Day 1 - Sun. Jun. 27

Hey everyone back at home in Ontario and PEI!!

Just a quick hello here from BC. It's 12:30am right now so I'm going to make this quick. Flight was awesome, I had no issues whatsoever. The attendants were nice and helpful when I asked questions. My layover in Calgary was a breeze! I arrived in the terminal and was quickly greeted by a PA Kailey (program assistant). I think that was her name. She told me she had been studying my picture and that I looked a lot more serious in the one she was given... I picked up my bags and off we went in a van to UBC. It was about 20-30 min at most. I was stuffed in the back with suitcases so I had no clue where we were going. Shad staff kept telling me I had a lot of stuff, whatever. When we arrived we had sandwiches, juice, and cookies/pop. The PAs are soooo welcoming and energetic. All are Shad alumni, most who went to UBC. We made signs for our dorm rooms and then we were off on a photo scavenger hunt with 5 other people. We walked around tirelessly for a long 3 hours around the campus! It's definitely beautiful, that's for sure. Very similar to MAC, but nothing in comparison to Waterloo haha. The residences we are staying in are nice and clean (don't worry mom!). I saw the Thunderbird center where the sledge hockey and stuff were for the Olympics. Many new buildings there, but they need to mow the lawn...maybe they should get some tips from 7 Eferding, just sayin'. Then we came back, had dinner in the very nice dining room 10s from rez. We had pasta, veggies, fried noodles for the HUGE ASIAN POPULATION (50%+ I calculated), turkey and gravy, and jello and those nanaimo bars for dessert. Similar layout to the convent. Then we went on a 30 min walk to the Rose Garden and took some pictures. We returned to do an icebreaker game which involved showing my gorgeous bio-tile (ask dad). After that, we were sent to bed. I unpacked, and made my bed (man do I miss you mom).

All in all, it's been a good start to the month. I met a lot of new people, many with whom I share similar interests. No one from Hamilton though, nearest is Burlington. But MANY from Toronto, what a surprise. Anyway, I really want to go to bed. I'm exhausted. Lunch is served @ 7:30am Mon. morning, and we have to be ready to go by 9am. Shouldn't be a problem considering my previous sleep patterns...

Say hi to everyone at home from me, I miss you ALL already.

-Carolyn

P.S. the picture of the Rose Garden is not one I took, I stole it off some dude's fb. The video camera wouldn't turn on so I'm charging it now overnight. Also, should have brought a lamp, the light switch is at my door entrance, too far away from my bed. Did I mention I have a single room? Half of the Shads here have one. More girls than guys here also. I don't mind it at all.



Here is the account of Day 1 by a fellow UBC Shad.

So, I time travelled today...or rather tried, and managed to slow time enough so that I arrived in Vancouver only 20 minutes after I left. My allies in this feat: the good old hour and 22 minute flight and the time change...and of course that wonderful flying metal object that we call an airplane. In any case, I arrived in Vancouver pretty deaf in one ear because of the dreadful pressure changes, and that surprisingly enough lasted a whole 2 hours before I was actually back to normal. For those of you who didn’t have to fly, you are lucky. For all else, am I the only one who is driven crazy by the pressure?

The Shad staff rounded up groups of Shads and punctually shipped them to the campus where we made a few attempts to link faces with names – the degree of success, I am still uncertain. Then there was the scavenger hunt. Separated from fellow Shads, we were left in the wilderness of UBC to attempt to find various buildings to some success, but for the majority of the evening, my group was helplessly lost amid the sea of buildings and grass that is called the University of British Columbia.

Fast forward through supper, there was a “tour” (that isn’t very accurate as it was more as a walk in temperate weather while chattering with fellow Shads) around some of the buildings on Campus. Nice roses, good architecture, trampoline bushes (quite literally – the bushes could very well have enough spring force to be considered a trampoline), and a very slight breeze. Back in the conference room, strange interpretations of our Shad bio tiles by Shads whose names we still have failed to learn, then now. A blog. The first entry to a string of words that will summarize the days of Shad Valley in every Shad Valley campus. So, I suppose, through bad grammar, comma splices and sentence fragments which the computer continually tells me to correct, I suppose, here we go!

Derek Eng, Shad Valley University of British Columbia 2010
Hometown: Calgary, Alberta