Monday
This week
has been nothing short of excitement and new experiences.
As this is
the last week of school and of course exam week, everyone is busy finalizing
his or her end of semester and/or preparing for convocation.
It begins
on Monday when Paul’s department (ICCA) first year students prepared and served
their final practical component of one of their courses.
The dinner
was held on the seventh floor (Bravo Room) where invited guests, faculty and
parents enjoyed the meal.
Half of the
students worked on the service end of the evening and the other half worked in
the kitchen preparing the dishes.
The meal
was quite good and at the end, myself along with other faculty were asked to
grade the event from a questionnaire that was provided by the instructors of
this particular course event.
Like most
school dinners, it was a late evening to conclude the event (shortly after
21:00h) and then I rode my scooter back home.
Tuesday would be another busy day.
Tuesday
On Tuesday
the Dean of HRT (Humber) and past Dean, Susan and Alister, will arrive in the
early evening for a few days that would involve meetings and of course
attending convocation.
Their
flight arrival was to be at 18:35 but later in the afternoon, we found out the
flight would be delayed for two hours.
This information placed a shift on our plans but there is nothing that
can be done except go with the flow.
Today was
also final exam for the course that Paul and I co-teach. On a footnote, Paul was asking the students
upon handing in their exam how they thought of the difficulty level and
unanimous response was ‘very difficult’.
This already worried me but it shouldn’t have. The questions were 100% based upon the information
given to the students throughout the latter half of the semester but I still
was apprehensive in viewing what the results would show.
I decided
to go home for dinner then take the MRT back to the airport where I would meet
up with Jasmine in greeting Alister and Susan.
The President of the school along with the Dean of International was
also their to greet Alister and Susan.
Once I
arrived at the airport and looked up at the flight information screen, I
noticed the flight was again delayed by half an hour. This is a simple flight from Hong Kong to
Kaohsiung and their flight was the only one delayed. All other arriving flights from Hong Kong
were on time.
They both
finally walked through the sliding glass doors around 21:00h.
The
President along with the Dean of International drove Alister and Susan to the
school’s Hotel residence while I assisted Jasmine in organizing their luggage
into another car and she would accompany that to the residence. It was late for me so I went home. Wednesday is yet another big day.
Today was
also the final vote and tabulation of the Presidential Election to see who the
new incoming incumbent would be.
Wednesday
Today is my
last class of the semester and it is with the 2nd year baking and
pastry students and their final practical exam.
I met up
with Susan while the students were working on their exam, to discuss some items
prior to upcoming meetings and to discuss my schedule for returning to Humber
in the winter.
Tonight
would be a dinner for President Yung hosted by Alister and would encompass the
retirement of President Yung and to welcome in the newly elected
President. To everyone’s disbelief, the
Presidential results from Tuesday were indecisive, which means there is not a
new incoming President and the process (it’s a lengthy/complicated one) would resume
in the fall. In the meantime, President
Yung will stay in his position until January 2016 while the VP of Academic will
co-assume the roles of President.
Because of
these results, most or all faculty were in bad moods because everyone wants a
result and this is now the second time the process has not produced one.
With this
all behind, the dinner was amazing. (you can see from the photos)
HsaioI and
I were looking after the menu/wine and small details for the dinner. It was held at a newly opened restaurant
(name is only in Mandarin) not too far from my apartment.
HsaioI and
I were there prior to the arrival of guests arranging the name cards on the
table and having the wine put on ice ready for service.
The dinner
had a small surprise to it and that was we invited the President’s wife to the
dinner, without his knowledge. He also
did not know how many people would be attending the dinner as he thought only
the two people from Humber and a few others.
There were around twenty of us and then after everyone had arrived, the
President’s wife entered so yes, he was surprised.
The dinner
had nine courses (normal) and by time we finished, it was again late (after
21:00h).
Alister
then presented the President with a personal gift that was a framed and signed
print from Alisters book that he recently had published. Alister now has three published books that
are for children but focus and depict traveling in Canada.
After the
event, Paul gave me a ride home.
Tomorrow is the big day – Convocation.
Thursday
Convocation
Day where all the graduates are recognized for their achievement and get to
celebrate.
There’s not
much I can write about the ceremony except to have you view the photos and that
will give you a good sense as to what takes place during the event.
I was told
there were more than one thousand graduates today and when I looked around in
the gym, I would not disagree.
It was so
hot inside even though the AC was apparently on.
During the
ceremonies, Alister gave a short speech and then presented the President with a
gift from Humber College in recognition of the partnership between the two
schools.
The
celebration last about two hours then there was a small dinner party hosted by
President Yung for invited guests. The
invitees included the President’s closest working associates (VP’s and Directors)
along with Susan, Alister and me.
The dinner
was hosted on the seventh floor of the ‘D’ building, which includes all the
culinary labs. The dinner was prepared
by one of the many talented Chefs and the students from the F&B department
and Western Culinary.
More
eating, more drinking and more laughter comprised the evening.
Another
somewhat late evening (at least for me) then everyone departed and went their
own way.
