after a satisfactory meal and some energy to continue for the night, everyone was summoned into a huge circle and the program director, Daniel Dupuis, with the help of the rest of the staff put together a demonstration about the rules, values and the aims of the Shad Valley program. Even though most students carried these core values with them every day, everyone listened attentively and participated enthusiastically – which was in fact one of the values listed!
Finally, the night started coming to a close with announcements. For those Shads who thought that they would be doing all the activities in a large group, there was the huge surprise of being split off into different pre-assigned houses. These houses would be competing in a competition that was yet to be announced for an opportunity to represent Laval at yet another un-announced competition. In addition to this, there would also be committees throughout the weeks here at Shad, ranging from T-shirt design – my personal favorite – to decorations for the underground ‘Murales’, which are painted walls in the network of pathways found underneath the university.
As with any other blog, I cannot capture the essence of my first day at Shad Laval. I cannot demonstrate my huge affection for the city, the language, the university, the program and the people to whom I am only a stranger. Nevertheless, I have described above, in as much detail as I could muster in a half an hour of free time before dinner, the highlights of my day. Hopefully, through the mere words I have been able to shine some light on just how much excitement there is on campus for the activities that the P.A’s are secretly smiling about and activities that I hope will at least make everyone here at Shad Laval smile and keep them smiling for the entire day.
As someone confided to me today; We are extremely lucky to be here, but we are also very grateful. So thank you for reading up on today’s blog and keep tuned for future, probably more exciting days for us right here at Shad Laval.
Amit Unadkat
Shad Valley Université Laval
Hometown: Mississauga, Ontario
Sunday June 28, 2009
The first day of Shad. Amazing. Energetic. Inspiring.
Arriving early I spent the evening in Hedden Hall all by myself wondering what awesome experiences where waiting for me in the next month of my life.
The scene when I emerged in the morning was my first taste of the crazy atmosphere that will continue on for the rest of the month. Music was playing, PA's were dashing around and the welcome sign was up. I was blown away by how most of the staff knew about me, having taken the time to carefully read my application. I knew I was in for a life changing experience with people who would encourage, push, teach and bond with me.
As registration began I met the flood of shads entering the building. It was amazing making such instant connections with people from not only all over Canada but England and Saudi Arabia as well!
We had a introductory banquet with an element that has never occurred before. The Acadia 1999 Shads were having their reunion and joined us for dinner. Giving us the chance to connect and learn about how Shad affected them and what they have done since. Most importantly it showed me in the most amazing way the connections that formed at Shad and how they will never disappear. I can't wait for tomorrow, the day after and every single day, second and moment that I have left in Shad!!!
Andrea Abbott
Shad Valley McMaster University
Hometown: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory
Arriving early I spent the evening in Hedden Hall all by myself wondering what awesome experiences where waiting for me in the next month of my life.
The scene when I emerged in the morning was my first taste of the crazy atmosphere that will continue on for the rest of the month. Music was playing, PA's were dashing around and the welcome sign was up. I was blown away by how most of the staff knew about me, having taken the time to carefully read my application. I knew I was in for a life changing experience with people who would encourage, push, teach and bond with me.
As registration began I met the flood of shads entering the building. It was amazing making such instant connections with people from not only all over Canada but England and Saudi Arabia as well!
We had a introductory banquet with an element that has never occurred before. The Acadia 1999 Shads were having their reunion and joined us for dinner. Giving us the chance to connect and learn about how Shad affected them and what they have done since. Most importantly it showed me in the most amazing way the connections that formed at Shad and how they will never disappear. I can't wait for tomorrow, the day after and every single day, second and moment that I have left in Shad!!!
Andrea Abbott
Shad Valley McMaster University
Hometown: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory
First day of Shad!
Arrived at Howe Hall, my home for the next month. It was lightly drizzling and we entered the 4-storey stone building, following the Shad signs (there are other groups using this residence while we're here - the "Tattoo Group" [whatever that is!] as well as Explore, a French program I was considering applying for this summer). I was given a folder with my name on it and my room key, meal card, map of Dalhousie, info re: wifi access, a schedule of the next week, and a list of all the program directors and assistants with their phone numbers.
I unpacked absolutely everything and immediately felt calm and settled in. I wandered downstairs into the Study Hall in the basement. A group of kids were in a circle talking about different movies and stuff, so I sat with them. In another corner some guys were playing guitar, and in another an intense game of chess was going on. I had a cookie and some 7Up (Diet, sadly, was all there was). I taught this girl how to play Battleship and we played a round on the little travel-sized game that was there (there was a box filled with decks of cards and various board games for us to do).
A bunch of us went outside into the courtyard and tossed a frisbee around, saying each other's names as we did it. Then we moved onto Ultimate Frisbee, which I am awful at. Our team lost :) We then played a game much like hide-and-go-seek, which was fun for a short while but being in a small courtyard there are only so many places you can hide.
Went inside and watched the end of the chess game. We played a massive game of Cheat, using THREE decks of cards because there were about 15 of us or something. Afterward we split into 2 groups and played Spoons (another card game...but we substituted spoons for dominoes). Another group of people were also playing Spoons with dominoes but they made it really cool and made the dominoes on other sides of the room so people had to run to grab them instead of simply reaching across the table. We played Flapjack (seems these summer programs are all about card games...last summer at PSYL we played President 30 times a day!), which was amusing...then it was time for dinner (BBQ).
