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