Thunder Bay is an industrial playland. Along with being home to an enormous pulp and paper plant, a thermal electricity generating station, and a Persian* man, it also boasts the largest Popsicle stick factory in the world.
“We’re going to the Popsicle stick factory tonight. Wear close-toed shoes and long pants” were the directions given to us over breakfast.
Despite our immense excitement for the outing, Shad stops for nothing. Despite the upcoming outing—conveyor belts, production lines, little bits of cut trees and all—there was still much else to do.
There were Shad Speaks: terrifying ten-minute ordeals when the Shad speaks about a topic of his or her choice. There were lectures from our swaggalicious Program Director Sultan (Eleatics: what is real?). Free time snuck its way into our schedules during the afternoon, a precious commodity. (Today, it was spent jamming to the Born Ruffians in the lounge.) And mealtimes were punctuated with constant reminders: Popsicle stick factory tonight, meet at 5:45.
And so we gamely boarded the two buses at 5:45, decked out in close-toed shoes and long pants. One bus was dubbed the Sauna Bus for conspicuous reasons and was avoided by all. It was two weeks in; we knew each other enough by now to steal each other’s keys and snap photos of unsuspecting sleepers during rides.
We never did discover how Popsicle sticks were made. You see, the bus pulled into a SilverCity parking lot and we went to see Harry Potter instead.
*Persians are a kind of donut with frosting atop, native to Thunder Bay and delicious to consume
Shirley Miao, Shad Valley Lakehead University 2011
Hometown: Toronto, ON