Alister and
Susan will depart Kaohsiung early tomorrow morning so I will meet up with them
at the airport prior to their departure.
The President told us he and his wife would depart for China early the
following morning.
I think it
is safe to say that I will be glad when this week comes to an end. I’m getting tired of eating…hahaha
Friday
Alister and
Susan’s flight is at 07:00h so it’s an early start to the day.
I was at
the airport by 05:15 and greeted the two of them upon their taxi arrival
(around 05:30).
They both
told me what a great time they had these past few days and yes I would agree,
it has been filled with excitement, food and good conversations.
We said our
good-byes and I will meet up with them again in the next few weeks when I
return to Toronto.
Since the
MRT doesn’t commence until 06:00h, I had time to go down to the ground floor
and get my latte and relax a short time.
The business week is coming to a close.
Tonight
will be exciting (at least I think it will be) as Nicholas and his parents are
taking me to a night auction.
This
doesn’t begin until 10pm so that means afternoon naptime for me.
It’s now
almost 17:00h as I’m writing this and I’m getting curious what this auction is
going to be like. Time will tell.
Left the
apartment around 10pm to go pick up Nicholas.
We were first to meet his parents and his aunt at the shaved ice place
but they were still at the temple so Nicholas and I picked up the shaved ice
and took it to the auction place for them at which time we met up.
For some
reason I had an impression already in my mind as to what this auction place
would look like and it looked nothing like what I had envisioned…hahaha
This was
like a small open room on the side of the street around 6 or 7 metre X 15
metre. Inside were boxed and unboxed
items laying everywhere and in the centre of the room was this HUGE wooden
topped lazy susan. There was one man
doing the auction along with a couple people assisting and then different
people who had items to sell would place their items on the table and people
would simply move it in order to see close the items.
I was
expecting something different but the cool part was that it was different and I
had never seen anything quite like this before.
We stayed maybe one hour then left.
Actually, fifteen minutes probably would have been long enough for me as
I didn’t understand anything and for almost half hour the only items being sold
from one seller were pieces of jadeite jewelry.
Got quite boring after ten minutes of the same thing.
All the
items being sold were of new origin and there were some interesting items but
nothing that I would buy.
The
strangest thing was seeing how this type of auction only begins around 10pm and
goes until around 1am. Most of the
attendees were older men and a few women present. Perhaps altogether there would have been 40
people.
I’m not use
to staying up quite that late as I’m usually in bed by 10 or 10:30 so it was
somewhat of an experience for me as well..hahah
Tomorrow
I’m going with Nicholas and his parents and aunt to Tainan to attend their two
cousin’s house warming dinner.
Saturday
In the
morning Nicholas and I went to the school so I could pick up my tools and a few
books that I’ll send back to Canada.
These are items I know I won’t need for the next semester so I might as
well take care of them now.
Later in
the day I packed everything ready to be mailed so I’ll take care of sending
those in the next coming days.
The evening
was the highlight of today and this was the house warming we went to in Tainan.
Nicholas’s
two cousins (brothers) both respectively built their new homes and they are
attached to one another. (see photo)
They are beautiful homes and the interesting part is that they are quite
large but only 1 family living inside each.
Both homes are similar but the main difference would be the first floor
plan, which consists of living/dining area, kitchen, bathroom and what seems to
be a kid’s playroom.
Their
father is very well off financially and he gave both his sons two quite
luxurious cars for their wedding and most probably he either paid or supported
the costs of these homes.
There were
around 50 invited guests and as you can see by the photos, the set-up was on
the ground level of both homes. This was
a catered event and again by viewing the photos you will see that the food is
prepared and set-up in an area nearby to where the event is located.
Coincidentally
just down the street there was another catered event happening.
Since
Nicholas’s parents are vegetarian along with a couple other relatives, I sat at
their table. Absolutely all the food served at our table was strictly
vegetarian (vegan) with no use of garlic.
The end of
the ninth course served stuffed me. Nine
courses is the magic number that most event dinners include. I’m not sure why nine is that number.
From what I
could see at other tables, I saw many dishes that included fish and/or shrimp.
The event
was to begin at 18:40 (not sure exactly what time we began) and as soon as all
the food had been served, then everyone left as quickly as they arrived. That’s just how it is. People do not normally mingle or gather
around afterwards for small talk AND the guests take all leftovers home.
Nicholas
said it is a sense of pride that the host must show his kindness/appreciation
with the amount of food that is prepared and served to the guests. If anyone went home hungry then it was their
own damn fault.
It was
around a forty-minute ride back to Kaohsiung and I was still so full but
managed to have a latte before going to bed.
The end of
a great but busy week. Tomorrow (Sunday)
is a day of rest and I know there will be nothing too exciting happening.
Sunday
Lee was off
today so we went to Cijin Island for a good part of the day and what else but
to eat all over again.
Summer
holidays officially have started. I will
go back to Canada on the 16th of July for a few weeks before
returning to Kaohsiung for one more semester of teaching.
