Memories

Just finished reading this book. Johan Cruyff was "The Great One" in Dutch football (soccer for the North Americans) when I was a teenager. We will never forget the delight of what this player showed at the field and how he inspired the Dutch national team during the World Cup in 1974. Johan passed away this year at the age of 69. He will always be remembered as one of the best in his sport.

The beauty of the Christmas break for me - next to spending time with the family - is that I actually feel like reading a few books. I am now starting the book written by former US President Jimmy Carter. He wrote this book at age 90; wow.

Best wishes to all for a happy & healthy 2017.

Premier Wynne and Asia Pacific

This morning I attended a dialogue between Premier Wynne (current political leader in the province of Ontario) with the CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation, a trade stimulating organization with a focus on the Asian trading partners of Canada. The President of Seneca College recently traveled with Wynne and business people to Korea and Japan, so were invited to attend this breakfast event. Interesting reflections about a province (and country) which for so long had its trade mostly focused on its southern neighbor the USA.

December 13

A few colleagues toke me out for lunch today and put this on the table for desert; three of us had birthdays today on December 13. I started a diet a week ago; this lunch today did not help.... But tonight I tried to compensate with this dinner....

The office of Seneca International is very much in the Christmas atmosphere. We almost finished another year - 2016. Here we come 2017!

Food in the Hunan province

The food in the Hunan province is quite spicy because the summers are very hot (as most people locally explained to me). There are everywhere lots of food vendors with interesting dishes.

During our Sunday walking tour we had lunch in a small village to enjoy a farmer's meal. Note the chicken head in the dish in the center top of the photo above....

Zhangjiajie in China

This past weekend I visited the Hunan province for work meetings on Monday in the city of Shangde. In this province is a natural park located where the landscape is sensational. Most scenes of he movie "AVATAR" were shot in this park, and they left a few souvenirs...

The rock formations in this park are very particular and were formed millions of years ago after one of the ice-ages. My colleague Nick shows one of the craziest rocks I have ever seen...

The scenery is truly spectacular and we walked for about 10 kilometers along paths in this park with also lots of stairs up and down. A great work-out on the Sunday morning.

The people who lived in this region for thousands of years have a demonstration village and museum of how their traditions have been created and maintained throughout the centuries. The photo above shows a bride-to-be who has to go through a preparation period of "weeping". Don't ask....

As always with these ancient cultures, very colorful clothing and amazing music instruments. The photo above is in front of a place where they perform concerts with those huge drums. The village where we stayed was beautiful in the early morning when we started our walking tour.

It was a very nice Sunday with my colleague Nick, one of our colleagues in China and our tour guide from the local people. She does that 10 km tour almost every day; super fit lady!

Rainy Saturday in Shanghai

For a few days in China where we had meetings with Seneca's partner institutions in Shanghai yesterday. Today - a rainy Saturday - I went for a walk. As always the interesting contrast of the "old" and the "new" in a city like this.

A restaurant with Indian cuisine in a street with the traditional buildings. Also Spanish and Italian restaurants around the corner and more and more competitors for Starbucks...

And already a real Christmas atmosphere in our hotel, complete with European style mini train and landscape (like I had at the attic of my parents home in Holland 50 years ago). Interesting...

Tonight on our way for a few days exploring a new partnership opportunity in the Hunan province. Just five days on the ground here this time. Back to Toronto again on Tuesday.

CBIE conference

This week I attended the annual conference of the CBIE, the Canadian Bureau of International Education. The conference always has a focus on servicing students who come to Canada from around the world as well as assisting Canadian students who go abroad. The conference ended with a session on the future (how will things look like in the year 2050) followed by comments from three current students: one from Canada who had just completed a study abroad experience, and two from international students in Canada. Very nice way to end the conference.