Hong Bao Na Lai!
Mei You...
Wait a minute. This isn't really Chinese New Year. Ah, well. Save the song, then...
Anyway, today was the school's (Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)) Chinese New Year celebrations.
Notice that I didn't end off with an exclamation mark back there. And you know why? 'Cause overall, it dissapointed me. I mean overall dissapoint - of corse there were the fun parts of the celebrations. But nevertheless, a dissapointment.
It started off with all of us 2.10ers gathering in the classroom before school, sorting out our History files while we still can. Remember that today's the deadline. Oh, and remember when I said I had an idea of what to draw for my front page last night? Well, I really did. I did a sketch of World War II - Attack on Pearl Harbour. The thing was, I was so determined to make the sketch so detailed that it took me till 3.15 this morning to finish it! And that includes research on how the weaponry looked like, draft after draft on what went where and the fact that I also had to print out my History notes. Figures.
Also found out that some of the ACPS boys were going to Tim's house. After hearing that Tim never opened his house to them before, I thought this would have been rather entertaining. But I promised that I'd go back to Nanyang today to 'reunite' with fellow Nanyangers, and had to hold back my question of invitation.
Anyway, after Assembly, we were suddenly informed that lessons today were going to be cut down to 3 periods! Reason being, 1) We will have a CNY Concert at 9.30am and 2) Since our Year 4s (last year) earned us a 100% passing rate for the 'O' Level exams last year, Dr. Ong was convinced to make today a half day. And since both points have effect on each other, "... today is going to be a quarter day!" Yahoo!
So the only lesson for our class would be Mother Tongue! And thats not all: the Express people were having an exam today, so for Chinese 'B', there was nobody to ruin the freedom of the lesson! Yippe! Peacefulness in class; at last!...
Or so I thought.
The remaining people, being me, Junn Kit, Joel, Ting Wei, Kirby, Justin and Shil (Shil came in because his teacher wasn't present today, and Mdm allowed him in since she wasn't going to teach a half-class), played Truth or Dare, and they made up many dares and composed akward questions. But I'll upload the photos another time: they'll help sum up the story.
The after Cl'B' was suppose to be the concert, but we were dismissed early and decided to goto the SAC for a while. The others went to buy stuff to eat/drink, but I think I was the only person who went for the piano, first things first. I only had enough time to rehearsed 'He's A Pirate' in one go bfore the others came in and started to play their specialities. But I'm not complaining; in fact, it's an honour to watch my fellow friends play in front of me. A great pleasure, indeed. But time took its toll and we had to move out very soon. According to Shil, I missed a presentation of a "beautiful" piece by Kirby after fleeing off to class. Darn.
Then we all met in class, packed our bags and made our way to the New Audi. We had to sit right behind the Senior Admin as ussual, so expectations of our class were high. Real high. If memory serves, the order of content was:
-Chinese Drum Performance
-Wushu Demonstration
-Instrumental Performance - 'Sound of Heaven'
-Fashion Show
-Singing
-Lion Dance
~Performance
~Exchange of Mandarin Oranges/Ang Pao between performers and Senior Admin
~Ang Pao Distribution to the student cohord.
Then that was it. We were dismissed. I must admit that the drums were rather smashing and the instrumental programmes were beautiful, but the other things were just, well, childish. But anyway, I quickly scurried off to hand in my half-complete file, eat a quick lunch and take the next bus to Coronation. (74.) But when I was onboard, I wasn't certain if the others were really going back to Nanyang. After all, the two days that were suppose to be used for this 'reunion' was either today or this coming Wednesday. So I asked Tim when his 'warming' would end, just in case the 'gathering' wasn't today and I still had enough time to drop by. But I think due to that question, I made some confussions in the guys' arrangements. I assume they were held back because with the news that I could possibly come, they wanted to go as a group since they didn't know I knew the way to Tim's house already. So I just told them to go without me.
When I arrived at Coronation Plaza, I saw many other students from different Secondary/any power greater meeting there. I even saw Nick Ng waiting with another (girl) ex-classmate for other people from their class at the bus-stop. It was interesting to watch as people who've been seperated for a whole year or more finally meet up and hug each other with loving arms. I was moved by the sights, but I doubt that the same would be done to me. I didn't need it so badly anyway.
