New Connections

Senhior-junior class party on Thursday evening. A gathering of six Humanities classes in the Bayshore. Weeeell...it could have been better, but I'm not one to complain. At any rate, I got to see them face to face, and delightfully, I have to revise my first impressions of the RI people.

The Bayshore is one monolith of a condominium, set in a neighbourhood full of such huge residential developments. It was quite amazing to find so many high rises in the East. The whole Bayshore area is a high class development that I didn't know existed in the East side of the island. Compared to the shophouses and early HDB estates that I always see out of the MRT windows, this is really a whole new world.

But anyway...they ordered this whole pile of soft drinks and pizza...it was quite impressive, to see a stack of more than a dozen pizza boxes. And there was a cauldron of chocolate fondue. We were alternatively stuffing ourselves, chatting and playing cards. They had this rather interestingly sadistic game called Bloody Knuckles...sort of like Ninety-Nine, except with a more painful forfeit =P Met lots of drama people...looks like the stars from RI drama ended up in Humans. And this SC girl from last year's RMUN...hehheh, the last time i saw her, she was dressed up as Harry Potter =P

Our junior class seems nice enough...though I can only remember Navjote, Ning Si, Angelina, Yu Glenn (aka *****), Sam Jo, Huang Na (aka Huananana), and various other nicknames...******, Be Good, Be Nice, B1 and B2. Hehheh, I gotta say the juniors are really enthusiastic about this nicknaming business...sounds like their class got overrun by the female influence =P Hmm...but interestingly enough, there doesn't seem to be anyone like us, this year's CHS guys, in our junior class. Maybe it's because their presence was overridden by the exuberance of everyone else, but it does seem that everyone is warm and bubbly and irrepressibly young. That's the most striking thing. From my vantage point, they really look young.

Hmm...but it seems that 1A01A is again the least diverse class, with only representatives from RI, RG and CHS. But all the same, it seems like this time round, the lack of diversity didn't impact on their variety in personalities. When we were intorducing ourselves, the junior class seemed much more interesting. In the space of three short weeks, they've accumulated more interesting stories than we had to tell them. But maybe it's just because we've mellowed over last year and forgotten all the little funny things. What's undoubtable is that 1A01A does seem to resemble 2004's 1A13A than this year's 2A01A.

Hehheh...I think we were trying too hard that night to entertain our junior class. We tried to start up a game, but it dissolved into chaos, then we tried a singalong with me playing the guitar, but I didn't have enough light to see my scores by. So in the end the group just broke up and went back to the food. Hmm...I can see that our girls weren't very impressed by how things turned out, especially if one compares our little group with the 1B and 13A group (two 13A-type classes! what fun!). But who should compare anyway? As long as everyone's happy and occupied, anything goes.

Afterwards, I was playing for 1A01B, because they felt like singing. We adjourned to the bridge over the condo pool, and I was trying to strum as hard as I could in order to be heard. Heh...it wasn't the bets performance ever, but who really cares? It felt good to be playing in a singalong, and under the stars on a bridge by a quiet pool too...How often do you come across a setting that's so idyllic? =P Maybe it's the paternal instinct, but the thing that really struck me was how these new faces are really young. I do envy them their J1 year...and we have so little of J2 remaining...

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Ahh it is good to be involved in drama once again, although now I'm doing something that I never did formally before...stage design. But as long as it involves a stage, I'm happy enough. Now I'm designing the stage for Grace's Kabuki piece for her TSD A Levels, it feel good...and familiar...to be caught up in the feverish process of preparing for a play.

You know, it's strange how these things work. It really doesn't matter what role you play in a play, in the end you'll still get that feeling of satisfaction. I'm a stage designer for a ten minute producion for an audience of no more than thirty, probably, but a part of me really doesn't care about those practical aspects. To a certain extent, it really doesn't matter who watches you, as long as there is someone watching. When you bare yourself to such an extent, as you do when you act on a stage, it is not the audience size, but the daring to get onstage at all, that sets you apart. This time, I'm not appearing at all on stage, and thank heaven hat I'm not directing...dealing with the stress of directing an exam piece is something I don't really want to experience after SYF. But it will be great to see something I helped to make on a stage.

I'm rather honoured by her faith in me...considering that all the stage design experience I have is the minimalist approach to the Road Less Travelled for sec 4 SYF. To a certain extent it's a little unsettling to have so much trust placed in me. But I am determined to make this good. The professional touch of TSD brings back many good memories from CHS Edrama, and the high standards we tried to set there. This isn't some little school production, just as CHS Edrama didn't allow itself to be restricted by its label as a CCA.

Anyway, it'll be a good oportunity to go see Conan and JY more often. Heh...slowly, I realise that my dream of being part of VJ and HC's Humanities programmes is coming true. Who needs to be restricted by this white uniform? I'd like to think that everything I've gone through in the first ten years of education have eliminated any pretense to exclusivity that I may entertain. The separation of schools and school rivalry is such a superficial thing, funny when entertained, but pitiful when taken seriously.

pondered by phoenican @ 22.1.05