Sports DaY! =P

Here's a summary of my day and all that matters: 0=)

circa 9.15 am -
Initially I didn't have my name in long jump championship division, though I really wanted to. Didn't pursue the matter with the house captains as I thought, oh well, I already have four events. In the end, decided to go watch and support the Stirling girl that was supposed to be doing that event. Arrive at long jump area. What th-? No orange shirt in sight. A check with official, nope, no one for Stirling. Under my breath, f-. I'll take her place I say. Official took my name down cancelled hers, and there and then, off with the tracksuit and runners, on the spikes. It was such a hasty, impromptu decision but one that I will never regret. Cause 3 jumps later, I got the gold! =) And to make victory sweeter, I broke my own personal record with a 4.11m. No one else got a four. Woohoo! Thinking back on it, I realize how lucky I am to have got there just in the nick of time.

circa 10.10 am -
200m championship division up soon. Getting slightly nervous. Didn't do fantastically in this during my aths trials, and got pretty disappointing timings. 39 first run! My god. I'd never have lived it down. In fact, I didn't. Next day, I was on the field again for a second run. Managed to shave off 4 seconds, so not too bad. But not the best. That was trials. So back to the field, look around, no idea who all my competitors are, don't know what to expect. Makes it all the more exciting. My first year here will be like a recon mission, next year, I'll be BAck. Better. That's when I learnt two new words. Rachelle Harvey. Looks like potential threat. Quite pro also, spikes and what not lah. Gunshot, and 32 seconds later, both of us crossed the finish line, with her slightly in the lead. Blast. I need more stamina to mantain my speed. From now on, strict training regime for next year's athletics starts. But don't get me wrong. I've nothing against her. She's pretty cool. In sports, for me, the best man wins and I take that VERY seriously.

circa 11.30 am -
I've never participated in this before, 100m hurdles. *blush blush, was always intimidated by the hurdles. But aths trials and today proved it to be all in the mind. Came 3rd, with literally a fraction of a centimetre from the 2nd. I had some trouble coordinating my feet. For best results, left leg up first, followed by right, but a coupla times things got outta sync. Oh well. I'm pretty pleased with myself. No gripes there for a first-timer. =) Since I've got a taste of this, I'll make it my event and train for it. THat's one more to the list. =) Never had a chance in CHS, first, cause there was no hurdles event, two, max we were only allowed to participate in 3 individual events and 2 relays whereas here, we get one extra indiv.

circa 12.45 pm -
At last! My best event, the 100m sprint. All my hopes are cashed in here. Rachelle Harvey features again. Now, I'm more prepared. I know my competition, I know what to expect. (By the way, the grass on their field looks expensive man...so springy and lush and green, the former, unfortunately, not conducive for running.) But it wasn't so bad as they trimmed the grass before, but you could still depress it about 2 centimetres at least. No matter. My spikes will make up for it. =) Half expected to hear the usual 'ke garisan', but was snapped back into reality with the PE guy trainer shouting 'On your marks...', 'Get set...' crouched, I lifted my head, focusing on the only strip of green that matters. Since my eyes were fixed ahead, my ears waited. Heart thumping with the usual flow of adrenaline rushing to meet me...and then the gun fires and we're off! Led all the way, pumping, to the finish line. I think it was an upset victory because people knew R. Harvey, and were expecting her to win. Couldn't help but punch the air and give a whoop and cheer of absolute delight. Don't underestimate the newcomer, yearhh!!!!

circa 1 something -
Languishing on a bench staring into blank space, trying to rest every bit of me before my final event. Suddenly, house vice captain walks past and, "HUIYING!Canyoupleasejoincrossballwe'reshortofone!" Snaps into right state of mind and rushes to the scene, tracksuit and bag and all. This novelty game was held at the tennis court, involves 8 people (I think, from each house). Aim of game is to pass the ball as quickly as possible in a zig zag manner, then rotate until everyone has a turn at starting the ball, then final person runs a lap round the tennis court and brings the ball back to cheers on completion. I wanted to win this. At this point of time, I was vying (however unrealistically) for the senior individual championship award and was trying to collect as many points as possible. I wasn't signed up for cross ball, but in view of my plans, it came as a pretty convenient arrangement. Only, the bad thing about relays is, you just gotta depend on everyone else in the team. So yeah, we came back second last or something like that. So much for that. But it didn't matter, the whole thing wasn't tiring at all. It's more a test of teamwork anyway.

