I taught my last class today. I have lots of marking to do over the next 2 weeks. I also am attending a 'Teaching Computer Science' conference in Phukett Thailand. I fly out this Sunday and return on late Tuesday night. Taylors pays the whole shot. Every teacher gets one conference a year, all expenses paid! Just like the school boards back in Canada :-)
Shelley and I have still not decided if we are staying on past June. I have an interesting job offer coming up, not much different than my past job as Coordinator of Learning Technologies.
TTYL,
Jim
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
After Today - 5 More Classes
The CPT's have come and gone, except for marking of the code and debriefing the programing teams. All in all, they were pretty good, with some of course exceptional.
I now have 4 days of power point presentations of current computer science topics. These presentations are very quick, no longer than 5 minutes and include a research paper of 3-5 pages of their information.
I then have 2 days of review on Monday and Tuesday and then exams start on next Wednesday. My exam is on the last day, a week later on the Friday. I have one day to mark and the results must be in on the Saturday. Shelley also has her exam on the last day, lucky us.
Our flights are booked are we are looking forward to being home for Christams in the Great White North. I sure hope our kids meet us at the airport with winter jackets :-)
TTYL,
Jim
I now have 4 days of power point presentations of current computer science topics. These presentations are very quick, no longer than 5 minutes and include a research paper of 3-5 pages of their information.
I then have 2 days of review on Monday and Tuesday and then exams start on next Wednesday. My exam is on the last day, a week later on the Friday. I have one day to mark and the results must be in on the Saturday. Shelley also has her exam on the last day, lucky us.
Our flights are booked are we are looking forward to being home for Christams in the Great White North. I sure hope our kids meet us at the airport with winter jackets :-)
TTYL,
Jim
Monday, November 15, 2010
10 Days to Go
There are now only 10 days of classes left. My first 3 groups of students presented their Game CPT's today and they were all good but one was awesome, the best yet, in 4 semesters of projects. This particular group also did not ask for any help in creating their game. They also appear to be the 3 smartest students in my class, judging by their marks to date. If the other projects turn out this well I will be very happy.
Shelley and I went into KL yesterday and had the Traders buffet which was excellent and very inexpensive at 100 ringgits for the 2 of us. We then walked over to the Petronas Towers' mall and visited our favourite bookstore where we both bought some fiction books. We then had a coffee and tea at Coffee Bean and headed home to read for the night. I went for a quick workout before turning in for the night.
Graduation is just around the corner and then we will, as the song goes, 'Be Home for Christmas'.
TTYL,
Jim
Shelley and I went into KL yesterday and had the Traders buffet which was excellent and very inexpensive at 100 ringgits for the 2 of us. We then walked over to the Petronas Towers' mall and visited our favourite bookstore where we both bought some fiction books. We then had a coffee and tea at Coffee Bean and headed home to read for the night. I went for a quick workout before turning in for the night.
Graduation is just around the corner and then we will, as the song goes, 'Be Home for Christmas'.
TTYL,
Jim
Saturday, November 13, 2010
New Coffee House
There is a new coffee house we expats frequent quite often. A recent graduate of Taylors' hospitality and tourism program has opened it. It features an art deco decor right from South Miami Beach. He plays jazz music and Frank Sinatra tunes mostly. He must have visited or studied restaurants or hotels in Miami because it is a great reproduction. He also makes the most amazing cappucinos (hope I spelled that right), much better than we had during our European Odyssey of 37 days.
I spent all afternoon in the lab helping my students and other students complete their games CPT. They are always so thankful of any help you give them. Canadian students could learn a lot from these kids. I did a quick survey to determine if these kids were genxers or genyers. By their age they should be genY but they have the value system of genX instead. They use technology and multi-task like genY but laughed so hard when I told them everyone on the haockey team got a trophy for particpating. They thought only the best player on the winning team should get a trophy. They certainly are not part of the me generation.
TTYL,
Jim
I spent all afternoon in the lab helping my students and other students complete their games CPT. They are always so thankful of any help you give them. Canadian students could learn a lot from these kids. I did a quick survey to determine if these kids were genxers or genyers. By their age they should be genY but they have the value system of genX instead. They use technology and multi-task like genY but laughed so hard when I told them everyone on the haockey team got a trophy for particpating. They thought only the best player on the winning team should get a trophy. They certainly are not part of the me generation.
TTYL,
Jim
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
12 Days of Classes Remaining
This semester is just blowing by. My game CPT's are due this Friday and presentations start next week. The final week the students present their research papers on current Computer Science topics. They do this via power point.
The game projects are coming along nicely but I anticipate quite a few bugs in their final effort. Some students are taking advantage of teh extra lab time, but many are not. It are the students that should be taking advantage of the lab time who are not coming, but that is usually the case.
