Edward

Edward is my most recently met friend. Well, shall I say most recently? I first met him in residence when it was 1998 (my first year in McGill.) Like the case of Ah Bong and Derek, we did not talk at the beginning. Unlike B & D, we only started talking two months ago.

My first impression to him was he was not a 100% Chinese. Although both of his parents are from Hong Kong, his eyes, his smile and his look were not so Chinese. In fact, he is a Canadian born Chinese. Our first conversation took place in an early morning calculus class. Actually, we did not talk directly. He wanted to know the reading of a Chinese character. He asked a Taiwanese first. She did not know how to say that in Cantonese. So, she asked me. I told them. That is! Few classes later, I started to skip that class partly because I lost motivation as a result of having low grade in another calculus courese. So, I had not seen him till the final exam. In the meanwhile, we nodded out heads whenever we met in the campus or residence. One day, my residence friends and I was shocked in front of a poster. In the picture, we saw a candidate of the Inter Residence Council wore nothing with the exception of having a towel covering the part below waist. However, the candidate was not a girl. So disappointing, right? haha.. It was someone called Edward Lee. Then, we talked some dirty jokes on that poster and left. I did not know if he won because I was so outdated of the residence's news. I did not even know the time and place of the election. I won't be in the residence in the following year, why should I bother this?

The coming two years, we were busy in our own area of studies. He is in microbiology and I am in finance. But we met this summer. What binded the two unknowns? Around June, I sent a message to a school site to look for swimming instructor. DON'T LAUGH! Although I am already 20 something, I don't swim well. I made a wish every summer in McGill that I should learn swimming. However, I failed to do anything to make the wish possible. I spent almost half of this summer in McGill for Japanese level 1. The course would be done on July 12 and I would leave for Hong Kong on July 15. So, I wanted to use those two spared days wisely. I also thought that I might swim during my trip in Singapore and Malaysia (although I did not!). Few hours after the ad was uploaded, I got an email from "Dies Praeludium." At first I thought it was porno junk mail and about to delete it. Look! The subject said "swimming". So, I open and read the mail. Basically, Ed said he would be willing to have swimming class.... Then, I replied him on the issue of price. At the same time, I received a couple more mails from different instructors. I am not being mean. But their offers were quite weird. Some charged like 15 CAD (extremely underpaid in my point of view, come on, it's my life!). Then, some even offered free class in return for English practice. Then, I found Ed's offer was most makesense and reasonable. So, I picked his. At first, I did not know realize he was the teacher as he only wrote "Ed" at the end of the mail. Until one mail, he wrote "Ed Lee from 3rd year science." I was curious. I asked him if he was a candidate of the Inter Residence thing. He said yes. I was 90% sure I had met him before.

The class was great. I really believed he did not lie on me that he had five years of teaching experience. "Move your arms like spreading butter and jam," that's what he taught me about treading water. It was my first time of touching treading water. My little swimming talent allowed me to catch it up first. At least, I could be in the treading position for 30 seconds. He said it was not bad. He expected me to have less than 30 seconds. After the class, I invited him to my place for sukiyaki. We talked many things, sometimes in Chinese. The second day, I saw him in street. He asked me to watch fireworks with his friends that evening. I went because I had never watched fireworks in Montreal. The show was great. He brought me to Marche for crepes after the show.

I knew Derek and Bong well as we went to the same school and met each other everyday. Ed is somewhat different in the way that I knew more about him from the articles he wrote. I am very surprised as a science student is so interested in writing essays. Of course, the quality of writing was very high. Yesterday, I wrote something to respond to one of his writtings. May he have read that?

Manho

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