circa 2.15 pm -
Final event, 4 X 100m, my second relay. Teams again. Two of the team weren't even present today, so we had to get two subs. Which were not bad actually. All could run reasonably well. Pleased to have got my usual position, the fourth baton, but in a spirit of compromise, I agreed to receive it in my right then change to my left hand. 1st runner initially had no hope of winning at all. Got slightly ticked off, actually, more towards disappointment. How would you feel if one of your teamates didn't believe you could win? Hurgh. Nevertheless, after a lot of "We will win this." and "We can do this." things improved marginally. Really, all I want is for everyone to do their best and if their best is not good enough, well. You just gotta accept it. After all, the best man wins. If you don't win, you're not the best. You're not the best, you don't win. Simple. In the end, we were all wonderfully surprised when we came in second. Rosslyn led and once again I was looking at Rachelle's back. For our lag, and with me just about as fast as Rachelle, I couldn't do much but narrow up the distance. But whoa yea. Winning is good.

I'd say this was a pretty successful sports day for me. I've bigger plans for next year now that I'm a little more informed. They don't give out medals here, instead it's coloured ribbons you get to pin on your shirt. They're handed out immediately after the race. I felt really proud being able to parade around with two blue ribbons (1st for long jump and 100m), two red ribbons (2nd for 200m and 4X100m), and a green ribbon (3rd for hurdles) on my shirt. Not that I actually did parade around showing them off, because most of the time I was wearing a tracksuit cause I didn't want my body to cool down. It was pretty gripping having to be on the alert all the time cause I had events every hour or so, but I'm glad that my athletics days are not quite over yet, as would be the case if I had stayed in CHS. (But by no means that is to be taken as being able to participate in athletics is a motivation to come here.)

I still can't decide whether I like it here. Whether I'm happy here. To a certain extent I suppose. But not enough to make me count the days till I'll be back, which to date, lies at 5 more days 5 more days 5 MORE DAYS! I've survived =) three months here in this god forsaken land! Hahahah. Going home will be sweet. It's about time I get good Asian food. I need it. I need my guitar. I need my family. And I need my friends. I miss you Feebs, PK, ex0, HeY...and everyone...

Just think: FIVE MORE DAYS!

Just a note...

4 days late, but better than never -
All the best in the first term exam guys.

And to the CHS debaters, you rock. :-)

St. Patrick's Day!

I'm not Irish, but this is such a fun day! A celebration of green. =P Dinner's just over, and whoo! Smiled and laughed a great lot today...the dining room and everyone was green (*grumble grumble yes and orange, but just a little only, hardly worth mentioning. 0:-) Went decked in my green stuff, green shorts, green shirt, green hair clip, and green scrunchie around my wrist (the one Feebs gave ;)....hahahah, talk about green I just get high lah. And, in my *humble opinion, the star of the day was undoubtedly Green Patrick :) So okay, we were all divided into our teams, with the head of each team being a BH committee member. Unfortunately, there were about 30+ of boarders missing, cuz Yr 7, 8 and 9s are at camp and those Yr 11s taking Bio has gone off today for Bio camp.

I was in Sarah Hendriks group (BH Captain, part Irish). There were competitions to see which table had the best decorations and which table had the most people dressed in green (or orange). Every team had two round tables joined together forming a figure of 8 to sit round, and it was up to you to decorate it however you like. Our principal, Mrs. Ward was present too and she had this larger than life, green velvety leprechaun top hat thingy with a shamrock at the front on her head. So cute! Kayz, so back to our table deco, we had a big green potted plant. (...ok, very redundant sorry...) So much for the stuff we learnt in KH about plant deco on dining table must not higher than eye level. Everyone on the opposite side of the 8 was blocked out in leafy foliage. Anyway,apparently the plant was supposed to "symbolize the growth of Ireland." Nearly spluttered out my green Fanta Lime drink in laughter. Dun care, just crap only lah...then we got my green Patrick of course, and my green wallet on the table, and the green Pringles sour cream and onion. And what else? A green teddy, an orange hippo, green serviettes, green towel thingy as the tablecloth, plate with orange and green lining which the poor plant sat on, and a frog admist the foliage...and that's about it...(oh and I got to sit on the green lawn chair brought all the way into the dining room :)

