~Skammie~

As of Wednesday, May 21, I have officially become an alumni of the University of British Columbia; more specifically a graduate of the Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Sciences Program!! 😀

My convocation ceremony started at 8:30 am, and we had to be at school at 7:00 to get our gowns and everything ready. Adding on the make-up time and the travel time (usually ~1 hr), resulted in me waking up at 5:00 am! I don’t even remember when was the last time I have woken up THAT early! Daven was my personal chauffeur ^^ (Thanks for getting breakfast ready too~) and because of the lack of traffic, we got to school 20 minutes early! But other people gradually came and we made our way to the Graduate Center to get our gowns.

Lots and lots of people there, approximately 400! We got our black gowns and our sash for our degree. We had to pin the sash on our gowns though with bobby pins. I became an expert at pinning them from underneath (so they were not visible), and did it for at least 5 people. LOL~ Then we lined up according to our degrees and then alphabetically. In my convocation session, which was the very first one this year, we were celebrating the graduation of lawyers and doctors…so my degree was SO insignificant in comparison 😦 Oh well, I guess there was also midwifery which was even smaller 😛 .

We made our way to the Chan’s Center for the ceremony…with LOTS of waiting time outdoors. It was sorta chilly, but I survived. We finally made it in and sat down. Next, the faculty members and professors came in. They wore the most ridiculous gowns ever!!! HAHA. Seriously, some of them could have come straight out of the Robin Hood fairy tale! Anyway, the ceremony started with speeches from a few people, like the President. I was pretty much border-line asleep during those talks =.= Finally, they started calling the graduating class to walk across the stage. Partway through, I REALLY needed to use the washroom BADLY because I didn’t manage to go beforehand! My program was within the last ~30 students to be called up…and let me tell you, that was not fun when your bladder is about to explode ><! When it was my turn, I felt like I speed-walked across the stage…And there goes my 5 seconds of fame in UBC history.

After the ceremony ended, I darted to the washroom straight away! When I came back out, I found myself in a sea of people…without my cellphone, which I had left in the car!! I searched for any familiar faces and thankfully spotted Gloria. Bad news was that she didn’t have a cell either, so we stuck to each other and finally found our parents. And of course, here is where all the snapping of photos take place.

When we were satisfied, we returned our gowns and headed to the BMLSc reception. Hurray for food!! 🙂 We had a time of 1. Faculty presenting recognitions to our class (with Krista getting 3 of the 7 plaques…and me getting none >< ) and 2. Our class presenting gifts to the faculty. Afterwards, we just hung around and chatted and took even more pictures!

So while it was not the most interesting and entertaining ceremonies, it was definitely worth remembering!
Pictures here for memories sake 🙂

My Japanese came in handy for the first time today at the bank where I work as a teller! 😀 But I haven’t practiced in ages, so the conversation could have been a lot better. For example, I should have used more honorific forms of words instead of the casual forms (I stopped myself just in time from saying “Gomen” instead of “Sumimasen”), and the sentences could have actually been structured to BE in sentence format. Oh well, it still made me feel great~

Actually, she wasn’t even my customer; she was my co-worker’s customer. My co-worker asked me a general question, and as I answered, I glanced at the customer’s profile on the computer screen and saw that the name was a Japanese one. I gathered up the courage and tried to strike up a conversation IN JAPANESE with the ~60 year-old lady (the following was all Nihongo de):

Me: Ah, so are you Japanese?
Her: Yes…Oh, you are too….?
Me: No…I’m not. I just learned it…
[She was getting a new bank card and said a whole bunch of stuff in Japanese, which I had to half guessed to follow along…but the basic idea was that she thinks she left her old one in the ABM accidentally when she was doing transactions there the other day.]
Me; Ah, is that so…?
Her: Yes, but that one was an old card that I had…
Me: Well, now we’ll give you a new one so it’ll be better too!
Her: Yes, it’ll be better. 🙂
[And then my co-worker came back and wanted me to explain to her how to change her PIN number of her new bank card, I was (very) hesitant but I told her I’d TRY my best *fingers crossed*)]
Me: This is your PIN number right now. If you go to the machine, you can change it. When you put the card in there, and then you press these numbers, you have an option to change your PIN number.
Note: all the underlined words were actually spoken in English! Haha, wow, that did not go over too well, but she actually got what I was trying to say *wipes sweat off brows*
Me: Sorry, my Japanese is still terrible. ><
Her: No no, It’s alright!
[In the end, I asked her to sign the receipt (“Sign shite kudasai~)” and she seemed quite happy that I have helped her ^^]

After the customer left, I asked my co-worker if her English was really that bad. She told me that yes, she had trouble explaining some stuff to her, and for her to explain that she can change the PIN number at the machine…that was nearly impossible!

So now, I can boast that my limited level of Japanese has FINALLY come in useful at work! 😀 Yatta~