8th to 21st June

8^th to 21^st June

As the academic year is coming to a close, so are the exciting bits and pieces that I like to comment on.  This past week will be more of a pectoral presentation as opposed to a lot of reading material. 

With that said, a few things this past week that were interesting.

This last week seemed popular with the various departments holding their final end of year dinners and/or parties.  With graduation being next Thursday (25^th), the students are trying to tie all the loose ends of getting everyone together for their final good-byes.

The Humber students will be leaving Taiwan in the next couple of weeks also with the exception of two, who will stay on in Taiwan to do their internship.  One baking student will work at the Novotel located in Taoyuan at the airport and the other student (culinary) will be working at the newly opened Marriot Hotel in Taipei.

This weekend (19^th - 20^th) is Dragon Boat Festival with the Friday being a holiday.

Went to the Love River both Friday and Saturday evenings to watch the races but there was really nothing too exciting to view (for me).  I watched a couple races and since I didn’t know anyone or any company competing, it really didn’t make a lot of sense standing there watching these boats (that all look the same), race down the river (they all looked similar) for maybe a 1/3 km.

The photos I took are minimum but will highlight what was going on during the festival.  As I was walking down the main street that runs alongside the river (it was closed to traffic), there were not a lot of people.  This could also be a sign that this event is not very popular.

Today (Sunday 21^st) Jocelyn, Nicholas and I went to a new eatery for brunch.  It was a Japanese café and they do not take reservations.  We rode the scooters (took about 20 minutes) and arrived shortly after 9am and already we were on a waiting list to get in.  Nicholas said that most probably people begin lining up around 8:30.  Even at this early in the day, the temperature was very hot (almost 30) so it was a nice relief to finally get inside.

The food was ok but nothing special.  The ambience was very simple but had a modernist touch to the design.

Well, as I mentioned there is not a lot to write about for this past week.  Next week I think will have a substantial amount as it is the last week of school.  Wow, I can remember clearly when I arrived here to begin and now it’s the last week.

Lets see, for this upcoming week there will be dinners, arrival of my Dean and our past Dean of Humber College (for convocation, which is on Thursday), an auction (10pm Friday night, oh that should be interesting especially when I’m in bed by 10pm), meetings throughout the week with my Dean and NKUHT officials and then Saturday I’m going with Nicholas and his family to Tainan for an open house dinner of his two cousins.  His Uncle’s two sons both purchased homes so now it’s an open house for them.  I think it will be an outside/on-the-street catered event.  One thing for sure is that there will be so much food!

Oh…and happy Solstice Day…. everyday now getting a little bit shorter towards winter.