Horror! Tragedy!

The entire college went numb with grief earlier today, as rain delayed the already twice-delayed gotong-royong event which everyone has been looking forward to. The event, which was originally supposed to be last Friday, was cancelled at the last minute today at 2.30 with everyone gathered at the foyer, pumped up and eager to start cleaning up the parts of the college which were suspected to be prime Aedes mosquito breeding grounds. With the tools gathered and the students ready, in the end it started raining. As Hizami announced that the event would be postponed, there was an air of sadness as all present wallowed in grief...for about two seconds before they started heading back to their chalets.

'Disappointed, just disappointed' says Ashraff, a junior Garnetor. 'I was looking forward to this, but then there's nothing to do. God wants us to rest in our chalets today. At least if do this after break, us Muslims won't be fasting and we should be able to work twice as efficiently.'

With the college closing tomorrow for the much-anticipated Raya break, the 'raya' spirit is already in the air. Teachers are handing out homework, students are skipping class to avoid recieving homework (or in the seniors' cases, to prepare for their AS exams), and sounds suspiciously reminiscent of fireworks have been heard coming from the boys' chalets.

So people, have a safe journey home, pack up on all the fat you lost during fasting month with all the rendang and ketupat you can stuff in, then come back in one piece.

Happy holidays!

EXAMS! *yawn*

Finally! Exam week is over for us juniors, it was our first experience ever. Now that we've had our share of the IELTS-three-hour-straight chilling treatment in the Great Hall, we can really stake claim to be called 'true KYUEM-ians'. Yours truly forgot to bring back his jacket from his last trip at home, and thus had to learn the hard way that when KYUEM claimed to 'prepare you for the UK', they were very well talking about the climate as well.

To the disdain of some seniors, juniors were given study leave throughout the exam week. Meaning that on days that there were no exams, academic periods were spent lounging about studying in the comforts of the RC, or studying the pillowcases back in their own rooms. To this, one female Garnetor bitterly scoffs,

'When WE were juniors we didn't get any study leave!'

And she probably has every right to say that, as it was rather unnerving to see people who were supposed to be busy cracking their heads lying about and having a good time. Some junior chalets were spotted holding 'movie nights' on Thursday and Wednesday, other juniors were spotted hanging out in the cafe' like they would during any normal weekend, others who have *ahem* gotten lucky enough to find *ahem* have been spotted at late night junction meetings and so forth, with textbooks noticably missing (if their intention was to study together to begin with).

The general state of apathy could possibly be due to the fact that some of us still have free blocks (AS subjects that haven't started), and so some had only 3 subjects to worry about. Those who had the most fun, however, were the people who took 3 and a half A-levels, but a) their AS subjects hadn't started and b) one of their three A-levels was Chemistry. Yes, there was an instant uproar when it was announced that there Chemistry wouldn't be tested during this exam. Nerds such as myself were heartbroken, but it was a pain that healed instantly with the help of late night movies and more pillow sessions. So some lucky people had their schedules looking like this:

Monday: Bio practical
Tuesday:Bio written test
Wednesday: IELTS for first three hours of the day, pillow session for the rest
Thursday: Pillow session
Friday: Public holiday
Saturday: Math test

While others (ha ha) have schedules looking like this:

Monday: Bio practical
Tuesday: Bio written test
Wednesday: IELTS, followed by English Lit
Thursday: Physics practical
Friday: Public holiday
Saturday: Math test, followed by Malaysian Studies, everyone's favourite GS


So there, we juniors aren't kiasu like some seniors claim. We are all just as human as the next senior. We just have things easy for now. Don't blame us. Imagine how WE felt. The tragedy of it all! All we wanted was more stress but oh well, guess that can wait for next semester.

With some AS subjects starting this Monday (refer to the notice board on the second floor for details), you can almost hear us junior nerds quivering with anticipation. No, really.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to weep over the tragedy that was my Maths paper.

More tales from the local community, as Nicholas has once again discovered his sense of purpose in life, to radiate to death in front of a monitor so others can remain glued to the exploits of KYUEM students.

Bal and his fascinating tales of junior nerds - true on all accounts. Thumbs up to Bal for portraying junior life as being FAR more hectic than it actually is. A random senior observation indicated the RC was still highly undersubscribed, but with Ramadhan and Terawih prayers eating into requisite RC time (it's now only open at 8.30pm - highly illogical considering buka puasa starts at 7.05pm here.

SENIOR CAMBRIDGE INTERVIEWS - The haggard looks on many seniors' faces are no more. Seniors all reacted differently to the impending tragedy - some holed up in their room with one years' supply of MSG-based products, some perfecting the Perfect Frown for public display, others taking the comfortable way out - Coupling. Kinda sweet to see many senior couples and "couples", ad hoc, working together for the interviews - sure beats going in the interview room and leaving it feeling even more lonely than before.

