wheeeee!!!!! i am impressed by vjc's open house 2003. by the way, its theme is "l'arc en ciel". rainbow in French. =) i hardly put smilies, do i? i'm in a good mood because:-
1) vjc's open house was fun
2) my headache's finally disappeared [panadol's my saviour!]
i shall go study later because my headache's gone. yay! well let's start the journey!
woke up at 6.30am and surfed the net for a while. had breakfast at 7-something and woke sam up at 9am. decided to meet at 10.30 and she's right on the dot. the bus comes a few moments after i reach the bus stop and i happily bounce up the bus, haha. talk about crap along the way and finally reach vjc at approximately 11.10am! oh yes, thanks for coming along sam or like i said, i would have been waiting in the archives room half of the time(which isn't half-bad if the chairperson would be there to entertain me by being so enthusiastic haha)!
the moment i stepped into vjc, i was absorbed in the hustle and bustle of the college. the turnout was good, no thronging crowds though. which is good because it means that no one steps on your shoes. let me see... when we entered,a girl was "hawking" free ba kwa (can you believe it?) but we denied the generous gesture, haha. we watched a dance performance and later a sum41 song by resonance(?), this all-boys band. what were they singing again? i forget.
met my friend, ame, at the fountain. they have a fountain! that works! haha. i demanded a goodie bag, which looked so pretty with its colourful face. we walked around looking for the booth, which ame didn't even know about haha and were ambushed by a pretty girl who was promoting the choir. she said it's prestigious etc and even wanted us to sign up for carolling (but you need to pass an audition first) but it was pointless because i'm definitely not going there for the first 3 months! i oh so wanted a hand-decorated ice-cream stick though... sigh. moving on...
managed to get a goodie bag but it was kind of awkward because no one seemed to notice us standing right in front of the booth(!?!). we weren't approached by any ushers too but they didn't look very friendly so no matter. headed for the ccas' booths in the umm... concourse? went straight to the global affairs' booth (because that's ame's 1st cca) and the chairperson started talking about how slack it is but informative and you get maximum output for minimum input. it's relaxed and you just hang out when you're having a meeting. i noticed that the chairpersons are very passionate about their cca. some other people came( finally! haha kidding) and we walked around, past the chinese cutural club(?) and astronomy club. the astronomy guy just gave us a flyer and a straw star without even saying a word!
like, hell-oo? can't you at least say hi and bye? [ooh! why don't you and i on p10 now!] anyway, spotted brownies on the next table and a bulb lights up above my head (food!). it turned out to be the drama club's and suddenly a girl with hideous horror-show-like-you've-just-been-slashed makeup comes up to us and promotes drama. haha i guess they were going for a gothic look. she tells us how fun it is and we're suddenly joined by another guy who is a little vertically challenge ( just a little but that makes him endearing i.e. cute haha) who tells us that we can join a camp at the end of the year even if we're not going vjc. we said we'd come back later and he goes, "ok make sure you come back! (scrutinises me) hmmm, orange shirt and...( i go hide behind ame)" haha. oh both of them have only started acting ever since they joined drama and the girl was like, "oh yeah it's our first time too and i'm always behind the scenes, never acting [a tinge of exasperation, haha]".
=) beams. fun so far? hmm... i think after that we walk towards the canteen and oh, there's free ice-cream! yum but i wasn't tempted enough so i didn't get my free cone, hehheh. there are a few booths like the civics tutorial council, who completely ignore us; perhaps we didn't look interested enough, haha, yeah i think that was it. and into the hall we go! it's pretty big, weren't too many people there. there's like, a kayaking team but a sailing boat was nearby(?) and some people were playing ping pong. not very interesting. all the sports people were just hanging out and looking at us (or past us). there was some life in badminton as they had some girls who were looking around to play. was looking out for basketball, hoping to see my cousin, but to no avail.
oh yes, when you go to the fountain, you won't be able to miss their rock wall and a newly erected flying fox structure! they even let people try it; too bad i didn't. after we finished taking a look at all the ccas, i think we went to the archives room, right sam? walked up the spiral staircase, which was flanked by the stained glass windows by the side. i was like, wow that's really nice. and we reach the archives room! it certainly impressive. i had to admit, i thought the archive was a boring cca and that the room would be even more dead but i was wrong! it's like this posh hotel lobby with um, tables of polished wood which keep the various knick-knacks that showcase the proud history of the school. it's high-walled and fully air-conditioned with a mini-gallery and at the corner of the room is the wall-length window where you can see the sea! Well, it's not clear but d-uh, the sea is there. perhaps I should keep the details till later, haha. you should know why sam.
