Thanksgiving: Last English Table, some new friends and professor conference

Today is Thanksgiving, funny thing is, we Hong Kong people don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Still, I'd like to express some gratitude to some of the best people and things that happened
to me lately.

English Table

Firstly I would like to thank the people who triggered me to write this post. Last Tuesday  was the last English Table this year and we celebrated Thanksgiving early.

Going to the English Table was always a new experience. Yes, every time when you went there there were always some old faces, which was nice, but there were still always new people to meet. Yes, the whole run down was always the same: chat, play games, eat, speeches, dessert, and feedback, but there was always a new topic, so every conversation you had there wouldn't fall back into the same routine. It's this kind of uniqueness that always kept me coming back. And of course, the free food!

Therefore, here I would like to thank all the people I'd met in the English Table, especially Katrina and Virginia, who always kept making the Table fun and enjoyable, and let me out of the lucky draw for giving a impromptu speech.

Some new friends

A couple weeks after I started my internship, I met my colleague Dominic, who was a BBC (British-born Chinese), and we became great friends within a few days, mostly because we shared similar taste in music. He also generously invited me to an D&D quest with his friends, which led to me meeting Will, Adrienne, Tom and Ray. From then, we almost spent every single weekend continuing the quest. Since I was the only local person in the gang, my presence was a bit odd. Besides, I was the youngest. But they generously accepted me and made me feel comfortable. These new friends could be the greatest thing ever happened to me this year.


Will was flying back to the states yesterday and wouldn't be back until next year. So we had a farewell dinner with him in the Festival Walk this Tuesday.

Will, Adrienne, Dom and me

Yes, we are a couple!

Professor Conference

Yesterday a professor finally came to ASM to visit me (and Angus). It wasn't my supervisor, Professor Cai, but another professor who had taught us in the Software Engineering class. At about 11 in the morning, Professor Lyu called me and said he was working up the stairs to the third floor, as the "lift system" in our building was too complicated. So I met him at the third floor and brought him inside the office to meet my colleagues and Wenling. After some greetings and a brief look-around, we took other elevator to a meeting room on the 18th floor. When we got there, surprisingly, my other bosses Kenneth and Daniel were already there waiting for us. So I began my presentation
 after some handshaking. Firstly, I told them about my situation before choosing to work here. I could be a final year student, just like how other people did, or I could go to the University of Washington for an exchange program. But most of my friends had been interns before and had lots of fun while gaining valuable experience. So here I was! And then I mentioned what I'd been working on and the working environment. For instance, the colleagues here were friendly and helpful. I blended in well. My bosses were caring and supportive and I could tell my company really appreciated engineers. Professor Lyu seemed to be happy to hear about this. Then, after some very simple feedback from everyone inside the room, I was asked to leave for a while so they could talk in private. So I stood on the corridor for like 10 minutes and could do nothing but wonder what they were talking about. It was the longest 10-minute ever! Finally, Professor Lyu let my bosses go and took me inside the room to have more evaluation. He praised me for always having the heart to explore more. He told me my bosses said I was very smart, hard working, always open up to challenges, and take people's advice (sometimes) He even said I was one of the smartest intern he's ever met. On the other hand, he agreed on me choosing ASM instead of some British international bank too and thought ASM was a really good place for engineers.

Lastly, Professor Lyu gave me three mottos for working an internship:
1. Communication skill is just as important as coding skill.
2. Don't give a hard time on yourself and the others, remember to enjoy working here and make others enjoy working with you too!
3. If you want people understand your work and appreciate it, follow the coding style and convention is essential.

He told me after 5 months, when we met again, he would ask me about these and see how far I would've been going. When I came back to the office, my colleagues asked me how it was going. I figured my arrogance was already bigger than the whole office, so I lied my ass off said I was gonna get fired. Sadly, no one shown even a tiny bit of empathy but called me a freakin' liar. Looked like either way no one would take me seriously... And when I went home and told Mom what the prof said, she laughed so hard that she almost fell off the couch. Dad was like, "You? Ha ha ha ha ... Smart? Ha ha ha ha..." Anyway, they all just made my day! Thank you very much, Wenling, Kenneth, Daniel and Professor Lyu, and my colleagues who'd been there for me all along! And Mom, Dad, live long and suck it!

Kev