Shelley and I are booked for home, leaving on Dec. 17th and arriving in Ottawa on the 18th. We fly back to Malaysia on the 5th of January which gives us 3 full weeks at home. We look forward to visiting everyone over the Christmas break.
TTYL,
Jim
The game projects are coming along nicely but I anticipate quite a few bugs in their final effort. Some students are taking advantage of teh extra lab time, but many are not. It are the students that should be taking advantage of the lab time who are not coming, but that is usually the case.
Shelley and I are booked for home, leaving on Dec. 17th and arriving in Ottawa on the 18th. We fly back to Malaysia on the 5th of January which gives us 3 full weeks at home. We look forward to visiting everyone over the Christmas break.
TTYL,
Jim
Monday, November 8, 2010
Back From Vietnam
Shelley and I flew via Air Asia on Wednesday to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Wednesday night. We stayed over at the Windsor Plaza Hotel (highly recommended) that night and we were up early the next morning and flew JetStar (not highly recommended) to Hoi An. It was raining buckets when we arrived in Hoi An and continued to do so 24/7 for the next 3 days.
The weather really did not matter as Shelley was there to shop. It was monsoon season and there was flooding but nothing we could not handle in our crocs. Shelley wimped out and purchased a plastic rain coat but I made do with my folding umbrella. The benefit of being there in the rainy season was the turn around time for custom tailored clothes and shoes was very short (24 hours).
I lost track of what Shelley purchased but I hade 3 pairs of leather shoes custom made for me for $200 U.S. and I also purchased 2 leather belts for $25 each.
It turns out Vietnam has a huge women garments industry. I would estimate that there are about 750 designer womens' cothing stores in a town of 100,000 people. To get to Hoi An you fly to Danang (about 1 million people). Saigon has 11 million people. From Danang to Hoi An it is about a 45 minute cab ride.
We stayed in a beautiful boutique hotel recommended by jaime for about $25 U.S. a night. A suite could be had for $50 a night if so desired. There is quite an expat community springing up in the area and restaurants are plentiful.
We were to fly back via Jetstar on Saturday night to Ho Chi Minh but when we arrived at the airport they had cancelled our flight and had notified us by email. Of course, being on vacation, we Shelley was not checking her email. They did refund us our money and we rebooked with Vietnam airlines for an extra $70 U.S. per person. When we arrived back in Ho Chi Minh city we booked into the Windsor Plaza where they upgraded us to the exexcutive floor at no charge as we were return customers :-) The next morning Shelley went shopping and I relaxed with a book. We flew back via Air Asia at 5:30 pm and arrived back in Kuala Lumpur at 7 pm.
We will return to Vietnam as it is a lovely country. I have decided that the poorer the country, the happier the population is and Vietnam is both. Hoi An needs about a full week and a couple of thousand dollars to appreciate the shopping. If you are a guy in search of suits, you would be better off in Bangkok and I have a tailor to recommend.
TTYL,
Jim
The weather really did not matter as Shelley was there to shop. It was monsoon season and there was flooding but nothing we could not handle in our crocs. Shelley wimped out and purchased a plastic rain coat but I made do with my folding umbrella. The benefit of being there in the rainy season was the turn around time for custom tailored clothes and shoes was very short (24 hours).
I lost track of what Shelley purchased but I hade 3 pairs of leather shoes custom made for me for $200 U.S. and I also purchased 2 leather belts for $25 each.
It turns out Vietnam has a huge women garments industry. I would estimate that there are about 750 designer womens' cothing stores in a town of 100,000 people. To get to Hoi An you fly to Danang (about 1 million people). Saigon has 11 million people. From Danang to Hoi An it is about a 45 minute cab ride.
We stayed in a beautiful boutique hotel recommended by jaime for about $25 U.S. a night. A suite could be had for $50 a night if so desired. There is quite an expat community springing up in the area and restaurants are plentiful.
We were to fly back via Jetstar on Saturday night to Ho Chi Minh but when we arrived at the airport they had cancelled our flight and had notified us by email. Of course, being on vacation, we Shelley was not checking her email. They did refund us our money and we rebooked with Vietnam airlines for an extra $70 U.S. per person. When we arrived back in Ho Chi Minh city we booked into the Windsor Plaza where they upgraded us to the exexcutive floor at no charge as we were return customers :-) The next morning Shelley went shopping and I relaxed with a book. We flew back via Air Asia at 5:30 pm and arrived back in Kuala Lumpur at 7 pm.
We will return to Vietnam as it is a lovely country. I have decided that the poorer the country, the happier the population is and Vietnam is both. Hoi An needs about a full week and a couple of thousand dollars to appreciate the shopping. If you are a guy in search of suits, you would be better off in Bangkok and I have a tailor to recommend.
TTYL,
Jim
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)