Today, like any other day, the Carleton Shads awoke at roughly 7:30 a.m., caught a quick breakfast and headed down to our main lecture hall to begin.
After several standard announcements, we moved on to Shad news, which is essentially thought of as a pseudo news source for the staff whose schedule does not permit the reading of newspapers. Following this, we had an extremely prolific discussion about some of the activities we participated in during camping and how we thought their message could contribute to our DE projects.
This was followed by a large dose of physical recreation. If you don’t believe that there would be a way to incorporate fifty shads into one game of foosball, you have clearly never met the creative and brilliant staff of Shad Valley Carleton.
After lunch it was time to get serious when we began working on our DE projects. With just over a week left to work on them, we were definitely beginning to feel the pressure of the submission deadline. Regardless of the time constraints, we always look forward to our amazing lectures where we are enlightened on topics ranging from industrial design to abstract mathematics. Today’s lecturer, Irvin Hill, spoke to us about his Aboriginal heritage and told us about its different aspects and main characteristics.
After dinner, we had about an hour for Shad Speak, which I think is one of the most important parts of Shad Valley. Carleton Shads have used their ten minutes to tell everyone what interests them. Topics range from cheerleading to web browser analysis. You can imagine how diverse this year's Carleton Shads are!
This was followed with committee time where we had time to organize such events like Open Day and the Cultural Night. By this time, though, the Carleton Shads were ready for a little bit of fun. Luckily, committee time was followed by late night, which interestingly enough had a speed dating theme. Not only were Shads required to spend two minutes with each person of the opposite sex, they were required to fulfill a secret requirement to make the game more interesting. These requirements included talking in only cheesy pick up lines and falling in love at first sight with everyone.
Overall, Shad has proved to be an amazing experience where I’ve been able to meet fifty one kids from all over Canada who share the same interests as me.
Alexandra Printzios
Shad Valley Carleton
Hometown: Mississauga, Ontario
