1st to 7th June

1^st to 7^th June

Four days this week that were significant.

1.     Official opening of the Cordon Bleu at NKUHT

2.     Graduation dinner for ICCA senior students

3.     Farewell dinner for ICCA senior students + Humber students + myself

4.     Mountain hiking

I didn’t attend the official opening on Thursday but I heard from many professors how the event went.

It commenced at 10am with opening ceremonies and talks presented by Director Paul and Director Sally and the President of Gordon Bleu.

Various business guests were invited along with the senior officials from the French Consulate in Taipei.

The two French Chefs who will be instructing at the school each did some short demos of various preparations along with tastings afterwards of pre-prepared bite size foods.

I have not heard the official opening day of when students arrive but the middle of July seems to be a common term right now.

The enrolled students are mainly from the community and from very ‘well-off’ families.  For nine months of schooling, the cost is around $40,000 U.S.

The graduation dinner for the senior students was a lot of fun.  This event is planned and organized by the students and their teachers are always a part of these events.

The dinner was held at the Ambassador Hotel and consisted of a buffet extravaganza.  When I was mentioning to Paul how impressed the set-up was, he said this is normal and must be like this.  The amount/variety of food is what boggled my mind. 

The event lasted around 3 hours at which time we departed.

The following evening was the farewell dinner for the senior students along with the Humber students and myself.

This event is planned and organized by the first and second year ICCA students and this is a tradition as well.

Right from the beginning, the freshmen students commenced with the activities and this went on all through the meal service.

Around nine dishes served (minimum) and it seemed the food just kept on coming.

A lot of fun was had with activities, photo taking and just conversing with all the students.  Director Paul and I were the only teachers who attended.  That was somewhat a sad part with only two of us attending.

This event was held at the restaurant of one of the part time Chef professors at the school.  The restaurant was called ‘Chef Teng’. 

This event took place on the second floor of the restaurant where our group occupied the entire floor.

The event began around 5:30 and we finished around 9:00.

As I’m writing this, it is 8:10 Sunday morning and I’m meeting up with Nicholas to go mountain hiking.  I’m not sure what to think of this especially with my leg situation but it will be a good challenge I’m sure.  I will take my cane along just for support if needed.

This will continue later today……..

A great Sunday morning/afternoon with Nicholas.

I picked up Nicholas at his home around 10am then we rode the scooter to Shonshan Mountain.  This is a large hill (or small mountain) along the coast but still within the Kaohsiung City area.

From the bottom (where there’s a temple) a road begins to lead up the mountain for approximately ½ kilometre before it turns into a dirt/gravel path.

Up until the time that Taiwan opened it’s borders to China, this mountain was off limits to the local people and used only by the military.  Since the opening of the borders, this area has since been accessible to everyone.

There are many roadways that lead up to the top and all throughout the mountain.  There are volunteers (seniors) who hike up to the top carrying containers of drinking water and supply the large thermal containers with this water for anyone who needs a drink.  Nicholas said that these are retired people who do this for exercise and do not require payment for this.  I was struggling getting to this point of the mountain without carrying anything except my cane and here are people older than I am carrying large canisters of water up this mountain.

The pathway is a combination of hardened rock/sand to a rocky surface and one must be careful where placing their foot.

Nicholas and I made the top in 1 hour and that’s using the cane.  We were slightly faster coming back down but not by much.

Great exercise that’s for sure.

We returned to the bottom shortly after 12 noon then headed to a latin restaurant that is near to where Nicholas works and he wanted to try it out.

A nice restaurant that offers a large menu and all typical latin foods. 

Out of the dishes we had and shared, the paella was very disappointing.  Nicholas thought it was prepared for the style that the Taiwanese people would enjoy.  I know what paella is and should look and taste like and this definitely was nothing close to what it paella is.

I will go back for sure but just will not order the paella.  I would like to try some of the other dishes that sounded good.

The owner speaks only Mandarin and Spanish so with what little Spanish I remembered, I asked her where she was from and she replied ‘ Bolivia’.  There was an elderly Taiwanese man handling the cash so my assumption that could be her partner and/or husband.

Two of the younger female servers were definitely not Taiwanese.  I didn’t ask where they came from but my guess would be some Central American Country.  They too spoke Spanish, Mandarin and a little English.

After lunch of course it was coffee time so we headed to Starbucks which overlooks Cijin Island.  I thought that one would be the least busy out of any starbucks and of course it was the closest to where we were at the moment.  My assumption was wrong and the place was packed but we found a table on the ground floor to relax with our drinks.

End of our excursion and time to relax, work on some school things for tomorrow and then prepare dinner a bit later on.

It was a good week!