Sunday May 15, 2005 - Bike'n and Hike'n
So LAST weekend was a bit crazy (May 14-15). We did sooooo many things and by the end of the weekend, I was completely pooped...
On Saturday I got up early to judge a english speaking competition put on by the Tottori University English Speaking Society. Myself, Matt and Rebekah were the three judges. It was very interesting as I have never done anything like this before. There were four speakers: two Japanese boys from Tottori University and two Japanese girls from Shimane (she-ma-neh) University. Unlike last year where they had to memorize and exerp from Heidi, they were allowed to write about whatever topic that tickled their fancy. There was a clear distinction between the two Universities. The two Tottori boys wrote about a "research" topic and the two Shimane girls wrote about their personal experiences. During their deliveries one of the boys sounded as if he was going to pass out. The official rules didn't allow them to have queue cards so it was that much more nerve wrecking for them. The girls on the other hand had more natural and smoother deliveries considering they were speaking about their own experiences.
After the judging I went with Matt and Rebekah to Professor Kip Cates' house (originally from UBC but has been here for 20 years and has a Japanese wife) for the Hunger Banquet organization committee. The meeting lasted FOUR LOOONNG HOURS. Nevertheless, stuff like this excites me quite a lot. Especially educating people about "reality" that goes on in the rest of the world. Having the top-of-the-line cell phone is not reality. That's called living in a bubble. Anyhoo the committee was split up into four subteams: charity, promotion, education, and banquet. I joined the banquet team as I kind of remember how U of Waterloo did it when they had the Engineers Without Borders National Conference at UW two years ago. But we had the OXFAM America manual to guide us. So it was good. Anyways.... I'm just glad to be involved with somethign now to consume my time here in exciting Tottori (trying not to be sarcastic... lol).
Tottori University Hunger Banquet flyer... YAY EWB related stuff!!
After the banquet committe meeting, Ana and I met up and we went downtown to a Jazz club.. thats right we finally found a Jazz club!!!!! One of the students in one of our labs named "Masato" (he was the one who was drinking the pitcher of beer in the video that I had linked from one of my earlier posts) was working at this club/restaurant named "AfterHours". The music was absolutely amazing. And since we had connection we got a freeeeeee dinner!!!!!! The food was delicious...
On Sunday Ana and I decided to go to Uradome Coastlines National Park (pronounced ooo-la-doo-meh) in a town called Iwami just 20 minutes by train east of Tottori City. It was absolutely gorgeous. When we arrived we ended up renting bikes went quite a ways down the coastline. Iwami turned out to be this big fisherman town very quiet and very "undisturbed by foreigners" hahahaha. It was absolutely gorgeous and the view from the big hill and cliffs along the coastline were abosolutely breath taking.
Me along the edge of the Uradome Coastlines National Park in the little fisherman town of Iwami
On Saturday I got up early to judge a english speaking competition put on by the Tottori University English Speaking Society. Myself, Matt and Rebekah were the three judges. It was very interesting as I have never done anything like this before. There were four speakers: two Japanese boys from Tottori University and two Japanese girls from Shimane (she-ma-neh) University. Unlike last year where they had to memorize and exerp from Heidi, they were allowed to write about whatever topic that tickled their fancy. There was a clear distinction between the two Universities. The two Tottori boys wrote about a "research" topic and the two Shimane girls wrote about their personal experiences. During their deliveries one of the boys sounded as if he was going to pass out. The official rules didn't allow them to have queue cards so it was that much more nerve wrecking for them. The girls on the other hand had more natural and smoother deliveries considering they were speaking about their own experiences.
Contestants (the 4 in the middle) and Judges posing after the Tottori U English Speaking Competiion. Matt and Rebekah are on the right.
After the judging I went with Matt and Rebekah to Professor Kip Cates' house (originally from UBC but has been here for 20 years and has a Japanese wife) for the Hunger Banquet organization committee. The meeting lasted FOUR LOOONNG HOURS. Nevertheless, stuff like this excites me quite a lot. Especially educating people about "reality" that goes on in the rest of the world. Having the top-of-the-line cell phone is not reality. That's called living in a bubble. Anyhoo the committee was split up into four subteams: charity, promotion, education, and banquet. I joined the banquet team as I kind of remember how U of Waterloo did it when they had the Engineers Without Borders National Conference at UW two years ago. But we had the OXFAM America manual to guide us. So it was good. Anyways.... I'm just glad to be involved with somethign now to consume my time here in exciting Tottori (trying not to be sarcastic... lol).
Tottori University Hunger Banquet flyer... YAY EWB related stuff!!
After the banquet committe meeting, Ana and I met up and we went downtown to a Jazz club.. thats right we finally found a Jazz club!!!!! One of the students in one of our labs named "Masato" (he was the one who was drinking the pitcher of beer in the video that I had linked from one of my earlier posts) was working at this club/restaurant named "AfterHours". The music was absolutely amazing. And since we had connection we got a freeeeeee dinner!!!!!! The food was delicious...
On Sunday Ana and I decided to go to Uradome Coastlines National Park (pronounced ooo-la-doo-meh) in a town called Iwami just 20 minutes by train east of Tottori City. It was absolutely gorgeous. When we arrived we ended up renting bikes went quite a ways down the coastline. Iwami turned out to be this big fisherman town very quiet and very "undisturbed by foreigners" hahahaha. It was absolutely gorgeous and the view from the big hill and cliffs along the coastline were abosolutely breath taking.
Me along the edge of the Uradome Coastlines National Park in the little fisherman town of Iwami
posted by Arthur Kong at 2:20 PM
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