Vanessa's table was pretty cool. Green paper shamrock coasters, a leaf stuck on the back of every chair, cute leprechaun procelain figure, green...uh...green coloured Ajax soap detergent thing (?!) etc. But they lost points cause one of the girls was wearing a sign on her back saying "Where's the Guinness?" in green. Quote Mrs. Ward, "I am quite troubled by the drinking habits of this team." Ashleigh's (BH vice capt.) table won in the end, cause they had good green stuff, some green Thai cloth, (were they the one with the green Care Bear with the 4 leaf clover on its tummy? No...I think it was the table next to it..But they had green...hand softener. O-kaye. :) Well anyway, the deciding factor was that they had a genuine four leaf clover. Another table had the green boarding house woolly blanket for tablecloth. Hahahah!

Other tables, okaylah, but I shan't bore you with more green details...The walls of the dining room were also decorated with green shamrocks and Irish music was blaring from the radio, but let's go on to food. What was that I heard? Broccoli? Yes. Spot on. Broccoli. I hate broccie and Wen Li sitting next to me hAD to tell me stuff about people finding worms in their broc before...hehe...) Munchies before the meal were a green paper lined basket filled with orange mini cheezels and cheese and bacon balls (that taste like cheezels with bacon). Main course, traditional Irish lamb stew, or fish. I took lamb...then of course, potatoes, and carrots (orange). Dessert, was this thing called pavlova. Um, tastes like soggy wet marshmellows, bottom made of egg whites, top was green coloured cream, decorated with green and orange smarties and green and orange jelly Squirms (i'll bring some back k, Squirms I mean :)...it was really sweet, too sweet actually...

After dinner, prize giving! We won the most relevantly dressed people (the 'award' wasn't CAlled that, but ANyway.) Prize we got green wrapped chocolate thingy with coconut sprinkles on top. Ashleigh's table, as I said, won best deco, and got a BOX OF FERRERO ROCHERS. I waaant! =P So that was dinner. And if any stranger were to look into the dining room at that time, they'd see crazy people dressed up in green towel turbans, green crepe paper headbands, green uh, pieces of cloth, green garbage bags, jolly green caps and hats, and wearing green makeup, green earrings, green accessories, green lipstick...(no lah not that bad :) Hahahahah....yeah...and it goes on... =P So basically, that's it.

A green evening where everyone could have fun being silly and be just positively dotty! =)

hurh.

Bad, bad day for debate. Very disappointed with my performance. It's not good enough. Why was I so jittery? I may be able to write a 'compelling argument' (to quote the adjud.), but I've got a long way to work on my consistency and thinking on my feet. Gotta think clear, think fast. That was obviously not present today. I have the rebuttals in my head but they're all coming out wrong. Ideas just stumbling, tripping over each other. Sorta sticky goo. Quagmire-ish.

Ugh. Nevermind. Will work on it. More debates will be good. Training too, if there is. Went to Gardiners Creek for a 3km jog then work out at the school 'gym'. Feeling pretty...um. Healthy. Hahahahah.

Le Francais c'est formidable. Read that off a poster. French room smells like bread, or rice cakes. Spent my spare in that empty classroom with a couple friends working out Maths problems...Damn everything is due next week, I've only got a weekend, that's not enough time. Maths portfolio, English oral, Econs test, Econs portfolio...MAnnnn....

