22nd to 28th June

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 2^nd 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 16^th of July for a few weeks before returning to Kaohsiung for one more semester of teaching.