Unexpected Guest

I received a call from someone I’d never expect to hear from.


A familiar voice came thru the receiver.
A little gruffy, like an elderly man’s, but I can’t seem to make any connection to anyone I knew till he said, ‘…I am Prof Shin.’

PROF SHIN all of people?!
Woah. I met him only a couple of times..
He's Hanyang University’s Dean of Architecture Engineering.



He was in town fer 3 days and asked me to arrange with my batch's exchanged students to do dinner at 7.30pm that night at Orchard ‘Tarate’ Hotel (he spelt out but in a heavily accented voice, I heard Ts instead of P and D.)



Was quite excited and I said I’d get back to him as soon as possible.

Looked at my watch, drats, it’s 4.45pm.

In the end, only 2 of us could make it, so with full regrets, I had to call off dinner.
I highly suspect this wouldn’t be the case in Korea.
The students would all rush down to meet their highly respected Prof.


Nevertheless, we arranged to send him off the next evening.
Still, only 3 out of 7 came. Sigh.
Fortunately, other Korean students who were doing internship here came too.

They got him ‘Ba Kwa’.
(Why didn’t I think of that!)
We got him Pineapple tarts, prawn rolls and low po bing from T3.

Haha. Anyway, it’s the thought that counts.


Was really grateful that despite his hectic schedule, he still wanted to take us out fer dinner..
Fer us, we’re just terrible hosts.