Random seniors' soundbites:

"He's such a nice, genial man!" *big grin* - Aaron (not her real name)

"Felt like I went into the bathroom and emerged without soaping" - Iman (not her real name)

"Very good lah. I make a lot of funny jokes with him and he laugh along." Teck Kang (CERTAINLY not his real name)

"Hurray! I'm going to Newcastle!" - Nicholas, unashamedly.

In retrospect, I think I screwed it up.

But is the interview all there is to a vitally enjoyable experience, befraught with perils, yet bedecked with happiness from all levels, at finding my growing brain pressing on my skull?

To us all, blessed be our interviews.

Bridges Crossed, Here Comes The Ox

First...my profuse apologies for SUCH a long hiatus, I suppose the newly departed UK(by now, certainly, ex-readers) of this blog would have quit attempting to source any info from here. But rest assured, we have not been destroyed by a wireless network thermonuclear explosion or a sudden decline in Dining Hall food quality, and are all alive, well and stressed.

In the intervening weeks since the last post appeared:
First Junior Veritas! Admittedly, a BIT of internal bias there, if we were in the Securities Commission we'd have been fired, hung, drawn and quartered already. Nevertheless, it is with a mixture of pride and surprise that I announce the birth of the first Junior Veritas issue, hereafter known as the "green issue", for obvious reasons. She weighed roughly 556 grams, making a RATHER small splash in the KYUEM time-space singularity at assembly, and later, in boxes near the Surau, where rumour has it, 100 copies of the new Veritas went unclaimed for A NIGHT. Either they overestimated, or college residents are just too straight to nick a copy despite the glaring absence of a "Please Take One" instruction.

The verdict? Many blummin' good writers in dormancy out there - we particularly enjoyed the Top 10 Machas list, despite SOME doubts about the partiality of the two writers, AND a MASSIVE "mis"print in which the (decidedly female) authors' chalet numbers (L30) was mysteriously amended to P30 in HALF the distributed copies. No points for guessing whose chalet that is.

The gay slant of the magazine was, unfortunately, the object of derision amongst the seniors, and rumour has it, many senior staff members. Junior Veritas, if you have yet to notice, ïnserting "rumour has it" strategically every paragraph or so is the best litigation shield, alive or dead. The CHIEF EDITOR's invitation to male college mates to drop by his room at 9.30pm did not go down too well with the girls, seeing as he is also coincidentally in the Top 10 (ostensibly Straight) Machas list.

Oh, and Macha means something on the lines of "Good Looking Only Answers to Flirtatious Advances" boy. Rumour has it (there you go!) only one person in college responds to said given name.

Owing to eager desire to head to dining hall to break fast after 24 hours of fasting, more out of negligence (to set louder alarm clock) than piety, author will stop this post here, rendering above title irrelevant.

Oh well, here's to a happy Ramadhan to all, and may this spate of piety last long well after the holy month is over.

The Nighteyes Report- Interhouse Debates, Final

Well, after about a month of hard work it has finally boiled down to the finals. The eagerly anticipated match between Sapphire and Garnet took place in our Great Hall on Friday during the assemby, which of course meant that everyone had to watch it, like it or not. With the entire college as the audience, the motion for the final was 'This House Believes That Competition is a Virtue', a motion which probably didn't require as much research as the previous three due to the fact that the teams weren't given research time- the motion was given one hour before the debate itself. With Dann, Hannah and Jhuen Ri leading the opposition charge for Sapphire, in a startling turn of events, the Garnet seniors, Abby and Pai were notably absent from the bench, leaving juniors Farhana, Punitha and Brendan to fight for Garnet. When questioned for what drove them to making such a decision, the seniors refused to provide any comment further than 'This contest is about giving the juniors a chance'. Well if it was, Sapphire obviously didn't see it that way, and noticing that putting Dann in on Wednesday was a lifesaving move, they kept him in on the bench.

With Mr. Small himself as the chief adjudicator this time, both houses struggled over the claim for the tournament cup. The Garnetors, with their seniors absent fought on bravely, proving that they wouldn't give up even without the legendary Pai or Abby backing them up. The Sapphireans on the other hand were out to get the cup that they were denied by Garnet last year, and fought hard. As usual facts were given, (phony) statistics were provided, and the heat was up. Speakers Jhuen Ri and Punitha, notably spoke with such passion and conviction that you'd think that they were fighting for their lives.

And at the end of it, Mr. Small gave his comment on the debate, before announcing that the best speaker was Dann and the winner was indeed Sapphire. One could say that the Garnet team made a mistake by not putting Pai and Abby on the bench, but then, winning isn't everything now, is it? Both teams fought honorably, and there were no hard feelings.

Not much, anyway.

Either way, there's always next year.