I have been attending a career exploration program for the past six weeks. It was a great experience for me to go back to a learning environment with daily commitment of 9:30am to 3:30pm. I will talk more about this program at the end of this post.

On the last day of the program, the group celebrated with a program paid lunch at Sala Thai on Burrard St., which is just a short walk from the YMCA.

Since our lunch was on a Friday afternoon which is one of the busiest time, we arrived at the restaurant at 12:00 noon. The decorations are mostly comprised of Buddhist art, carvings and ceramics.

We waited for a bit at the waiting area before we were let to our reserved long table. We had the opportunity to have our group photo taken here while waiting for our table.

Three of the participants including me decided to share our dishes. The above is the day lunch special of Red Curry Chicken with comes with rice and spring roll.

The daily lunch special also comes with a salad like the rest of the lunch menu as below but in a slightly smaller version.

The lunch menu is quite reasonable considering the location of the restaurant in downtown Vancouver.

M ordered her favourite “Yum Woon Sen salad. It is very refreshing with a blast of tanginess and spiciness. Great choice. This salad has shrimp, squid, ground pork, wild mushrooms, and bean thread vermicelli, tossed in lime juice and chilies.

We also shared an order of Eggplant Delight from the lunch menu. It is stir-fried eggplant with Thai basil leaves, red and green bell peppers. Served with jasmine rice and soup. We opted for minced chicken for this dish over tofu.

The soup is a simple vegetable broth.

M also ordered a Thai Green Curry from the lunch special. The chicken green curry is simmered in coconut milk and green curry, with bamboo shoots, eggplant, red and green bell peppers, and Thai basil leaves. This is served with jasmine rice and salad.

You can click on the above menu to have a larger view.
Back to the program that I mentioned at the beginning of this post. It is a government funded program for people who try to re-enter the workforce after being a homemaker for a long time like me, or people who like to explore a new career path after they retire from their professional career,etc.
I absolutely recommend this program as I found tremendous support and friendship from the facilitators and participants.

You can find out more about this program by clicking on the above brochure. The YMCA is looking for participants for the next intake in April. This is a limited space program. If you are interested, you can contact the YMCA at 604.685.8066 or email exw@gv.ymca.ca.
The most interesting thing that I learned from this program is that 75% or more of the job market are from the hidden market. We must let employers know that we are looking for jobs. I will like to take this opportunity to tell chowtimes readers that I am looking for an office administrative job, preferably in Richmond. If you know anyone hiring, do let me know. Million thanks in advance.
P/S: The photos in this post is taken with Samsung Galaxy S7