The day started as a continuation of the partying and dancing from Coffee Haus the previous night, which ended unwillingly as other Totem Park residents complained of our boisterous festivity. We had a tired but cheery breakfast and met eagerly at Frank Forward at 8:55am precisely. There, we were presented with our first speaker of the day, Alex Marziali, a professor of engineering physics at UBC. He presented an innovative method of separating DNA molecules from difficult samples. From this seedling blossomed a successful business, called Boreal Genomics, which we had the pleasure of touring.
From the company, I headed out with a few fellow Shads to the UBC student union building to buy the world’s best cookie from Blue Chip Cookies! We hurried back to Totem for lunch and back to Frank Forward to catch our afternoon lecture. Little did we know we were in for a treat. Our guest speaker was a working astronaut!
After the lecture, all 52 UBC shads were asked to change into rec colours (blue in my case) and to take part in an exciting QUIDDITCH tournament!!! Like wizard Quidditch, muggle Quidditch also involves 7 players consisting of a keeper, 2 beaters, 4 chasers but no seeker. An exciting match ensued, in which black team (Slytherin) took the lead. Tired and discouraged, the rest of the Shads set out to dinner at Totem Park Cafeteria. The rest of the evening was spent efficiently with research and discussion in our individual house groups, as we aspired to finish the daunting business plan ahead of us.
Through the merriments shared with all the Shads, I’ve learned to solve a 4 by 4 rubrix cube, to speak a few phrases of Korean, and to use a professional SLR camera. Although the days we have are numbered, what we gained are timeless friendships and the capacity to drive, stretch, and dream…
Jane Chen, Shad University of British Columbia 2011
Hometown: Thornhill, ON
