Saturday, August 12, 2006

Rag Day 2006

Skipped my usual Saturday thing today to went for NUS Rag Day 2006 with Vivy. Being the long-winded me, let me elaborate. Saturday thing, I was just glad to skip it because I think I need a break and I'm totally not prepared. Rag day was with Vivy and Lee Wah (I have confirmed that it's the right spelling of her name) It's maybe my last Rag Day (maybe peeps, I'm not getting my hope high). Anyways, Vivy and me stumbled into Lee Wah last year and we decided to go again together. I think we reached the track and field at around 9. We had our walk through in which I kinda felt that the floats were smaller. Oh yeah, if you do not know what Rag day is, too bad!!! I'm not gonna explain it, you better search NUS website or the NUS student union (NUSSU) site to find out about it. Okay, back to the floats were smaller, yeah I think they were, shorter too. Either the students were getting tired (I'm not using the word lazy because I know the effort put into making floats do not give room for laziness) or as Vivy pointed out, there's perhaps more restriction this year. SOC came up with a float, so that's good. However the float were reminiscence of the one that Temasek or Eusoff hall once made. A good and evil thing with the good one kills the evil one using a spear or something like that. The positioning of the creatures are just too similar. I would just put it as a typical rag thing to do. Lack of originality but they did come up with a float so good for them

The halls are of course the more interesting ones. Not knowing the theme for this year, I was kinda surprised that the halls were making transportation things. Kent Ridge Hall had a train, KE VII had a ship, I think Eusoff were making a ship too and Sheares hall had a train too (surprisingly). Lee Wah pointed out that Sheares and KR are side by side, and both of them came up with trains, so that's weird So, we had our walk through and then we tried to find seats. It was a bad experience!!! There were no seats so we just tried hard to find a good standing place and when we found a decent place, we had people sneaked through us and ended up blocking us. Being me I pushed forward and we ended up standing in front of those people and blocking their views We were there first! So good for us, though there was an auntie who kinda complained to Vivy that we were blocking her views *sigH* Auntie! Give me a break okay. So we ended up standing behind Eusoff. It was weird being there but our views were great and I could take pictures. So here you go. Let me start with the faculties, since they went first.

Goodness, the uploading part to blogger do not really work that well. Hopefully my effort wouldn't go to waste. Anyway, the faculties, I think they used really nice songs. Floats wise, well give them a break okay, I think not much people would want to do rag anyway and if they do I think most of them do it for hall and the one who do it for the Faculty most probably do not stay in the halls (which most probably make them singaporean) that means they kinda can not commit much time since they need to go home. SOC's float is the one on the top left. The rest are from other faculties, I forget which exactly. Lee Wah said that the Med students could dance better than the dentist I don't really have a favorite in the faculties. Arts did a casino theme. Science did a past-future thingy with a house (if I'm not mistaken). Bizad did a cute Japanese theme, however the float was just okay. Engine did a candy world theme, I don't get it, especially with the marshmallow man? The presentation still used a lot of good and evil storyline in them.

Now, the halls. I would say that Temasek came in a bit short this time around. I don't think they did that amazing. I personally like the one from KE VII, hence why I put more pictures from them. Oh yeah, the pictures I chose do not really represent if the floats are really that good, they are just the better ones that I have So sorry, I need to learn to take better pictures and to choose them better. Here you go:

I really like the one from KE VII, though their presentation really reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean. During the presentation they had the sea creature that attacked the ship, I like that. They also rocked the ship and I thought it was pretty cool. Perhaps the minus point for them is that the ship was a bit small.

Now for Kent Ridge Hall. I don't think it's quite clear, but at least something for you to see. Which train do you think is cooler, Kent Ridge's or Sheares'?

Apparently the judges thought that the one from Kent Ridge was better, more originality and creativity Not trying to be mean to my own hall here but how could they decide between 2 trains that the other one was more original when it's almost a similar thing? Anyway my dear Kent Ridge Hall won a lot though the mc had a mix up in announcing the award. Best float design went to KE VII, I think they deserved it and KR won a few things. I think KR won best environmental friendly, best presentation, and most original and creative. I may be wrong, again go to the NUSSU website if you need correct information. The most wonderful thing was of course KR winning Overall Champion Oh how everyone were so happy after years of being pretty dry in awards (last year was pretty bad, I think). Overall champion! If I'm not mistaken (I may very well am) the last time KR won overall champion was during my batch in 2001, so it's 5 years later that they manage to claim it back. It's so great. I can say it's a happy thing and all but to really know what it means you really have to be a ragger or be part of the hall, when you toil and toil, cutting tetra pack and folding origami and practicing dance routine in the middle of the night after your tiring orientation day and only given less than a week to memorize the dance routine. You feel so happy that you actually want to cheer to celebrate it

So that's my rag story peeps. Saw a few people that I actually know. One of the person gave me a huge blast-from-the-past feeling that I really wanted to tell someone and it was Gaby whom I turned to. Her response was expected. Perhaps I was subconsciously expecting that kind of response and hence why I sent her the sms Anyway, as usual staying with the hall when they were cheering and all was weird so me and Vivy decided to proceed for lunch after they announced who the overall champion was. We decided to eat in YIH and we walked through Extension A and KR (now known as something else) but it would be the dear KR that I will always remember. We walked through A block. I've always wanted to come back there and see it and thank God I had the chance to do it today.

I needed to put Felis' room because it was a big part of our first year. I remember standing where I was standing when I took the picture and called her for supper or just to exchange notes. No more swing in A block, I wonder why (did they dismantle it when they moved). I wonder if Stella's stars are still on the ceiling. I actually remember how she put it up there. She used a broom. So many memories I could tell you. The days me, Stella, and Gaby spent. It was happy days really. So many many things, I wish I could remember them all. It was truly one of the funest time of my life. It's my first home in Singapore. I am thankful that God gave me good people to accompany me.

We passed B Block and D Block and we went for lunch in YIH. YIH is looking good after the renovation but there's no more chicken rice stall that I really like. So lunch was in a Japanese place in YIH. I kinda liked what I ate, but I guess I was dead hungry. After that we went to Sim Lim because I needed a new place for my daisy and it cost me S$ 70 *sigH* Luckily it fits and so far so good. I hope Daisy would really be stable now. On the bus, I found out that I lost my white access card. DAMN IT!!! I wonder how much it will cost me, S$ 35? Why should I be surprised? I should be really okay with it because as usual I am freaking unlucky. Why can't I just have a normal perfect day!!! One day, one perfect day when I can be all smile from the moment I wake up to when I sleep, please!!!

My back is aching now, but since it's already quite long, let me make it longer. Thursday I had (according to Ms. J) a downtime. Yeah, too many things and I just exploded in tears, not anyone fault really. I was just weird at that time. So weird, I wanted to just cry and yet I was praying "Please God, don't let me cry". Due to the time constraint, I couldn't cry much *sigH* Didn't came to my head that Ms. J actually had a tea break which she SHOULD use to socialize and yet she came to us. I should not have troubled her. In past tense, Vinny would be the one who first know about what happened however he was the last and he didn't know that much either. Oh well. I loved what the Mr said after I told him what happened.

One last thing, to the kids who came in here when you are not suppose to (I hope you know who you are. I hope you read up to this point). Please go away. I'm not gonna make this a PG rated thing for you all. Be silent! Read if you want to but HUSH, okay *sigH* I just want a peaceful life.

:) eKa @ 11:13:00 PM •