Sorry for having neglected this blog for more than two weeks now. I've been up my nose with stuff ever since house singing ended and have been lacking motivation and inspiration to put together some stuff for this post. Anyhow...
Mooncake Festival on the September 22 (last Saturday) was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Though it has always been a norm to celebrate back home with a cup of tea, mooncake and kuaci with my family and friends, in a boarding school some of the students don't even know what Mooncake Festival was. Since the event was organised by the Buddhist Society, we decided to just have a simple parade around the school with traditional paper lanterns and then leave the students to their own devices for the rest of the night. The tuck shop auntie have also been very gracious by selling some traditional nyonya kuih, chilled mooncake and home-made barley water just for this special occasion. All thanks to her and Gerard. I must say the parade that night was truly a sight to behold with more than 400 students and staff, each with their own lanterns strolling around the general school compound. I think that actually embodied what most Chinese celebrations mean, that is to do things in a big group together, like a family. However needless to say there were pranksters in the group who just couldn't resist burning up the paper lanterns and chucking them all over the road. Inconsiderate people, but then you get them everywhere. 
Debbie and Me Leading The Mooncake Festival Parade.
Me, Debbie, Amira, Farah and Wei Rhong at the front of the parade!
After the parade...
Also held last week was the English Book Week Debate Competition. It was a full parliamentary, British style debate which was held over 3 rounds with 5 teams. Naturally I took part with Andrew (subbed by Isaac in the quarter-finals because he was ill. Thanks Isaac!) and Kevin. We ended up as the only Upper Six team in the competition... The topic for the quarter and semi finals was 'Attendance at Secondary School Should Be Voluntary'. We sailed through the quarter-finals with relative ease but the semi-finals was a real test when we came up against Shan, Nesha and Cher Waye. With some luck and resilience we pulled through but it was seriously all touch-and-go. At best it was a scrappy performance which served as a wake up call for all of us. In the finals the team got our act together for our best performance in the competition but was unable to stop the government team of Jason, Yip and Zhi Wei with the motion 'This House Would Ban All Experimentation On Animals'. Nevertheless it was a heated debate which really could have gone either way. However I can't help feeling that I have not reached my full potential in the final and if I did, the victory could have belonged to us. Still it was a creditable performance and full credit to Zhi Wei and gang for their win. It was an exciting feeling to be debating competitively again against top-notch debaters like Zhi Wei and Cher Waye but stuff happened in the debate which made winning feel hollow and losing a much more bitter pill to swallow. At the end, this competition left a bitter taste in my mouth and in more ways than one, reminded me of things which have come to past in the last two years part of which I have no intention of revisiting... And yet, life goes on...
I went off to Seremban yesterday for a charity event with Buddhist Society. All the proceedings from the Mooncake Festival went to buying school uniforms, white socks and shoes for 9 less fortunate children from our school workers and Mantin. We also bought them McDonalds for dinner as well after doing the shopping. The whole society went but it was EXTREMELY tiring having to baby-sit the 9 kids and almost 10 other youngsters. However the cute little angelic smiles on their faces made it all worth it and I really had a deep sense of satisfaction after coming back. It goes without saying that we all had great fun in Seremban Parade and it brought the members closer to each other despite the HUGE gap in age. Now if only we could persuade Ms. Ng for another trip out for the 5L leavers Xin Le and Mei Hui haha.
Right now I'm sitting here typing this with a flu and feeling totally exhausted. I guess the trip yesterday and some emotional problems must have worn me out completely and I look as dead as a zombie. There's I.U. Night in about an hour's time which I guess I will be attending. Completely burnt out this week and looking forward to having some rest this weekend. AS Exams are coming of course but so are holidays. Keep your fingers crossed that I juggle my time properly during the two week's break. Oh and did I mention Cambridge interview in 1 month?~Zhongy~
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