Saturday, July 19, 2008

~~~

Here I cannot see lorries hurrying on the road, cannot see farmers enticing customers with their luscious peaches, cannot see hordes of pupils congregating around an outdoor stall selling chicks, that is why modernisation is not a completely good thing.

Here I cannot meet people who do regard going to cinema as a luxury, cannot meet children scurrying around simply by step my feet out of the threshold, cannot meet old couples strolling along the river in the light shed by shining advertisements, that is why there is nothing more alluring than simplicity.

When will I meet those amusing folks who can erase all your misery and pressure by their mere presence?

Is it true that children on this island have no childhood? Yet they are still as cute as children are, though they never put grasshopers in their pencil-case or use converging lenses to burn ants~~~

And I heard of a child who had cried over the killing of his chicken when it was mature enough to be eaten. He cried and cried and refused to eat it, until his mother put the cooked meat in front of him and he consumed the whole thing with immense guilt.

He is such a nice boy, isn't he?


P.S Today we learned about the dance and the songs for Operation Rice 2008, and the Literature test was as smooth as it should have be. A busy time for the next week, but we will all be together, thus it would be great!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

In The Thick Of July

More than 8 months have passed without trace, and we have received our common test time table again. Sherry said it was like being struck by a sudden thunder, and I was sure she was exaggerating. Comparing to the Mid-Year Exams, you will find that common tests are much less energy-consuming. A thirty-minute test or an one hour "bonus" is like the "lightning attack" that Hitler waged on Poland in 1939. It reduces one to ashes without it being able to realise the quick shock, comparing to the lifelong "marathon" during which you need to remind yourself to eat well and sleep well to prevent fainting on the spot.

Anyhow, the timetable is only a reminder to prick our anaesthesized neurones. As usual, I crammed it into one of my dustmite-covered file and aimed to turn it into a "sleeping beauty" until the time when the exam is looming. Being the prince who gave a gentle kiss to the sleeping beauty, I will muster up courage to make it expose to the sunlight and endure my series of marking, scribbling and highlighting.

Yet, the sea will always be placcid until the storm strikes, so in this precious test-free month, we are still able to put the exams behind and enjoy a better life:) Recently the flag-raising ceremony is continuously balked by the nonstop rain. July is not the monsoon season or the rain season. Still, we are fortunate enough not to experience the real mighty power of the scorching sun and the parching equatorial terrain. Confined in the classroom, I have nothing much to do but to read a book. The village by the Sea is a story about changes and I have just finished it. I like the way the story is stretching out, like a bundle of threads knitting up into a Pussian rag. Now I am amibitiously embarking on To Kill A Mockingbird, a literary material being used by English Literature students. I hope I can manage to understand the theme, it seems like a book depicting the conflict between Black and White in the mid-19th century of the USA. I just read the beginning few pages, it is quite engrossing.

Quote some sentences from Mr Parwallah the watchmender in The Village by The Sea. I like his philosophical comments on changes.

"Things change all the time, boy--nothing remains the same. When our earth was covered with water, all creatures lived in it and swam. When the water subsided and land appeared, the sea creatures crawled out and learnt to breathe and walk on land. When plants grew into trees, they learned to climb them. When there were not enough plants left to eat, they learned to hunt and kill for food. Don't think that is how things have remained. They are still changing--they are going on changing--and if you want to survive, you will have to change, too. The wheel turns and turns and turns: it never stops and stands still. Look, even Bombay is not always the same. Fifty years ago there were hills, gardens, beautiful palaces and villas where you see slums, shops, traffic, crowds. Once I lived in a villa with a garden and roses and fountains--now I live in a pigeon roost over a railway station. So Hari the farmer will have to become Hari the poultry farmer or Hari the watchmender."

That is called adaptation. I wonder whether one day the society will evolve to its most primitive form in which we have to start all over again. Or when is the end of evolution? Is there an end?

(Begin to daydream)

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Concert Rocks!


Concert Rocks!

Cheers for Bowen, Dorcus, Mary and Wendy!!!

We love you guys.

Bollywood dancers, you are so cool!!!

Mango ice cream, yummy, yummy.

We love you, all boarders!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Crescent, O-lan, Macbeth

Today we attended the National Schools Literature Festival at Crescent Girls' School. I arrived at school at 6:30 in my costume and waited for the arrival of the school bus. It did not take long for the bus to come and for me to finish the first a few pages of The Village By The Sea. It is an interesting story about India during industrialising period.

Our play, Macbeth, is a kind of heritage from Sec four dramers. We editted it through modern language and have prepared for this quite a few times until the competition is around the corner. With only one block as our prop, we soon ascended on the bus and began to head for the Crescent.

Before this, I only heard of Crescent from my ACSI seniors who have graduated from Crescent. It is hard to imagine a school without boys, for in China, almost all schools are mixed schools, claiming that this will prevent the so-called "further distortions of teenagers' natures". It is true that being in a girl school means less distraction, since puppy love has almost become unbiquitous and somewhat hard to eliminate, yet I still feel that something is amiss in a school with students of only one gender.

