Leith Farm Residents Gathering

The landlady Bi-Hua of Leith Farm returned to Taiwan with her family on business and vacation. Winter in Taiwan is a better time for the settlers on Leith Farm, Dunedin, New Zealand. Bi-Hua immigrated to NZ more than a decade ago and operated the Leith Farm successfully ever since. I visited Leith farm in January 2007. It was summer in NZ, but the temperature of South Island was lower than that in Taiwan, because of the high latitude of Dunedin in southern hemisphere.

Bi-Hua and I made acquaintance with each other at the Department of Health twenty years ago, when she was a student fellow on CDC epidemic project and I was the section chief of Biological Preparations, Bureau of Pharmaceutical Affairs. I often joined CDC training seminars, because of my microbiological background.

Bi-Hua and I liked outdoor activities. We used to go hiking in the mountains in Taipei on weekends with my husband. We even invited my brother-in-law to attempt a remote coastal trail in southern Taiwan on Chinese New Year Holidays once.

Bi-hua ia a proactive doer. After she moved to NZ, she got her second master degree in education. In addition to Leith Farm, she opened a Taiwanese Restaurant near Otago University two years ago, after I left Dunedin. Bi-hua was proud that she had a record of serving 60 customers in one hour. With the expansion of her restaurant business, Bi-Hua interviewed and recruited one chef and one waitress in Taiwan to work for her in Dunedin from 2011.

The Leith Farm residents were invited for lunch at Formosa Chang by gracious Bi-Hua at 12:30 Sunday, December 12th. Being one of the residents, I was pleased to meet up with two gentlemen patrons of Leith Farm. Toastmaster Daphne Chen of Grand Toastmasters Club was invited as a resident-to-be on Leith Farm in January 2011.

Mr. Currin Cooley and Professor Chih-Pin Shih stayed on Leith Fram after me for a much longer period of time. Bi-Hua took the oppotunity when Currin came from Hong Kong to Taipei to attend the third Asia AEE (Association for Experiential Education) Conference during the weekend, she arranged the gathering for Leith Farm residents.

After lunch, Bi-Hwa invited us to her sister’s mansion for afternoon tea to celebrate Currin’s birthday. When Bi-Hua took out a traditional wedding pie as the birthday cake, we congratulated Currin for his good fortune in finding his soul mate soon in the future. Currin cut the wedding pie carefully into 8 equal parts and joked about the usefulness of geometry he learned at high school.

In order to convert two gentlemen into toastmasters, Daphne and I proposed we showcase a tabletopics session to demo the learning by doing spirit of toastmasters at a positive and friendly learning environment to hone our communication and leadership skills. As Currin and Professor Shih are Asia AEE members, I volunteered to serve as the tabletopics master and proposed ADVENTURE to be the theme of demo tabletopics session. I won an unaminous consensus.

Five tabletopics were addressed upon five participants, including 1. What was the most adventuous thing you did when you were a 8th grader; 2. Tell us your most adventurous dating experience in high school; 3. What was the most adventurous thing in your life; 4. If you were given another chance, would you take a different route in your life adventure; 5. What role adventures play in human development. All participants answered the tabletopics within the time limit of one to two mintues. What an educational and entertaining Toastmasters adventure we had!

After tabletopics session, Daphne left early for her family gathering. Currin, Chih-Pin and I said goodbye to Bi-Hua and took the same metro. We decided to have a drink at a pub near Shida. Upon my suggestion, we walked into kgb (kiwi gourmet burger) on a small alley of Shida Road. Three of us ordered three kinds of Kiwi beer. I was all ears to the men's talk between Currin and Chih-pin as a curious listener.

The third party at kgb was refreshing. Chih-Pin signed me when he saw Currin foot the bill at the counter, I proposed a dinner for three for the evening. We followed Dr. Shih's step to his favorite Casa della Pasta on Jin-san South Road. Being the first timers, Currin and I had to depend on Dr. Shih to order for us. In the end, we had a full table of chicken Caesar salad, fried squid, mushroom and anchovy pizza, asparagus and shrimp penne, tomato source spaghetti. The 4th party of quality and quantity at Casa della Pasta marked our unprecedented day of cross cultural adventures with a perfect ending.

Everyday is an adventure. On 12/12 when the month and day coincided, I had a marvelous day with two top adventure educators from Leith Farm. Don't know when the next Leith Farm residents gathering will take place, but it will certainly be another adventure of nature, culture, and literature on experiential education in life. I'm looking forward to it!