I suddenly recieve a call from Winston, who told me that he was with Kevin Heng and to meet the both of them at the MacDonalds next to the Police Station. Willing to meet up with them so we can enter Nanyang as a group, I made my journey to the joint. Once there, I looked through table by table until I found the two of them. I joined them in their lunch and bought a cheeseburger, even though I already had my fill. We then went over to Coro (again...) and they met up with some others that they knew, and some that I knew. But I think I ended up spending more time looking through the shops of Coro Plaza, noticing what shops have gone and what shops have replaced them. As a Nanyanger back then, I'd never imagined going here in a Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) Prefectorial uniform. It was facinating seeing the effects of time, but soon we had to go to Nanyang to finally do what we all came here to do. So here's the pictoral version of what I saw:
The Clocktower. A rather promising sight, although the numbers have apparently rusted their marks onto the clock face...
Gate A. Closed because visitors are only allowed in after 1.30pm. And it's still 12.30. Time to go back to Coro... (Urgh...)
Once 1.20, the croud was too strong that they had to let us in. Yay! We all gathered around either at the Sports Area (Will show later) or in the Hall (Up). This was also where I saw another dramatic scene: two girls were screaming with tears as they finally saw each other for a very long time. They were jumping up and down in great excitement as they recited their sides of their lives. A real touching scene, I must say.
All that remains from the Original Campus of the school left for the Primary School's use. The other 4/5th of it was given to Nanyang Kindergarden. Notice the garden in the centre: it wasn't there last time I was here. In fact, it was suppose to be a barren plot of land where students practiced shot-put.
View from 5th floor Curved Corridor. You can actually see Orchard Rd from here...
Clocktower upclose. Powerful creature, ain't she?
Overview (Right).
Overview (Left)
Me hanging out at my most favourite place to hang out at during recess: The Work-out Area. But I didn't go there to work out back then. Instead, I went there back in my Primary Days to test my flexibility skills on climbing on top of the monkeyu bars and chin-up bars. Here's me on top of the monkey bars...
...And me on top of the chin-up bars. Oh, the good ol' days...
The Canteen. Unlike the one in ACS(I), we had no air-con in the canteen and had to eat in the open, with crows time after time trying to swoop in to get our food. The misery of it all.
But I must say, they do serve quite nice food. Although they don't have Fried Food Day, their food here is good enough.
'The Giant Steps'. Another famous landmark here in the school, both to students and teachers. This place has been used for many meetings, and the irony of it all is that you can enter the place either via the front, (1st Level) or the back (2nd Level) and the one at the bottom says 'Remove your shoes' while the one at the top says 'Observe silence'. Weird, huh? By the way, this is also another good spot for Nanyang-style Fencing, but I'll explainb that in another post.
Notice that the walls of the Giant steps are made of tiles? Well, when I was Primary 5, the school asked us to paint tiles for them to paste on the walls, and they asked my class to paint the theme 'Winter'. So now my name will be in that school for a very long time. Pity it's in Chinese - Not as unique as 'Raemiguel Lee'...
Front view of the Giant Steps.
Back in the canteen. This is the front of the canteen, and as you can see, they provide a huge-screne TV and two pianos. Ha! Beat that...
Outside the Staff Room. This is the side where they display the pictures of all the staff members so you know who they are at a glance. Nice to see that my favourite teachers have been promoted in ranks, but some others somehow missing. Don't tell me they were fired...
Me at the Original Flagpoles. Once they realised that the Courtyard that this stage was on was too small to accomodate the whole school during Assembly, they decided to move us down to the Sports Area, and thus they placed another two poles down there, leaving these originals abandoned but remembered.
What is left of the 2nd Campus. This used to be the place where the P1 and 2s would be while the school was two seperated campuses. Now, the Sports' Field has been taken into the territory of St. Margrets Secondary next door, and the main building (Photo) has been renovated into a hostle. Feels funny that someone's sleeping in my classroom, that the people-in-charge are working where two staircases used to be and that one of the music rooms is now a food mart. Even the Library has been ripped off: it used to be located in front of the blank wall on the left of the picture.
I think now's also a good time to demonstrate how the Teacher Scouting system in my class worked...
If you can't see what I wrote, still curious of how the system works and are my classmate, save the pictures into your Tablet and I'll explain when we meet up again in school.
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