Crescent Girls' School is featured for its yellow and blue blocks, giving me an impression of vibrance and coolness, even when the scalding sun was scorching us at midday. Students here are from different ethnic groups(SS:), but I can feel that racial harmony is deeply rooted and manifested in schools like this. Different from Nan Hua in which you can see Chinese everywhere, here I met quite a lot of Indian beauties and Malay belles who make me stand agape, admiring in awe.

The performance began with Philippines High School for the Arts, then came the performance by Singapore Chinese Girls' School, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Their acting was marvellous, especially the two protagonists Hermia and Helena, and the amusing Athenian citizen BOTTOM, who eventually became a donkey under the magic of Puck, one of King's servants, and be loved by Titania the Queen by mistake.

The following competition was not exciting, yet the result was quite dramatic. Our school got the 3rd place in the book trailer competition, which was our play, Macbeth. We were all quite shocked when we received the prize, because it was utterly out of our expectation.

I like the performance put up by Dunman Secondary School very much, it was about the book, The Good Earth by Pearl S.Buck. The actress I like most is O-lan, she is a reserved girl with an air of reticence and quietness. The Wang Lung is extremely mischievous, after the play he continuously made fun of an Indonesian girl, who played his concubine, Lotus, in the drama.

The day was memorable with a touch of sadness. Never mind, one never faces obstacles will never grow, it is the diversity of people that makes this world so magnificent~

In the end, I quote some sentences from the Little Prince, to celebreate this Literature Festival.

"You must never listen to flowers. You must simply gaze at them and breathe them in. My flower perfumed my whole planet, but I was unable to appreciate her. I should have judged by her deeds and not her words. She cast her fragrance around me and brightened my life. I shoule never have run away!...Flowers are so contradictory. And I am too young to know how to love her."

Crescent Girls' School

School Corner

Library


Award!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Fragments Of Thoughts

Either you die in the reticence, nor you welcome the eruption. I forget who said this, which is obvious a Chinese translation, yet I am sure it is universal truth.

I saw my juniors today at the canteen enjoying Singapore "delicacy", some of them are still filled with immense joy and freshness, some of them, I am sure, are still indulging in the dreams of childhood. Dreams are easily broken, since they are encapsulated in the bubbles. Childhood dreams especially. I feel heartened that they hold a divine attitude to me. Still, they are young, still free from the burdens of life, still have the chance to enjoy their carefree childhood which rightly belongs to them, still have a "childish" and "worship" heart to treat everything alien they see.

I am crazily happy that I am almost the same as them, carefree and childish, contradicting with my not-so-young age. I am still moved by NanHua, still think it is a holy place, still think everyone is a spirit, like the day when I first entered this campus.

I still keep that freshness, my love for NanHua, for 302 will always be with me, wherever I go, wherever I might go. For the simplest reason, this is MY school, this is MY class. "My" is of all the magic, because we belong.

Someone chooses to be passerby A, someone chooses to be passerby B. I choose not to be a passerby. Though NanHua is not my destination, I will never make it a perching place, either. I am like a migrating bird, yet I will always remember every of my "homes". This is a home, not a perching branch.

Today I get a "I am Drug Free" thing, super excited, though I do not know why.

Today I borrowed a "BIO" from Sarah and finished "duplicating" one during my Chinese Literature lesson while Mr Cai proceded his dogma about Ming Drama.

Today I invent a new way of writing the letter "f" while scribbled on the TIME.

Today I met some strange people talking to me about some strange topics.

Today I met my juniors, and tomorrow I am going to meet them again, and get my new spectacles!

How long does it take to drift from happiness to sadness, I can tell you, it is less than one second.


Monday, July 7, 2008

"Colonialism"

PART ONE

Colonialism is invariably connected with imperialism, which sparkles ages of controversy and vehement discussion about the justification of this action. Lists of "cons" and "pros" can be packed into bundles, however, I am not here to dabble this one of the most mysterious politic arena. The new "colonialism" that I mentioned was an interesting and friendly one.Nor does it have any connection with the so called "slavery trade" and "triangular route", nor does it lead to the squabbles and fray which will possibly give rise to the creation of a "new century feud" or something of the Mentague & Capulet sort.

Being a coloniser is good. Here, I deliberately use an abstract word. What is "good" anyway? Never mind, it just makes me feel great to be the coloniser of our pantry table... (don't throw eggs or rotten tomatoes to me)

Stepping into our pantry, what you will see are piles of books, stocks of exercise books, a caculator cover by a slice of dragon fruit skin, a curve ruler being reformed into the shape of "Singapore Flyer", an E- dictionary with dozzy puppy stickers, foolscap paper with SS essays hidden in it, a "TIME" magazine whose cover I almost peeled off, and a pair of flip-flops which I intend to emancipate my calloused feet while carry out my study responsibilities. These are the things that I need to occupy this large orange table which can sleep two people. Thus, I began my day.

