What a week (almost) of Shad. Our Program Director, Ed, told us that Shad is what we make it, and the group at Shad Waterloo are certainly making it a heck of a month.
Friday brought us a nice break from the many lectures of Designer Boot Camp, with only a short (one hour) session on merging design for those with disabilities, and those without. After that we had the first two hour session with our self chosen project groups. I was pleasantly surprised at how efficiently we were able to work, and were able to accomplish a lot for our first session. Before this, we had worked as all 48 Shads, and in smaller groups to come up with focus areas. I am really looking forward to more work on our design!
After some hasty last minute packing, lunch (our residence, Grebel University College has some of the best food you will find) we loaded up our bags and started on the long bus ride to Bruce Peninsula National Park. And considering I've recently sat through three hour lectures when lacking sleep, I give a whole new definition to long. After coming up to four hours of chatting, card games, sleeping and reading in a rather hot and uncomfortable bus, we arrived and set up our tents. It was myself and four others in a six person tent, so space thankfully wasn't an issue.
James, Amir, Marco, Peter, and myself in our tent
Cooking dinner was a bit of an adventure, but worth it, for all our food is catered by Grebel. Afterwards, we took a 20 minute walk out to Georgian Bay on
Although the water is freezing, it is a beautiful area to explore. A bit of rock climbing leads you to a couple caves which we all climbed down into, and climbed back up through a small tunnel through the rocks! It was a great opportunity to explore the area and test our rock climbing abilities. The camping trip is sure to be a great time for our Shad community to come together.
The evening finished with some campfire songs, including Hallelujah, Don't Stop Believing, Potter Puppet Pals - The Mysterious Ticking Noise, and more. It was also one of our Shad's birthday today. We sang Happy Birthday at breakfast, lunch, on the walk to Georgian Bay, but just for good measure, we sang again for her at campfire. We had been going for well over an hour and a half before we had to pack it in and head to our tents for the night. Friday was a wonderful start to the camping trip which will surely be a highlight for all of Waterloo Shads.
Thomas Davies, Shad Valley University of Waterloo 2010
Hometown: Chilliwack, British Columbia
