Montreal was fun.
What surprised me the most was how much people complained about having too much meat in the lunch wraps. Guys, if you didn't want meat, how come beef, turkey and ham all ran out as fast as penguins swimming in water?
Talking about penguins, think they are clumsy? Wait till they hit water! Now it's understandable to me why humans learn how to swim from frogs not penguins, who also have four limbs. Penguins don't swim, they FLY in water. Once they dive in, penguins barely move their bodies. But somehow penguins manage to slide elegantly through water, too fast for you eyes to follow. They are like bullets, occasionally shooting out of the water. During the trip, one penguin was so friendly that it kept pushing against the glass to reach us! No matter how you interpret that image, penguins were the highlight for many people in the Biodome. And of course the fish was amazing too. Watching gigantic fish swim was like watching fossils move, the sense of which draws you into deep fantasy about all the lives on earth. Some people also liked the poisonous frogs; others liked the monkeys and bats. Nobody seemed to like the turtles, probably because they hid themselves too well.
After the biodome, some people and I went to the contemporary art gallery. It turned out that most people's minds weren't as contemporary or fashionable as they thought. I ended up understanding maybe five eleventh of ONE of the many art pieces displayed. And I don't think many people actually did better than me! All of you who laughed at people who chose to go to the archaeology and history museum, think twice next time!
Shopping time! Wasn't big for me but was big for most people. It was some sort of a festival downtown Montreal on that day, so we had to squeeze through the shopping frenzy. Imagine people as pie fillings, and that pie probably exploded in the microwave. After all, the shopping results truely dazzled me. Some one bought nunchakus, some one bought a wooden stick that was supposed to be a sword. And then there were the sunglasses-sunglasses having bars instead of glasses. I don't know if they are supposed to resemble what you see from a prison cell or if they use rocket science so complicated that the sun would get frustrated and look away. Who said engineering was hard? The engineering professors probably studied that because they couldn't understand fashion.
Nice trip ended with a nice pizza dinner. And everyone went to sleep surprisingly fast.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Camping Trip
Aaah~ There's nothing more delightful in this world, than spending a night in a cramped little tent, stock full with people who snore, a miniature hurricane raging outside, mosquitoes swarming in biblical proportions... In other words, I detest camping.
But other than the sleeping-in-a-tent-lack-of-decent-bathroom thing, it was a fairly decent trip. We went to Wolfe Island after canoeing for a morning (unfortunately, that was a rather disappointment. The second group in particularly only managed to canoe for half an hour, and we only did "water ballet") Walking to the ferry was torturous. The canoe site was all the way across town from the ferry, and imagine this: you're tired, you're likely wet, and you're a KM from your final destination. Not very nice.
But things brightened up (not literally) when we got to Wolfe Island. Although the weather progressed from bright and sunny into a state of hateful rain, we had a lot of fun. Not only did we get to see many interesting nature displays in a fascinating science teacher's classroom, but we participated in many group exercises. Probably one of the most hilarious exercises we did was a group charade; only the first person knew the answer, and it had to get down a line of six or seven people a via a "telephone" game. It was hilarious to see people try to mime out "pink" or "Elvis Presley" or "synchronized swimming", especially when they didn't know what they were miming out in the first place!
Later, we had a lovely dinner of hot-dogs (classic camp out food) and gathered around the campfire. Jenna got the privilege of teaching us all bout S'mores and how to make them. We had a delightful feast! Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse, and although we managed to be dry through the campfire, we got relatively wet getting to our tents (rather far from the site, especially in pitch-black). The weather continued for the entire night, and I don't think a single one of us managed to sleep through the wind and rain!
But other than the sleeping-in-a-tent-lack-of-decent-bathroom thing, it was a fairly decent trip. We went to Wolfe Island after canoeing for a morning (unfortunately, that was a rather disappointment. The second group in particularly only managed to canoe for half an hour, and we only did "water ballet") Walking to the ferry was torturous. The canoe site was all the way across town from the ferry, and imagine this: you're tired, you're likely wet, and you're a KM from your final destination. Not very nice.