Tomorrow St. Patrick's dinner. We're not Irish but who cares? They're celebrating my favourite colour and that's all that matters. It'll be GREEN GREEN GREEN everywhere. Have to dress all in green. That's not a problem for me. =P And bring green stuff. I've got the perfect thing. The green Patrick doggie soft toy from KC and JS. =) Geddit? St. Patrick...Patrick...perfect. And green Pringles sour cream and onion. Heh. I got green doona and pillow too.

And Mrs. Fearn-Wannan said, "and I think the kitchen staff will be preparing green food." Whole dining room *gRoaaAn.

Boarders Photo

"What the-?! The dining room is locked!" That was me, cold and hungry and desolate, just wanting to get in, get lunch, get hot food. Turn around, strange commotion on the lawn outside. Oh yeah, boarders photo day...

After everyone was lined up in accordance to height, we trooped down to the Hethersett building steps to get in place for the shoot. That part was fine. The not good part was that it was so damn cold my teeth chattered and I was shivering in my supposedly woollen school jumper. Worse still, they wanted a photo with us wearing just our summer dresses. In this kind of weather?!

But well, after everyone was compressed together on the steps, it got a little bit warmer. Then they started asking us to take off our jumpers. Mind you, it didn't look very decent, suddenly this army of girls crammed on 6 levels of 1+ metre wide steps, fidgeting around trying to wriggle out of their jumpers while stuck in a position where you couldn't even lift your elbows.

Finally, everyone did get settled down, and the staff took their places on the chairs in front, and Sam the dog at the feet of Mr. and Mrs. Fearn-Wannan (heads of Boarding House). The school photographer (who looks really dashing) was up on a ladder just opposite, flanked by two branchy, leafy trees. A couple of test shots later, some woman (maybe the gardener) came with a pair of . And trim trim trim the trees in front of him cause they were obstructing his view. O-kaye.

But it was a pretty interesting photo shoot. I gave my best 'formal, but a happy, smiling kinda formal' smile...under the photographer's orders, we were supposed to look down and at the count of three raise our heads and smile. That way you get a more genuine smile, not one that has been wasting away for three seconds and resembles more a baring of teeth. =) After that, under a few of the girls' requests, we took candid shots. He set the camera so that it took a pic every half-second, directed it at us, and...all hell broke loose. Hahahah, no lah, it didn't. We just did funny things and made funny faces while about 12 or more pix were shot. Kinda fun. =)

Then finally, we could eat. But since we're on the topic of photopraghy, I wish I could send some of the photos taken by one of the boarders in Year 12. It was so...good. They (being her and her sister and sister's friends in Yr. 11) all went down to the pool one day. Only later, when she was uploading the pics off the digicam onto the com that I found out she's been taking underwater shots of them. They were seriously amazing, and the angles and effects, geez, I can't describe it...and a stroll along the corridor of the computer labs was equally interesting, with photoshop creations lining the walls and walls of the labs. Man, the stuff they learn and do here, makes computer lessons back home just seem...feeble and pathetic.

Nothing much I can say about the photos I'm supposed to be taking here though. What can I do?! I don't have a camera...and at this rate, by the time I manage to compile some shots, I'll be back before you know it. =)

Second post in the same day!

Debate's over, and whoo what a day!

To the days leading up to debate, I started questioning myself why I'm taking part in this. All I'm gonna get is an hour's worth of CAS record. Is it worth it for the amount of effort I put in? But after today, I know the answer. I didn't join debate cause of what I could get in return, but heck, for the fun and excitement and adrenaline of it, it's just about as good as athletics...Though we didn't win, all that cumulated effort and research all unleashed one shot in that 6+ minutes (I was overtime I know, cause I got high on the rebuttal =) was well worth it.

And at the risk of sounding arrogant, what makes it even more worth it was the laughs at my jabs, the final applause at the end of my speech (which was honestly, the loudest. I'm really happy...) And then I got a little embarassed at the end at all the compliments and admiration I got from teamates, opponents and spectators alike. For some strange, strange reason, they seemed to think I was really good and were extremely impressed. In retrospect, all I can say for myself is, I know I've definitely improved quite a bit from my first fumbling attempt at debate. Which I still remember clearly. Trembling like a fool. A nervous wreck. How or when I improved I don't know, maybe it's because I didn't feel as pressured (which can't be helped, the way ex0 and H make me feel infinitesimally small and inferior when I debate with them =) But it was the first debate that I've ever been in where I felt confident, had fun in rebutting, and basically, completely enjoyed.

