PhD Graduation
Cake for my graduation party Besides the marathon, another purpose of my trip to Canada was for my PhD graduation, the last graduation I will attend as a student.
During the week that I was in Windsor, my mom threw me a wonderful graduation party to celebrate. Lots of family friends attended, and it was great to see them all. The real surprise of the evening was that she also invited some of my closest teachers from high school. 
Janet and I I didn’t know my mom had invited them, but when I heard the distinctive voice of my high school principal, I spun around and knew something was up. This may seem like a strange thing to do for most people, but not for me. Some of my high school teachers were very important to me and were true mentors. What I learned from them — music, running, culture, leadership — are the most important lessons I took away from high school.
At Convocation with mom and dad Graduation in Waterloo was on October 24. My parents came up to Waterloo for the ceremony, as did my aunt Joe, who, as you can see in the picture at right, looks lovely in my graduation cap. The PhD graduation gowns at Waterloo are very… colourful. 
Auntie Joe and I dressed for Convocation They were not as hideous as I feared they would be; some of them were bright red and bright green, but others were a darker red and a darker green, which I think looked a bit better. Also attending Convocation were Lana and Bill (and their parents), who flew in from Singapore for the occasion. Like most graduations, this one was a little bit too long for comfort, and there were a lot of people to graduate, but that’s the nature of the thing. At least we got to sit right up front so we could see what was going on. After the ceremony we had a nice reception up at the Institute for Quantum Computation, and then I had to run to catch my flight to Italy leaving at 11pm that night!
Lana, Bill, and I at Convocation More pictures from my graduation party in Windsor and the ceremony in Waterloo (with loads more pictures of me in my fancy red and green gown) are available in my photo gallery.
