On Friday I went to Centennial College Residence & Conference Centre for the Finalists interview weekend regarding my application for Garfield Weston Award.
Once registering at the Centre, we were given free evening since interviews were scheduled for Saturday.
I was wondering what could I do with my time when I saw (Fata Morgana :)
It didn't take long before innocent bystanders witnessed this bear in the pool!
:)
After all the stress in the past few weeks and with tension build-up of the upcoming Award interviews, the swim came as a pure blessing !
After half an hour of chillaxing in the pool, I went to my room (that I have shared with Nick, designer from Niagara Falls) and after some reading of material that was given to us, I slipped into so much needed sleep. Suffice to say I slept like a baby... :)
Saturday started early, breakfast at 7:30.
The interviews started rolling, combined with very pleasant mingling with other finalists that were waiting for their interviews, and soon I had a total of four 1 on 1 interviews behind me.
Final panel with 4 members of the committee got me scheduled as the last one with more than 3 hours of waiting. Luckily, there were some very very very interesting people around me and also we had some games to play (brought by one of the finalists), so those 3 hours passed in slightly nervous but quite fun atmosphere.
Game that we played at our table was called "
Apples and Apples" and is basically played like this:
Each player is dealt seven "red apple" cards; on each is printed a
noun or noun phrase, or possibly a
gerund. The judge (a chosen player) draws a
random "green apple" card from the deck on which is printed an
adjective ("scary", "frightening", "patriotic", etc.), and places it face-up on the table for everybody to see. Then each player (except the judge)
chooses a card that they think is the
best match for the green apple card, and places it face-down. The judge shuffles the red apple cards, reads them (often aloud), and decides which noun is the best match for the adjective. This decision is subjective; the official rules encourage the judge to pick the match that is "most creative, humorous or interesting".
The player who submitted the chosen red apple card wins the round, and takes the green apple card to signify the win. All players then draw red cards until they have seven again, and the role of "judge" may pass to another person (generally going to the next player in line, though some rules have the round's winner becoming "judge").
After couple of rounds, these were the cards that I have (accidentally and coincidentally) won:
No comment, really.
:)
Time came for me to go for my final panel meeting with 4 members of committee. I won't go into details of the interview, only thing that I can say is that I used
barbeque as an example for one of the questions. :)
After it was finished, all of us finalists said goodbye to each other and everyone left for their homes (all over Canada). Hopefully, emails that we exchanged will help us stay in touch, some of the people were really interesting.
I went back from Toronto to my little den in Brahmaputra and after so needed MJ relaxing evening, I called it over for June 19th.
Today, June 20th, I have received a call from committee telling me that I HAVE WON THE AWARD !!!
YIIPIIIIEEEE !!!!
:)))))))
What a coincidence, to get it on my BIRTHDAY !!!!
Unbelievable !!!
I am so happy, I don't even know how happy I am !
I mean, this can be THE most important moment for me in Canada.
Here is more information about Weston Award:
http://www.garfieldwestonawards.ca/
I have to go now, I've already spent too much time creating this post and I have to study for 7 exams for next week - MIDTERMS !
Wish me luck and until next reading, I wish you all Happy Summer !
:)
