Long Live the New Hub!

More college news! To the astonished stares of at least 10 bystanders, Abang Azahari and crew conducted maintainance on the college wireless hub today. They later walked into chalets and checked the network settings, which ultimately translates into "Don't leave the skeletons in your closet lying around your desktop.". You can imagine the number of students who were logged into the Administrator account when they conducted their surprise raids.

Note to self: Remove items of suspicion from chalet computer anyway. News from the IT Committee: All chalet computers will be cleaned of debris and formatted during the holidays. And, we can assume, all holidays from now on. It would be best to remove questionable items that may overly distress your sponsors NOW.

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Point to ponder: Roughly 70 juniors have finished their AS-Level exams.

Welcome to Platform Nine and Three Quarters, Sub-Juniors.

One year later, we have looked back at our stay in this college, and we wonder how much we have learned from the college, and how much of the college's facilities we have extracted for personal gain. The sight of juniors dashing around wondering who scored the highest marks for the recent Chemistry mini-sub-quiz is always a most convincing way to tell yourself the students here really mean it when they sing "Study is the road to truth" every week during college assembly. (FTSJ: Yes we HAVE an assembly.)

But seriously, do we ever torment ourselves with the inevitable question: What has the college learnt from us?

Do the fabled Oxbridge, or for that matter, any university worth its weight in textbooks, in the UK, while away precious interview hours searching for the most able student, the one who

Or do they yearn for the one magical child whom they know will benefit THEM the most?

There are more students than universities, thus university seats are limited resources no amount of existing family wealth can purchase. Are you applying to a university where you can bring out the best in yourself, or is the university searching for the student who can bring out the best in the university?

All things for batches past, present and future to mull about when the allure of acing examinations die down as you realise everyone else here's doing exactly the same thing as you and that you are rewarded once you get an A, nothing more.

Teachers' Day

A college (we're talking mature adults here!) that celebrates Teachers' Day must have 1) really dictatorial 2) very good teachers. Since the Student Council has effectively prevented the first possibility from ever materialising, it's the second. Sincerely, we have fabulous teachers here, and the proof of the pudding is in the eating, our A-Level grades have never failed to impress. FTSJ (For the Sub-Juniors), Teachers' Day is one of our yearly traditions. If you need to know any more, please do drop by P30A on your first day in college and you will receive a complimentary, cracked mug, our farewell present from the last Student Council, with all the important events engraved on. First sub-junior to win the prize...wins.

Seniors and juniors both put up impressive performances, in Dr Foord's words (FTSJ: Physics teacher. God-like status.) "It's so much of a pleasure to come here and watch the unique ways you fete your teachers as we don't do that in the UK." Seniors did "GUMbira", a combo performance of a VERY well done original acapella piece "Terima Kasih", a trademark Pijat (FTSJ: Anything in capital letters is generally a student's name) love-ballad-like piece for the teachers, a kompang performance, and a parody on "Tanggal Tiga Puluh Satu".

Juniors did 2 performances: nasyid and choral speaking, both original pieces for teachers. Note to self: Expat teachers are astounded by Choral Speaking. Apparently this concept does not exist in the UK.

BUT the teachers stole the show. They put up a sketch of a classroom scenario, changing clothes, toting shopping bags, and generally, being children at heart once again. Dr Foord (there he is again!) dressed up as Faez, a real life student whom FTSJ they will never get to meet...shame...while Mr Cranwell (English) and Mr Hanson (Chemistry), the stalwarts of the Drama Department, stole the show as Faez (presumed dead)'s father and the Headmaster respectively.

AND halfway through the ceremony a huge breach of decorum occured. The Great Hall turned into a party game venue, teachers being divided into 3 groups to take on each other in party games. Shockingly, the Maths Department beat the Physics Department in the tower building competition (lifted straight from the Induction Week programme - students build towers with straws and cellotape, now the Teachers get a go), while many teachers, who will remain unnamed for the Sub-Juniors' sake, cheated in the Blindfold Yourself and Draw The Guy You See Six Days a Week in Acad 2 game.

And of ocurse, we had a good laugh over the photos of vainglorious moments of carefree youth and maddening moments the teachers submitted, displayed in prime position in the middle of the hall.

Well, who says college isn't fun?

THE MOTHER OF ALL UPDATES

Oh gosh. I haven't updated this for so long. I have 2 months' work of material to update people who have 2 months' worth of questions.

What has the college been up to in the 2 months I have locked myself into my chalet?

1) EVENING WITH DIAMOND

An extravaganza, every minute spent on the glorious house spirit. (Note to frequent Readers, though I doubt there are any more since my self-imposed exile: I will begin to explain terms to our sub-Juniors now that they are frantically surfing the Net wondering what the heck KYUEM stands for) Evenings with (Insert Name of House) occur one Saturday night a semester, where one of the four Houses organize a Saturday night of food and fun. College tradition dictates that the organizing House takes care of the Fun while the other Houses take care of the Food. College tradition once again dictates the Food is bought by means of Coupons which are produced by the organizing House. So, we had food galore, with the trademark Garnet Mushroom Soup and Garlic Bread, Topaz and their Dunkin' Donuts, Diamond's ice creams and Sapphire's...uh...I'll get back to you.

With Food out of the way, we have Fun. First up - Limbo Walk. The bar was raised lower and lower (figuratively too) with Khel the Human Rubber Tubing winning the under-80 section. Next up - the Roti Canai Flipping competition, then the inter-house Tug of War, won (with controversy) by Sapphire. With the house spirit well cultivated, we moved on to the Beauty and the Beast segment. Each house sends 1 set of fancy drsssed couples in 4 categories - Beauty and the Beast, Lord of the Rings, Inspector Gadget and Pirates of the Carribean.

Last on the plate - the Fear Factor French Loaf (with Dip) Eating Competition. A horrifying concotion of cocoa, garlic, and many nasty looking condiments, courtesy of Dining Hall, constituted the dip. Ten agonizing minutes later, as Harith pulled out and Hizami (you sub-Juniors will be seeing this name very often, I gather) and Ken on their way to the vomit pool, Rgen won hands down, finishing with a flourish.

Legend has it everything he ate ended up in the college sewage system 1 hour after receiving his trophy.