after that ame had to do duty in the archives room so we wandered off by ourselves. we were aimlessly walking about when we came upon a lecture theater that was empty! being inquisitive creatures, we sneaked inside the room and the first thing that hit me were the green chairs and the steepness. it was open because there was going to be a debate later, "this house believes in polygamy". well i definitely do not! it's such a demeaning thing for women to go through and no women should endure such torture of sharing their husband with another women. but i digress.
we hung out for a while, i, pretending to be a vjc student at a lecture and sam, resting. finally tore our butts away from the green seats and walked towards books i.e. the library. we couldn't go in though, as "it is the examination period" and only "parents are welcomed". darn! they have a comfy corner with nice, soft-looking orange chairs. walked about to check out the tutorial rooms which are surprisingly clean; or maybe not, they must have swept the floors etc yesterday! i think we go watch a performance again, oh wait! no, we watch their mass dance! or rather, dances. it was really cool; these 3 councillors climb up above the "link bridge" and vjc students form a circle. when the music starts, they start to dance and dance and they had a number of dances accompanied with different songs. my favourite song is savage garden's "i want you".
after it's over, we make our way to the canteen to talk to sam's friends. oh i met seehwei and gang. =D hi! and we just sit down. it's 12-something and we haven't taken our lunch yet. sam's friends went to ajc earlier and it was a bore, or they proclaimed. haha poor ajcians. their goodie bag wasn't as impressive but it came with a magazine, teens! hey, a magazine's expensive! sat around for a while and i stared at the plasma screen television in the canteen. after a while, we left to walk around and we make our way to the hall again; just to see if my cousin was there. spotted a level above the hall and i want to go up! we past the sports ccas' notice boards and i took a look at basketball. there's a reason why i'm saying all this, haha. spot my cousin's face and shows sam. hee. we go up the stairs and turn to the left. there's nothing there so we turn to the right as there're tons of people outside this room. (i guess i'm attracted to crowds, wait, isn't everyone? who's singaporean? haha) and... guess who i spot? violet, my cousin! (ta-dah! i was building up the suspense.)
she rocks man. anyway, i was like, "oh my gosh, this is such a coincidence! here i am, looking for her and i finally see her!" i was kind of tricked earlier because i saw a few people with short hair and from the back they look like her. well, i go "HI VIOLET!" and her eyes kind of widen in surprise (still can't beat mine though. when i widen them, people shield their own eyes away because mine are too big, or so they say. i don't think so though!) and we start chatting. she asks me what i'm doing here etc and i ask her what's doing here too. i thought she would be at home studying for her 'A' levels. it turns out that she'd just gone to collect a colours award and came back to school for a while. she asks me how i did for my prelims and i could only, embarrassingly, tell her. she's like, "oh ok, are you here to appeal with your sport?" 'cause we're in front of the p.e. department room. i was like, "i can't! 20points, you know. and i'm not going to join netball anyway in jc". and she asks me where i'm going and i say, " i can only go..." and she says, "don't go cjc!" and i was like, ok, that was quick. so i tell her the few jcs and she says not to go serangoon either. well dear cousin, if i can't go to this two, wherelse can i go? as though reading my mind she says i should try meridian. maybe i will but i heard it's really strict because of this emphasis on academic studies. darn. well, she encourages me to go to vjc and after a while more, she leaves for home sweet home. oh yes, i spotted a ear stud way up on her ear and i was like, goggle-eyed. haha. i didn't think she would be thaaat hip, 'cause she's like sporty-cool but not hip-cool? well i guess it's pretty common so no biggie.
ok i missed her, that's why the 2 paragraphs of devotion. hehheh. we go back to the archives room because sam wants to go off soon and i want to say bye to ame. suddenly there are a few more vjc students (it was quite pathetic earlier, with only one person). we decide to hang around for a while; after all, it is fully air-conditioned(ahhhh...), with comfy seats fit for a king. there's this pretty, ah-hem, cute guy in basketball attire and i'm like, what is a basketball player doing here?, because he looks totally out of place in the archives room. we walk around for a while and when i took a glance at him, i noticed him asking a girl(which turned out to be his girlfriend) whether we were waiting for ame and later he didn't come over. i was like, oh wasted man!, because i figured out the archive was his 2nd cca.
