End of the 1st Period (P1) celebrations

So today was Ron’s last day of finals and they were celebrating the end of the first period (known as P1) with a champagne party. Their class has this program where if you’re late to class, ask stupid questions, or fall asleep in class, you’re required to pay a $10 fine. Members of the student council tally up the fines per person and they collect them at the end of each period to buy champagne and have a party. In just this one period I heard they collected $1600! Quite a lot of sleepy heads! But all the better for the rest of the class… Ron had to pay $40 for being late to class.

I happened to be on campus to bring Ron his phone that he left at home and also to do some printing in the campus library (we don’t have a printer at home) so I helped some of the other partners with setting up the party. The student council had already reserved the tables, glasses, ice boxes, etc with the INSEAD cafeteria so they started setting up around 2:30pm. The finals was to be over at 4pm but the students were told that the champagne was to start at 3:30pm so some people were finishing up early to have champagne. Oops!

The outdoor patio where the party was being held has a nice koi pond.

Let the party begin!

The champagne served was Drappier and a sparkling wine called Cafe De Paris. I finally learned how to properly open a bottle of champagne (and without breaking any windows) and pour without overflowing the glasses too much. The students were having a great time and thoroughly relieved that exams were over. They finished off about 9 or 10 cases of champage (approx 60 bottles).

I had a great time with the girls in pouring the champagne and someone had the good forethought to have orange juice so we could make mimosas.

This is the almost all “Taiwanese” crew. And Yes, Ron is a dork!

Afterwards, I went to dinner at Cafe Brio’s in the Grand Copthorne Hotel. Alex had invited me because there was a special french buffet only available for 2 weeks plus he had a special 1-for-1 deal with his credit card. It is $44 per person so with the deal it was only $22 per person. My flatmate Justine came along with me because Ron went to dinner with his classmates. I stuffed myself with 3 plates of food but only remembered to take 2 pictures 😀


The above picture is my first plate of food, piled a bit too high but I ate every bite! Starting at the top near the blue water glass and going clockwise: smoked salmon, pork, potatos au gratin, duck terrine, squash, some sort of chicken, rice “cake”, beef, fish, eggplant, pickled cucumber, and in the middle was a peppered lamb shank. So good. I had oysters, shrimp, and sashimi for my 2nd plate. Now here’s my plate of desserts:


Starting with the two shot glasses: fresh mango and cream, chocolate pudding with crunchies, alcohol drenched chocolate cake (did not like this one!), red bean gelatin, strawberry and vanilla ice cream with wafer, behind the ice cream bowl are 2 special local desserts (a pudding and coconut mochi-like thing), lemon meringue tart, and dark chocolate fondue (marshmallows, fresh strawberries, and dried apricots). My favorite was that mango thing but they ran out 🙁

Boy was I stuffed but it was a good meal and really inexpensive for the amount and quality of the food we ate. The place also has Sunday Brunch so it may be fun to go back there and try that. I’d go just for desserts!

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