Nelson’s Graduation
June 5 2005, 8:15pm
The day starts where we left off yesterday, with me not being able to sleep very well at the hotel room with my father’s incessant snoring. His saving grace is that he woke up early at 5:30 am, showered and got dress and went out for a walk. This enabled mother and I to sleep much better and I actually got enough sleep to last the day. When we all got ready, we picked up Nelson at his place, while taking time to make sure we picked up his graduation portraits. We headed off to YangTze in Ottawa’s China Town for Dim Sum. Every Dim Sum opportunity is an absolute thrill for me. Dim Sum is the Chinese’s answer to the Parisian or Italian “coffee out on the patio”. I enjoy it because it’s a meal based solely on tea and appetizers made enjoyable by its pace and relaxation. This is definitely one thing I wish I could do more in Toronto, to celebrate Sunday morning designated as family day using Dim Sum. We proceeded from there (after a bit more grocery shopping for father) to the graduation ceremony. (P.S. I saw a nice fan stand that you would have wanted, Mike. The one that actually lets the fan really spread out. But I didn’t buy it because the workmanship was terribly finished). We took a lot of pictures before and after the ceremony and below are some examples. My personal favourites are the ones where I’m alone with Nelson, (I look so short beside him) simply because it’s a picture of the boys together. My mother also looks very cute in her hat.
Keep reading to see more convocation pictures!
Every convocation cermony has a special guest, and Nelson’s graduation presented an honorary doctorate to the founder of telecommunications company JDS Uniphase, Jozef Straus. I noticed him in the lobby before we were even seated, and mentioned him to my mother. Being able to recognize him is an advantage derived from countless company research for investment evaluation. I chose to use my digital camera to film Nelson’s walk up the convocation stage, rather than taking stills. A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video tells it all, right? Overall, my view on this convocation was that it was a very small convocation, based on my experience with the convocations of my alam mater, the University of Waterloo. I didn’t find the message given by the speakers to be of much inspiration, but that may be because my views about academia has drastically changed from the times when I first participated in that pursuit. Funny note was that my mother said there was too much French being spoken in the ceremony (understandably, she’s not comfortable with something she does not know), but that comes with the territory when you pursue post-secondary education in the nation’s capital, Ottawa.
I’ve been to Ottawa many times, but I never spent much time on the Rideau Canal. The area is certainly very photogenic and we took quite a few pictures overlooking the canal. I left to return back to Toronto after the ceremony and left my brother with this message, “the ceremony is now over, you’ll have more challenges from here onwards, and have fun!” I stopped over the Thousand Islands Casino on the way back to Toronto to see if they have a poker room. To my dissappointment, they did not, but that also meant I was able to go home in a timely manner!