But things brightened up (not literally) when we got to Wolfe Island. Although the weather progressed from bright and sunny into a state of hateful rain, we had a lot of fun. Not only did we get to see many interesting nature displays in a fascinating science teacher's classroom, but we participated in many group exercises. Probably one of the most hilarious exercises we did was a group charade; only the first person knew the answer, and it had to get down a line of six or seven people a via a "telephone" game. It was hilarious to see people try to mime out "pink" or "Elvis Presley" or "synchronized swimming", especially when they didn't know what they were miming out in the first place!
Later, we had a lovely dinner of hot-dogs (classic camp out food) and gathered around the campfire. Jenna got the privilege of teaching us all bout S'mores and how to make them. We had a delightful feast! Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse, and although we managed to be dry through the campfire, we got relatively wet getting to our tents (rather far from the site, especially in pitch-black). The weather continued for the entire night, and I don't think a single one of us managed to sleep through the wind and rain!
Friday, July 4, 2008
Biotile
Before packing up for Shad, each and every single one of us received a package of notes from Shad Queens. On the back of this package, in a clearly identified black outlined box, a pre-program challenge is given - Biotile.
Basically, according to the instruction, a biotile is to serve the function of describing an individual Shad within an 20 x 20 cm square tile. This assignment was successfully completed by almost all Shads as expected before arriving to the camp, except ... (cough cough)
On the second day of the arrival, we were instructed to bring our biotiles down to the Chernoff Hall (normal lecture hall). It is time to present each piece of our masterful creation.
Looking around, pieces of tiles were laid neatly along the side of the lecture hall. Being a lazy viewer from the seats, looking down, quite frankly, they all look no different than one another, but then of course, with exceptions. We see a sun there, a soccer ball, and oh, wow, a flower.
Before we took our eyes off of the awesome tiles, the staff spoke and recommended that we were to take a random tile, and introduce ANOTHER shad instead of ourselves. Now this idea, is epic. We started to hear: "So...umm...there's a picture of bleg(censored) with his friend, so...yea, wow, he has friends, that's nice...", or things like "This tile seems to be of a background color of green, so I guess bleg(censored) likes the color green." but only to receive a momentary silence and a squeaky reply of "Nal".
Conclusion - we found out that some people have friends, some people maybe lying about not liking the color green, or, maybe, the biotiles kinda helped us to break the ice and got us to know more about each us and offered a great conversation piece.
Basically, according to the instruction, a biotile is to serve the function of describing an individual Shad within an 20 x 20 cm square tile. This assignment was successfully completed by almost all Shads as expected before arriving to the camp, except ... (cough cough)
On the second day of the arrival, we were instructed to bring our biotiles down to the Chernoff Hall (normal lecture hall). It is time to present each piece of our masterful creation.
Looking around, pieces of tiles were laid neatly along the side of the lecture hall. Being a lazy viewer from the seats, looking down, quite frankly, they all look no different than one another, but then of course, with exceptions. We see a sun there, a soccer ball, and oh, wow, a flower.
Before we took our eyes off of the awesome tiles, the staff spoke and recommended that we were to take a random tile, and introduce ANOTHER shad instead of ourselves. Now this idea, is epic. We started to hear: "So...umm...there's a picture of bleg(censored) with his friend, so...yea, wow, he has friends, that's nice...", or things like "This tile seems to be of a background color of green, so I guess bleg(censored) likes the color green." but only to receive a momentary silence and a squeaky reply of "Nal".
Conclusion - we found out that some people have friends, some people maybe lying about not liking the color green, or, maybe, the biotiles kinda helped us to break the ice and got us to know more about each us and offered a great conversation piece.
Haakim meticulously studying the biotile in a very shadly manner.
Micheal: That's your twin bro right?
Justin: Err...that's kinda my buddy there...
Justin: Err...that's kinda my buddy there...
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Boomerangs
The Shads in their house groups were given a particularly vexing task: building a boomerang and marketing it. I’ll bet anything that all of us were thinking about the maxim, “a boomerang that doesn’t come back is just a stick”. Not only does it have to look and sound good, but it has to work: one of the criteria is that it has to be thrown outside a 10m radius – and come back.
House One seems to be particularly kamikaze; not only did they build a seven-foot structure (at least attempted to, it failed miserably), in the newspaper shelter contest, but they are using a boomerang design that is designed to snap in half at the smallest impacts. Fortunately, they’re building a few prototypes… So, I suppose they have several chances?
