Catching Up

I went to the University of Hong Kong's Centre for Applied English Studies' International Conference June 11 - 13, and talk about worlds colliding!  I saw the Phd Candidate (now a Dr. and a university professor) who sat next to me in the Graduate Assistant room at Georgia State University, I ran into my old boss from Tsinghua in the lift, I saw my colleagues from Tsinghua, and also 10 of my current colleagues attended the conference.  That's not to mention that some big names in the field attended and also there were many other familiar faces from other conferences I've attended.

After completing the post-conference report (for funding purposes), I realized that I attended 19 sessions in 3 days.  Each was a minimum of 30 minutes, so that's a minimum of about 10 hours of professional development!  No wonder I feel exhausted!  But it was also mentally stimulating and I got some great ideas to try out in my classes this semester.

Here's my old boss, Dr. Lu, and my former colleagues from Tsinghua - Andrew, Aaron, and Jessica.  After meeting at Tsinghua, Andrew and Jessica moved to Hong Kong together and got married last year!  Dr. Lu and I shared a laugh over a time when several of us from Tsinghua were travelling as a group together, our plane got cancelled due to bad weather, and Dr. Lu and I had to share a hotel room together.  She had to borrow my T-shirt because she didn't bring pajamas!  Good times!