after a while he approaches us and says, "are you waiting for amelyn? has she taken you around his room?" even though ame did, i couldn't resist a chance for a cute guy to talk to us and said, "well, not in detail." haha. asked him whether he knew my cousin. well duh, he's in basketball, of course he should know her. he looks like he's in j2 but he's actually in j1. oh they all look really mature, kinda thing. i feel quite childish amongst them. anyway he starts with the mini art gallery and says that they don't "mai mo ren cai" i.e. hide talents and i probe him with questions like, "why are there only two paintings?" etc. haha. he's really nice and goes, "oh because these two are the nicest. actually we have tons but they're all kept in the store room." oh yes, he acutally started by telling us his job. then some girls walk in and he's like, "girls, we're having a tour now, would you like to join them?" i was thinking, darn, now we have to share him, haha.
he continues and talks with so much energy that i'm afraid he might pop a vessel or something. haha that was why i didn't dare go near him. he was kind of showing off the archives with all this information and says, "oh i know all this because i'm the chairperson" and nods his head and continues. i'm thinking, wow, basketballer and chairperson of the archive? cool. he keeps motioning his hands for us to come forward and assures us he's not gonna eat us. i know i know,sir or guy or whatever, but you talk as though if we leave, you'll fervently extol the school's virutes whilst blocking the exit. yes, he speaks with that much gusto. i do admire his passion for the archive. as he speaks, his saliva flies in front of him. i say that because it doesn't fly onto us, really. oh, that's another reason why i didn't dare go near, because i was afraid of getting splattered. just because it's a cute guy's saliva, doesn't mean that it's NOT saliva. i'm not that shallow! he is so casual in this formal, apec-meeting-like room and even put his leg on the tables which contain all these vjc memorabilia.
all this time i was goggling at him and his mannerisms and looking at sam with a face that said "unbelievable!". each time he starts to talk, i can hardly contain it and grin at sam. i want to laugh so badly but i definitely didn't want to be rude. finally we come over to this picture gallery and he goes, "blah..." until he says, or booms, rather, "BUT THIS YEAR! we have (um... i can't really remember) outdone ourselves by organising the face of the year 2002." and shows us this picture(which i noticed earlier because all the people in it were quite good-looking). "this is a contest where absolutely anyone has a chance to be voted face of the year, where these people are the most good-looking people. i don't know why i'm not in it(hahaha) but anyway can you guess who are the winners?" i can sort of guess. but anyway he goes, "is it this one", "or this?" and "cut the crap, it's this guy" and i'm the only one who replies to his questions so that he can move on to the next face, haha. i was also thinking, you couldn't have been in it because this is your first year in school! that was last year's contest, d-uh. and a thought at the back of my mind, but don't worry, i'll vote for you if i get into vjc next year. hahaha.
amelyn finally comes and after i talk to her a while, sam's friend comes along. i leave the 2 of them to chat, also meaning that i'm free to chat with ame and i tell her about her chairperson, "hey ame that guy is so funny! he is so enthu and he was like, talking so 'hard', i couldn't stop laughing! he makes a great salesperson, man. he speaks as though he's selling the place" and she tells me that her teacher says they're lucky to have him because he's like the salesperson of the archive. i whine about not seeing the automatic curtains in action but ame can't "play" with it. sobz. we move to the sea-view window and directly behind the window is this hotel lobby-like area. ame and i take a seat with a trophy in between us and i start playing with it, haha. the chair is really comfy with soft cushions. sam said it looks like a scene from smallville, lex's study. i finally mention to ame that mr. the-archive-rocks-and-i-know-so-much is quite cute and she goes, "i knew you were going to say that!" haha. i pester her for english tips and sam's still chatting with her friend. ame wants to walk around so i tell sam she should go chat to her heart's content and just sms me when she's done.
out of the archives room, finally, i tell ame, "oh my gosh, he speaks so fervently and it shows his ardent admiration for the archives." really funny! she brings me to the restroom and it's pink! she said she hadn't noticed and i go, "what?!" there's actually paper for you to wipe your wet hands!!! after that, we walk past this French society booth and she says her friend can speak fluent French! she asks me whether i want to ask the teachers anything so i go see her english literature teacher. she tells me a bit about the humanities programme, which is quite helpful in the sense that i learnt hwa chong's humanities classes would learn different things from the arts students but in vjc they learnt the same thing. and, i must do very well, like 6 or 7points. argh! anyway, moving on...