As for House Five, they seem to making good progress; they’ve finished the outline, done their basic ideas… But to the outsider, their boomerang might seem a bit eccentric. According to Georgina Neatby, there is fierce debate on whether their boomerang should feature Spongebob or something remarkably reminiscent of Batman.
In House Four, Nissen Huang states that their slogan is “You rang and we provide the boom.” What that means, we’re not quite sure, but that sure is catchy.
House Three was devastated by the loss of two valuable boomerangs; the first ended up in a tree… And the second also ended up in a tree, thanks to a somewhat bone-headed attempt to dislodge the first one with the second.
In all, we had fun, it was a great activity. Looking forward to the next group project!
Ninjas and Newspapers
At first I thought it was someone’s cell phone. It started off softly, and then grew louder. Whatever it was, it was certainly approaching quickly after interrupting the tentative conversation that had finally begun to emerge in our House groups.
I turned my head reluctantly, and just as the Kill Bill theme song became recognizable, a team of ninjas approached the group with vigour. It was rather unexpected. I recovered from my initial surprise to marvel at the impressive dance moves each ninja displayed and to speculate on who was who. Since it was the first day, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who failed to recognize the staff under their tricky disguises. Each black scarf was expertly wrapped so only their eyes were visible and their sleek black costumes were complete with ninja-type weapons (ie. broomsticks). Granted, I did spot what appeared to be a battle-axe. A few minutes later when the song finished, the well-choreographed routine seemed to degenerate and the strange group disappeared as quickly as it came.
Still slightly dazed, I turned my head from side to side – only to see four other groups of Shads already handing out papers from the unmarked boxes that had been set nearby. House 4, who would soon emerge as the strongest and wittiest of the houses, exchanged a quick look and then rushed to follow suit with the rest of the groups. We knew we had better get cracking. After all... this was our first test.
The instructions were to build a shelter. We had two materials: quite a lot of newspaper and one role of masking tape. No sweat, right? 45 minutes, two closed sides (one being a roof), and enough space for ten people. Well, let me tell you, it was not an easy task. Personally, I felt that the hardest part, besides agreeing on a design, was trying to learn everyone’s names well enough to call out and work as a team. That being said, everyone in the room was, I’m sure, able to see the potential that we all had when we worked together.
The results were masterpieces. As the final minute ran out, cheers and high-fives could be heard in the lobby of the ILC (Integrated Learning Centre). Each structure was vastly different from each other but, for the most part, they were stable enough to pass the 7 second test (both with and without occupants).
It was a great start to the month and everyone was really pleased with the end results. Blog updates should be coming fairly frequently now that it’s up and running.
I turned my head reluctantly, and just as the Kill Bill theme song became recognizable, a team of ninjas approached the group with vigour. It was rather unexpected. I recovered from my initial surprise to marvel at the impressive dance moves each ninja displayed and to speculate on who was who. Since it was the first day, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who failed to recognize the staff under their tricky disguises. Each black scarf was expertly wrapped so only their eyes were visible and their sleek black costumes were complete with ninja-type weapons (ie. broomsticks). Granted, I did spot what appeared to be a battle-axe. A few minutes later when the song finished, the well-choreographed routine seemed to degenerate and the strange group disappeared as quickly as it came.
Still slightly dazed, I turned my head from side to side – only to see four other groups of Shads already handing out papers from the unmarked boxes that had been set nearby. House 4, who would soon emerge as the strongest and wittiest of the houses, exchanged a quick look and then rushed to follow suit with the rest of the groups. We knew we had better get cracking. After all... this was our first test.
The instructions were to build a shelter. We had two materials: quite a lot of newspaper and one role of masking tape. No sweat, right? 45 minutes, two closed sides (one being a roof), and enough space for ten people. Well, let me tell you, it was not an easy task. Personally, I felt that the hardest part, besides agreeing on a design, was trying to learn everyone’s names well enough to call out and work as a team. That being said, everyone in the room was, I’m sure, able to see the potential that we all had when we worked together.
The results were masterpieces. As the final minute ran out, cheers and high-fives could be heard in the lobby of the ILC (Integrated Learning Centre). Each structure was vastly different from each other but, for the most part, they were stable enough to pass the 7 second test (both with and without occupants).
It was a great start to the month and everyone was really pleased with the end results. Blog updates should be coming fairly frequently now that it’s up and running.
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