Next it was orientation & icebreakers for a couple hours within the Study Hall. We got into a circle and this professor at Dalhousie spoke to us as a kind of introduction. Then we did a bunch of fun improv games. In one, we split into groups of 3. Each group split itself into an inner circle and an outer circle. The inner circle kids faced a person in the outer circle, and you had to introduce yourself but the way a certain character would say it (e.g. car salesman, lost tourist) AND you were given a question to answer to that person (e.g. in 10 years I see myself..., the quality I admire most in a person is...). It was fun. All of the activities we played were really open and great.
We also did the usual organize-yourselves-in-alphabetical-order-of-your-middle-names-but-without-talking, and we organized ourselves in order of birthdays without talking too. They split us into groups and we did some get-to-know-each-other games, including this hand game, a mental/mind puzzle, a gladiator pool noodle-ish fighting game, etc (really hard to explain them all, but really fun and cool).
Oh! I forgot. Before all those games we went on a tour of the cafeteria. Apparently there are 200 other people in the building staying with us? So lunch is going to be mega crowded. We got a few tips from the head caf manager about how to navigate the lines, and we now know where all the food is. There's going to be a salad bar, yoghurt, cereal, pasta, pizza, a grill, drinks, home-cooked style veggies & such, etc. The guys are all super excited about the fact that it's pretty much all-you-can-eat and it's free :) So it should be no problem I think.
At around 8:45 we gathered in this other room and went over rules and information...going over how things are going to work, how a day is going to be, curfew, etc.
Now it's midnight and I really should get to bed. My roommate Avi is really nice. She's from Newfoundland (the only province I've never been to!). Avi is asleep to my right (it feels like 12:30 for her since she's a half hour ahead) and we're getting up at 7. I'm so pleased I was able to write this!
Danielle Biss
Shad Valley Dalhousie
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario
I unpacked absolutely everything and immediately felt calm and settled in. I wandered downstairs into the Study Hall in the basement. A group of kids were in a circle talking about different movies and stuff, so I sat with them. In another corner some guys were playing guitar, and in another an intense game of chess was going on. I had a cookie and some 7Up (Diet, sadly, was all there was). I taught this girl how to play Battleship and we played a round on the little travel-sized game that was there (there was a box filled with decks of cards and various board games for us to do).
A bunch of us went outside into the courtyard and tossed a frisbee around, saying each other's names as we did it. Then we moved onto Ultimate Frisbee, which I am awful at. Our team lost :) We then played a game much like hide-and-go-seek, which was fun for a short while but being in a small courtyard there are only so many places you can hide.
Went inside and watched the end of the chess game. We played a massive game of Cheat, using THREE decks of cards because there were about 15 of us or something. Afterward we split into 2 groups and played Spoons (another card game...but we substituted spoons for dominoes). Another group of people were also playing Spoons with dominoes but they made it really cool and made the dominoes on other sides of the room so people had to run to grab them instead of simply reaching across the table. We played Flapjack (seems these summer programs are all about card games...last summer at PSYL we played President 30 times a day!), which was amusing...then it was time for dinner (BBQ).
Next it was orientation & icebreakers for a couple hours within the Study Hall. We got into a circle and this professor at Dalhousie spoke to us as a kind of introduction. Then we did a bunch of fun improv games. In one, we split into groups of 3. Each group split itself into an inner circle and an outer circle. The inner circle kids faced a person in the outer circle, and you had to introduce yourself but the way a certain character would say it (e.g. car salesman, lost tourist) AND you were given a question to answer to that person (e.g. in 10 years I see myself..., the quality I admire most in a person is...). It was fun. All of the activities we played were really open and great.
We also did the usual organize-yourselves-in-alphabetical-order-of-your-middle-names-but-without-talking, and we organized ourselves in order of birthdays without talking too. They split us into groups and we did some get-to-know-each-other games, including this hand game, a mental/mind puzzle, a gladiator pool noodle-ish fighting game, etc (really hard to explain them all, but really fun and cool).
Oh! I forgot. Before all those games we went on a tour of the cafeteria. Apparently there are 200 other people in the building staying with us? So lunch is going to be mega crowded. We got a few tips from the head caf manager about how to navigate the lines, and we now know where all the food is. There's going to be a salad bar, yoghurt, cereal, pasta, pizza, a grill, drinks, home-cooked style veggies & such, etc. The guys are all super excited about the fact that it's pretty much all-you-can-eat and it's free :) So it should be no problem I think.
At around 8:45 we gathered in this other room and went over rules and information...going over how things are going to work, how a day is going to be, curfew, etc.
Now it's midnight and I really should get to bed. My roommate Avi is really nice. She's from Newfoundland (the only province I've never been to!). Avi is asleep to my right (it feels like 12:30 for her since she's a half hour ahead) and we're getting up at 7. I'm so pleased I was able to write this!
Danielle Biss
Shad Valley Dalhousie
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario
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