Day 12: Mass Spectrometry and Bellydancing
Unlike the other Shads who blogged earlier, I did not wake up by alarm clock.
Instead, it was the frantic yelling in the halls because a friend locked herself out of her room and was looking for her roommate who happened to be showering. I think that's happened to almost all of us at least once since the start of Shad.
And then came breakfast, along with the schedule for the day. We would have our lectures, eat lunch, and then tour the chemistry labs. And after that would be our favourite - rec time! I thought maybe we would play frisbee, have a rematch of Capture the Flag, or even be treated to another climb up the Alpine Tower. I thought wrong. It turned out that today's recreation was an option of...Afro-Latino cardio or belly dancing!
I laughed so hard when I first heard it. I laughed until I found out it wasn't a joke.
So after breakfast, we had our lectures, which were both about nuclear energy. Incidentally, the fire alarm went off in the middle, just after Dr. Dave Brock (one of the coolest chemists in the world) spoke about Americium in smoke detectors.
After lunch, we walked over to the Nuclear Research Building, where we learned about NMR, combustion analysis, mass spectrometry, and X-rays in the labs. It was incredible to see everything firsthand.
When the tour was finally over, everyone was pumped for rec. Some of us were a little sceptical about belly dancing, but hey, it was a perfect opportunity to try something new. It turned out to be the best rec yet!!! I probably got more of a workout from laughing than hip-shaking.
After dinner, we had Shad Speaks, all of them entertaining, all of them inspiring. Then we had some pod time (pods: teams for the Design Challenge) and some committee time. I'm helping to organize our Variety Show. It'll be great - everyone's so talented!
Before going up to bed, we had an hour of Podtainment. My pod was in charge of entertaining the rest of the Shads for an hour and a half. It was a blur of improv, crazy miming, and rambunctious laughter. Before we knew it, the PA's called for bedtime.
I'm looking forward to sleep right now, but only so that I can be ready for tomorrow!
Priscilla, Shad Valley McMaster University 2011
Hometown: Markham, ON