Day in, day out, I pile my stuff there and enjoy the peace and serenity. The pantry is surrounded by trees, so I can reach out to catch a leaf any time I want, although I never attempt to harm our mother earth by stripping off the factory of the plants. The twittering of the birds is the first thing to greet me and wake me up in a drowsy morning. Besides this, I still have to drink from the cold water fountain in a barbaric way to chill and refresh my mind from a long and exhausting reverie. Busy studying. Rest with FM radio. Busy studying. Rest with Oreo. Busy studying. Rest with a chit-chat. Busy studying. Rest with a dragon fruit. Busy studying. Rest with a nail file. Busy studying. Rest with a shower and a towel. Busy studying. Rest with an exciting phone call.

"Do a hazelnut for me!!!"

"Gah bung!"

I am refreshed and refuelled again...

Busy studying...

PART TWO

Yesterday afternoon, I was unfortunately caught by a surge of unexpected shopping mania and was undeterred to go out.

3.45p.m. Not a soul in the Clementi Avenue One. I shouted and yelled and ran amok like a bird being freed from a cage or a prisoner being released from the Bastille. Scurrying in the supermarket and colliding with crowds of customers converted all my kinetic energy into thermal energy and finally I ended my interminable repetition of picking up a thing and putting it back to the position with a deep breath. I am not a captive of hedonism, anyway.(Nor am I a philosopher). Staggering onto the bus, I could feel that an Eurasian passenger was stupefied by my somewhat strange countenance. I ignored his acquisitive and awkwardly keen stare and alighted after two stops. (I remembered that once I forgot to press the "stop" button and the bus carried me all the way to the NUS. As the bus passed my comfort zone, I thought that it was leading me to the middle of nowhere, the expressway to me was a way to the inferno..that experience happened at night and made me disgruntled about Singapore bus system,allowing MRT to become my preference of travelling )

Back to my "colony", I put my stuff into the refrigerator of the pantry and began my secular, stoic, andascetic life again.

A not bad colony. A not bad ivory tower. A not bad place for me file my nails. A not bad table for me nod my head off at extreme night.

A not bad colonist, that is:)

" Do a hazelnut!!!"

"Gar bung, bite you!"

" Do a hazelnut!!!"

" Gar bung, gah bung!!"

I have no mirror, so I cannot see.

"Gar bung..."



Saturday, July 5, 2008

Variations In Monotony

The monotony of the climate makes me numb to the elapse of time.

Term 3 will soon become history in "transpiration", "atmospheric pressure", "writing a speech", "energy exchanges", "deterrence and deplomacy" and "Fascist Japan".

It rained this morning, then it was sunny again after five minutes. Here, everything is so fast and rapid changing that you do not have the chance to taste the changes. Accidentally I browsed the high school textbooks left to me by a VJC senior. That was when I began to feel fortunate about the relaxation of life here that I am enjoying. Once I complained about the stress and pressure of life here, now I cannot resist to relish this kind of relaxing lifestyle, comparing the inferno in China.

Almost everyone knows about the hectic high school life in ZZFLS, even now I begin to doubt whether or not I can adapt to the life there. Suspicion about one's ability can always engulf you when you lack self-confidence, and that is always the way to modesty. Now almost everything is repetition, although with certain kinds of modification, leading to a stagnation to the improvement of abilities. Yet meanwhile I am also sure that this kind of education really emancipates people from the life-consuming way of gaining certain abilities, which one do not know whether they will be useful in later life.

Being confined in the ivory tower may be a kind of simple happiness. At least it makes one too busy to be distracted.

Even in the ivory tower, there are variations in monotony. That is why I love my secondary school life so much!


Thursday, July 3, 2008

03/07/2008 My Day


It makes my day by talking with you.

If I have the chance and the honour, I want to talk with you till the end of this world. I am afraid of leaving, afraid of losing, but I know you will accompany me to the end of your life.

2oo+ days, perpetual memories. Since you are the first to give us the olive branch, we take it without hesitation. Since you love us so much, we will not blow your love into oblivion. Since you think watb, we will do the best to live up to the expectation.

Love is a subtle thing, when the love is so intense, one will not feel tired. You will be on your journey soon, I wish you all the best, my dear two lifelong friends.

The book I will keep for ever and ever and ever, it is the best gift I have ever got, one million times more precious than anything I have.

You are the sprinter, I will do the sprint for you.

You are sharp, you are affable, and it is my honour to be afflicted by you.

03/07/2008 is my lucky day, my luckiest day ever.

P.S Today we went for the Crime Prevention Skit Competition, the semi-final is a great success, we will not regret for whatever we will get, for we all tried our best.