Opening Post

Hey All!

My name's Hock Guan and welcome to my blog!

I've just created this blog to document my upcoming journey into the culinary world. For on January 9th, 2008, I start my first ever class at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts (CSCA), a local culinary school here in Massachusetts. It's been a strange and arduous journey for me to get to this point in my life.

You see, for the past 13 years, I've been working as an ASIC design/verification engineer. I've worked for Intel Corp., Fujitsu and Avid Technology Inc. Since getting laid off on July 24th, 2007, I've been out of work and kind of floating around wondering what to do with my life. Went for a bunch of interviews but nothing came out of them. Even went as far as Colorado for an interview! Anyway, I dug deep into myself and wondered if I could do something that I really love. Cooking came to mind because I've always had a knack for it. My Mom is a great cook and some of her talent might have rubbed off on me. So I started toying with the idea of going to culinary school. After some searching, I decided on CSCA and here we are.

On Thursday, January 3rd, 2008, I went to CSCA to get fitted for the chef's uniform. I also picked up a bunch of stuff, like a set of culinary tools (knives and other cooking implements), books and other stuff. Yesterday (Friday), I went back to Nashoba Valley Medical Center to get the result of my TB skin test (required for admission into CSCA). To my horror, the test was positive! I panicked as I've never showed any symptoms or has ever had TB before. The only explanation was either I was once exposed to someone with TB or it could have come from the BCG vaccination I had when I was a kid. The test checks for antibodies that my body produced to fight off the TB virus. So either situations could have an effect. So, to clear me, they had to take a chest x-ray and see if I was really infected or not. Thankfully, that came out negative and the doctor signed the consent form clearing me for culinary school. Phew! That was too close for comfort! So right now, I'm back on track to attend the orientation at CSCA on Tuesday (1/8/08) and the 3 classes that are to be held this week on Wed, Thu and Fri.