A Day Of Setup And The Opening Ceremonies

We woke up to a beautiful day in Charlottetown. The sky was blue and the morning temperature was 6°C.  It only got warmer as the day progressed. Signs of spring was just around the corner. However, our sleep was interrupted several times throughout the night as other regions arrived at post-midnight hours. They were a bit noisy settling in and made it challenging to fall back asleep after waking us upon their arrivals. 

Blue skies through my bedroom window

Low morning sun glistening on UPEI campus grounds

All our finalists were given the wake-up knock at 7:00AM for breakfast at 7:30AM. We slowly sauntered up to the dining hall for a mediocre breakfast of sausages, scrabbled eggs, frozen waffles, fruit salad, and yoghurt. It was your typical cafeteria fair and to be expected. 

Shelby, Devika, and Nadine sauntering along in the morning sun

Nick, Soohyun, Sonia, Shivan, and Wyatt approaching the dining hall for breakfast

Hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, and sausages in the breakfast buffet

Still a bit early for signs of life to emerge.

Top of the morning to ya!

Nick is the King of the Castle at UPEI's daycare facility.

Following breakfast, we started to set up our projects in the exhibit hall at 9:00AM. It was pure mayhem with finalists madly negotiating the project board filled isles, all desperately searching for double-sided tape, scissors, glue, and praying their projects would pass the safety test. Nick and Shelby were the first to complete setup and pass the safety test. Having their prepared jumbo posters was quite efficient and made the process run extremely smooth.  Sonia, Wyatt and Shivan were next to finish after they had to paste on poster paper backgrounds using that coveted two-sided tape. Soohyun was clever enough to use packing tape to seal all the edges of her project to the backboards. It looked very sleek.  Devika and Nadine had a few set backs with poster boards being ill-fitted and letters on the title block being oversized. Again, Nadia came to save the day with her very precise crafting paper slicer and other fancy adhesive tools. Where does she get this stuff? After a brilliant team effort, Nadia, Devika, Nadine and I managed to assemble the project together that not only looks clever, but finally passed the safety test. 

Nadine and Devika scrambling to get those letters approved for inspection

 

Shelby and Nick making poster mounting on the panels look easy

Sonia getting all the poster-board to be seamless

Soohyun tidying up the edges with packing tape

I DON'T craft! It may look like I know what I'm doing, but really I don't at all

Nadia, the real Craft Queen

There's a lot of little 8.5 x 11's card stock on that panel. You may not see it, but it's there.

Lunch was nothing to write home about (but you’re still getting the story anyways). It was supposed to be Chinese food. Uhuh? Sonia and I both agreed that this was not the Chinese food we’re used to from our moms. Little cubes of white chicken in this reddish gluey paste (sweet & sour??), rice and frozen spring rolls.  Many of us stuck to the spinach and potato salads. The Jello was fine too. Nick was not fond of this meal at all so he planned on stopping by the Subway for a custom footlong sandwich. 

Following lunch, we had several options. Some chose to go to “Judging 101” – a workshop on effective presentations for the newbies of the CWSF.  Some went to trade pins in the exhibit hall. Still others went to the local mall to pick up that last accessory of clothing to make dress-up on judgment day just perfect.  And the final option was to go back to our rooms for an afternoon nap. 

At 5:30, we boarded the coaches and departed for the Opening Ceremonies at the Delta Prince Edward Hotel located close to the picturesque Charlottetown waterfront. At entering the grand foyer, we were greeted by the lonely bagpiper. A few of the girls managed to sneak in a photo op. In the grand banquet hall, we were formerly welcomed by various VIPs. We were also entertained by the most amazing local talent. Dinner had all the pomp and celebration of bringing together some of the youngest and brightest scientific minds across Canada.

The Delta Prince Edward Hotel at Charlottetown's waterfront district...no they didn't go as far to having fireworks for us.

There's a lot of tradition and history here on Queen Street

Even Charlottetown has a Chinese Restaurant

 

They even hung banners on their lamp standards welcoming us 

She who pays the piper calls the tune

The entire South Fraser Team before supper

The Program for the evening. The VIPs are listed here.

 

Sonia and Nick

Wyatt and Shivan

Nadine and Devika

Shelby

Nick and Soohyun

First

A group named "Ten Strings and a Goat Skin"...get it?

The Grand Banquet Hall...very elegant

Brittney and Justin sing O' Canada

Main

Les Steppeuses performing the African Gumboot Dance - clickety clack

Nick enjoying that whipped cream...that's his 3rd bowl

Nadia enjoying some fruit crumble with her whipped cream

That dessert is tasty...so much they can't even speak

Acadian Comedians Chuck and Albert

 

Les Steppeuses performing a Riverdance (with Chuck and Albert on the music)

 At the conclusion of the  ceremony, we all boarded coaches and enjoyed the 10 minute cruise through downtown Charlottetown. Upon arrival at UPEI, we all had the option to the meet and greet socials in the common hall. Everyone from South Fraser was exhausted. I'll bet many of their eyes were shut before their heads hit their pillows. 

Tomorrow is a practice run for our finalists. They have the opportunity to present their projects to local school groups touring the exhibit hall. That means it's a slightly later start with a 7:30 wake-up call and 8:00AM breakfast.