And the rest of the day, was a perk too. I guess you could say just this one simple debate gave me a lot more in return that just one hour for CAS. Suddenly, I wasn't invisible anymore. Like today at the corridor after school, Caz walks past Chrissy then I walk past Chrissy then excitedly she's saying to Caz, "Caz! Oh god you should have seen her (points at me) at debate today. She was SO good etc etc, and I was like Oh-my-god...etcetc" I can't remember what she said, she was speaking so fast. So it's like...it's a feeling of finally being accepted.

I guess that's one of the things I've been grappling with ever since I came here. From being a somebody in CHS to being "Hui-WHO?!! (to quote ex0 =) over here. I guess I want to be noticed. Only I can't make people notice me by being loud and funny and extremely sociable (like ex0, the obsessive attention seeker =P) cause I'm not good at that...In CHS, it was years of participating in this and that and everything and making a name in the things that I do that make people recognize me. And perhaps too, that's what I really meant when I said coming here, I had to start from square one. So I guess, in PLC, I've got two years to make the most of, and well, this is one heck of a start! =)

Anyway, back to the point, admittedly, the quality of the debate and debaters fell short of my expectations. I thought it'd be really competitive and all, but...urm, I mean, I've seen better ones, that's all. And there was only one adjudicator. But it's all good, and Atholl's team was a fun, cheery, laughing bunch. And I got a Crunchie bar too from my vice-captain! And the look I got from her during my speech, which was not unlike one of amazed wonderment =)

One of the funnier things doing debates here in PLC was, you know how used I am to saying Ladies and Gentlemen, well, hahahah, I had to correct myself a couple of times here. I was like, "Ladies and gen- LAY-dies." So there. Fun. Fun. Fun! =) Of course when I was at my last sentence I totally forgot about it again and went, "Ladies and gentlemen, the winds of change are blowing, and further strengthened by the above-mentioned points, are undeniably, raising a gale in favour of our stand that wind farming is NOT the best way to clean up our energy porduction. Thank you." I thought it was a pretty good ending. Apparently, they did too. =)

So that's it. That's today for you. I know this will sound really narcissistic, but hey, people here are different. You say "Wow. You're really good at this." They'll say,"Oh! Thank you!" Somehow it's different if you do that back home, you're afraid of being labelled arrogant. A reply to that would more commonly be "No-lah...*mumble mumble some reason*..."

So hey, I've learnt to say thank you too. =P

Random words...

Yep, I know it's been a long time since my last blog, but debate really eats up your time. Regardless prep time or not, I'm still there clicking/typing away at the computer researching, preparing my speech. Anyhow, after today, it'll all be over. Then it's time to clear up the backlog.

Aths trials went fairly well, but I'm clearly very rusty and creaky. Need some oiling. =) Must work out regularly, but easier said than done. I know, cause I've missed about 3 or 4 tennis 'training' at Wednesdays 7am just cause I'm too lazy to wake up. Plus, when the bed all warm and toasty and you're snuggled under this heavy (green :) doona, it's hardly inviting to step out into the chilly morning. Anyway, sukan tara is a lot kinder to the students, here you've got to finish minimum 6 events to get ONE point. The real day of aths trials was 22 degrees, and dressed in my loose PE uniform, it was tormenting. I shan't bore you with details of my timings etc, but I hope I'll qualify for certain events I have my eye on.

Next day woke up aching all over, another sign that my fitness level is down in the dumps. Stumbled and staggered all over school getting from class to class, ouch!

Ooo! I played guitar for chapel service the other day, Sunday after dinner I think. Strummed along with the piano, but after the first song my hands felt seriously limp. Cause the song was repeated 3 times and each time it got faster and faster. Worse still, there were two/three chords per bar so I had to change really quickly.

Right, better get ready for school. The music's playing already... LAter!