Guelph University & The Arboretum - Part 1

When I arrived at Guelph on Sunday afternoon, I first checked into the hotel, then headed to the university to get my registration kit.  Since the weather was not too bad, I decided to take some photos and tried to find the Arboretum.

This scenery reminded me of New Orleans, such as this image.

Back from OE3C (at Western University)

I just got back from London, Ontario for the OE3C conference.  Overall, I think it's went very well, especially for my first "actual" conference - the venue/school is beautiful, just the right size in terms of attendees, and the weather is pleasant for the past three days.

We resided at the "Guest House on the Mound" for the duration of the conference.  Nothing to complain about the location.

Visiting Ottawa for the second time

During my first time in Ottawa, I was here with my (now deceased) labmate learning how to identify bees and flower flies.  Along the way to Ottawa, I could not help but feel very sad about my labmate and the things we talked about and saw during last year's trip.  Nonetheless, I think me being here in Ottawa will definitely help in terms of moving on and appreciating life even more.

Waiting for the city bus in Peterborough to catch the Greyhound bus to Ottawa.  It takes about four hours from Peterborough to Ottawa.  I think this is a maple tree, and the flowers are showing signs of blossoming now.

Okay, hopefully this will be a quick post as I need to finish off some paperwork and go to bed soon.

I think the one thing that I will decrease/cut from my "non-working" days is not visit all the blogs that I have on the right side of my blog, which is a shame because they are all fantastic places for knowledge, inspiration, and humour. Nevertheless, it can sometimes take up an hour or two reading them every morning, so I might just pick ones I find interesting.

Now onto today. Today was my first day coming to Trent University. First thought, it is more culturally diverse than I thought, not that I am complaining, but I was not expecting it to be similar to UBC in terms of the diversity of students. Second thought, it's small (again comparing it to UBC). Third thought, the people are extremely nice and helpful! I had to walked around the campus asking for assistance and help and everyone were just incredibly nice! I like nice people, so I think I will like this school. Four thought, I know this is a (student) job, but today felt like a job than being a student - running around getting equipments, meetings with supervisors and fellow grad students, etc. I think I will get used to it.

Now, some photos from Trent. Today's a cloudy day so forgive me if the pictures are gray or the sky is whitewashed.

The sports field. Apparently we are called the Trent Excalibur. Not sure how it fits, but it's pretty unique.

Attending aunt's Ph.D graduation ceremony

Today, I attended my third aunt's graduation ceremony at Tamkung University. My grandparents and my first aunt also travelled from central Taiwan to be a part of the celebration - my aunt receiving her Ph.D degree in Banking and Finance.

I travelled to Danshui by myself and met up with my aunt and grandparents at the MRT station.

One thing that really shocked me about Taiwan's university graduation ceremony (compare to Canada's) is that the whole school graduated students all on the same day! Our university had a week-long graduation ceremony, but my aunt's university graduated over 7000 students (Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D) in just 1.5 hours. Too many studens and parents led to a packed ceremony, and so televised ceremony were needed for guests not able to squeeze in to the gymasium.

Good luck with the future.
Sigh. Yes, I know. Luck will have a lot to do with it.

It was definitely an interesting experience. Afterwards, we had lunch and visited my grandfather's younger sister (i.e. my grandaunt) and her family. Thankfully, it didn't rain during the morning and afternoon, and only started when my grandparents and aunt returned home back to central Taiwan, otherwise, it would be a terrible experience.

Predicted rain all week long. I really hope it's not true.
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