we head towards the performance theatre and there's currently a Chinese short play going on. i want to go to the top floor and it's so high up! steep too. the seats are cushy and very very comfortable though. ahh... i could sleep there during talks haha. the play ends and we move down, near the railings which prevent students from falling. i proudly show her my goodie bag haha. suddenly someone says, "i'm sorry, we're locking the place up" and as we reach the door, the guy points to me and says to ame, "your friend? ask her to come to vjc so that she can sit here more often!" and i'm like, haha thank you very much. it turns out that he's the technician and i'm impressed because this technician doesn't look like one(well, he doesn't look like the horrible technicians in my school), he even looks like a teacher! woah, are technicians of a better "class" in a better school? hmmm...
eeks i'm coming to the end and i don't ever want to stop writing about vjc! it's 1:48am, can you believe it? and i've written over 2000 words!!!
ame goes back to her beloved archives room and well, since they're closing up, she leaves. i take one good, long, hard look at the archives room and the vjc students who have worked so hard to maintain it and etch it in my mind. ame is going to the global affairs booth so i follow her. we pass a few booths and are suddenly stopped by this um... kind of nerdy-looking guy with a box full of colourful, cute things. upon further scrutinisation, i realise they are mock, miniature harmonicas and i go, "ohhh so cute! can i have one?" actually the guy already said i could have one, haha. then i had the audacity to say, "oh can i have two?" he was like, "err... ok." well, there were so many left anyway. i think they didn't get much business, haha, because they were situated in this not likeable area. that guy showed me some pictures of the harmonica band and all i saw were christmas trees or something. haha not paying attention. that guys prompts another guy to extol the highs of the harmonica band and i shall call this other guy the harmonica guy.
harmonica guy starts to tell me how many different kinds of harmonicas there are, like the um... i only remember the chromatic harmonica because when he told me, "everyone has to buy a chromatic harmonica.", i heard it as "everyone has to buy an automatic harmonica." hahaha. silly me. incredulously i say, "what? an automatic harmonica???"
"no no, CHROmatic. i wish it were automatic. haha." he also says he just joined in july and after that he played a chinese song, can't recall where's it from, oh wait! now i do! it's eason's song. i think. err... never mind. i'm impressed because he played the whole song without scores! i asked him how does he play without looking at the notes and he says, "oh no, we have scores" and you realise the other guys at the booth don't say anything. haha. then one of them, the one who gave me the hand-made harmonicas says, "show her the scores!". he doesn't really hiss but sounds desperate to promote the harmonica. i didn't even know there was such a thing and that they enter the syf competitions!
i know, i only mention guys right. who says! i mentioned ame and violet! there will be a girl coming up soon, i promise! it's just that the guys are more funny and impressionable! oh and i've pass the 3000 mark, soon to be 4000. it's 2:10am.
then he shows me a genuine, miniature harmonica which hangs from his neck as a pendent(how cool is that?!?!) and tells me it actually works! not believing him i go, "what, are you sure?" and he proves that it works by playing the scale and a short melody! i was amazed, astounded, astonished. i says that's really cool, do you get it when you join the band and he tells me that it's a present and i go, how come everyone doesn't get it. he's really nice and says, "well that's a good idea, we wish we could too but we need...(i interrupt and say,"the funds?")the funds and players of a standard. so... ... why don't you sign up for our carolling?"well, he asks me to join their carolling (together with the choir i guess) and says that it's at the end of the year. i can't really sign up anyway, so i say next time. i feel really bad because i made him play so much, haha. but he's super nice and goes, "oh ok maybe next year, you can sign up at orientation!" and i go, "sure! thanks! bye!" because sam beckons and ame has to go off, haha. and as we turn to leave, he says, "hope to see you in vj!!" and i go, "yup!"
there's a pang in my heart because i won't be going in for the 1st 3 months and i'm touched that after all that playing and me not joining, he's still friendly. sobz. well, i say bye to ame and find samantha. i think we're supposed to meet her friend but anyway we stay and watch a girl named eva sing 2 cranberries song and 'kiss me' by sixpence none the richer!!! and then it was the mass dance again, and this time they had one song where the vjc people had to find partners of the opposite sex i think. not bad not bad. oh yes, violet doesn't like to dance and she told me that vjc dances whenever, wherever, like on valentine's day etc. haha i think that's quite fun!
hmmm... that's about it i guess. as i slowly walk towards the main road, i turn to have one last look at vjc. i feel really sad that it's all over because i could stay there forever!