Dinner with the Big Dogs.

Big Dogs =( deans and Professors);
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Well As it goes on Nov 2 I was invited to dinner with the President of NCTU ( my university) Dean of EECE ( my department here), Department head of ECE ( Illinois). and about 15 other high up professors and such including alumni from Korea who were currently in town.

... Leading up to this I was extremely nervous as here I am.. Exchange student who grew up in Kansas and now I'm meeting the big guys from multiple universties who plan to make me a ambassador to get more students to come here in taiwan. ( IDK what the hard sale is "Easy semester..... Everything is cheap.... LOTS OF FUN.... Big Industry for future electronics".. but I am the 3rd student in 5 years to come. ). I somehow end up in the right spot at the right time.

I did manage to bring a Dress shirt and Tie over here so I definately got to put them to good use. I arrived relatively early and got a chance to talk with the president a bit. My favorite part is that Dean Shea (taking his class.. and working in his lab) was all proud and bragging on me to the president. Anyways, It was sure funny as everyone was speaking english except those short conversations between people. I managed to pick up quite a bit of the short talk like "That isn't good..move this guy over there... " It was the first time I've really seen people take a seating arrangement of a group very seriously, and I would say it was successful.

Total there were 18 people and we all sat at a HUGE table. I sat next to a professor from NCTU in the Photonics division. ( I wish I could take a class in it). Also I sat next to Beth, the International relations lady from UIUC ECE department. She was friendly and was really interested as why I came to Taiwan and how to promote this university for other ECE students to come to. ( thinking about giving them my GoCart video to show how much fun we can have... I may make a big mix of my trip into a video.. ). I told her how it really wasnt'difficult not knowing the language as a lot of the students know english anyways and there is a page in the course book directly for students looking for english classes. Besides, I walked her through the menu and showed her that I knew about 1/3 the characters.

As was traditional for the setting wine was poured for everyone and being me I took it easy sip here for politness and not to make a scene.This is probably one of my more expensive meals I've had in my life. Being polite I didn't even want to thnk of the price as We were in the biggest room in the restaruant, But in the last ýear I've started to have more and more expensive dinners, whether it be with important people , or close friends on the last week of an internship. Nice dinners.. are NICE. My favorite moment was when Dean Shea toasted with me, It is just really funny how everyone was so proud I was there and I understand, as the university partnership is only about 5 years old, they see me as progress in the exchange ( total NCTU to UIUC is 124.. total from UIUC to NCTU... 3).

Besides the food, It was really interesting having dinner with them and seeing how everyone gave out their business cards. Very nice to see this so I have an idea how this all goes in the future. I even remet some people that I had met in December. Talking with the gentleman , he said he met some students form UIUC in December, and I told him I was there, he then asked me if I was the one that ate the Fish head ( I couldn't remember... but i think my roomate did at the time.)

At some point I was talking with Beth and she invited me to dinner on Tuesday with them again. ( not the deans and all the professors), This time with Alumni of UIUC. As I only had 1 dress shirt I knew i would have to wash it, but when she was telling me who all was coming ( Basically.. CEOs or important people at a lot of companies in Taiwan/ Asia), I Definitely had to agree. I mean this is why I came to get my name out, meet people, and learn stuff. So Tonight I am off to dinner with them. Should be exciting.


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