Looking at NUS with Block B4 Eyes

I got my good ol’ friend from my old Junior College to get me tickets to King Edward VII Hall’s annual production, “Fame!” as he was in the cast. Of course when he’s a good ol’ buddy then you’ve got to go watch the play. Anyway, I’m into the whole “Hall Play” thing and critisizing its quality, so I’m killing the proverbial two birds with the proverbial one stone.

Apparently they had some drama with getting the license to stage Fame! and had to creatively reinterpret Fame! so that it didn’t violate too many copyright issues or something like that. Not very sure about that. But, at the bottom of the poster had the caveat:

This play is being produced by special arrangement with the Dramatic Publishing of Woodstock, Illinois.

Anyway, the play details are as follows:

6.30pm onwards on the 14 & 15 January 2006 @ UCC, NUS
Tickets: $15,$18, $50 (charity tickets)

On another hand, there is another event that I would like to attend and that is :

Topic: “George Soros & A Global Open Society: A Dialogue with a New Generation”
Venue: Padang and Canning Ballrooms, Raffles City Convention Centre
Date: Wed 11 January 2006
Time: 2.30pm to 4.30pm
Organised by Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS), this exclusive event will be an interactive session in which a panel of discussants will engage Mr Soros on a variety of topics revolving around the theme “A Global Open Society”.

However, I did not managed to register in time because of the ticketing being first come first serve basis. Dang. Would have been interesting to have a chance to see the alleged architect of the 1997 East Asian Financial Crisis (as accused by Tun Dr. Mahathir a few years back).

Ladies and Gentlemen, its that very wonderful time of the year again! Module bidding has already started, and so far I’ve been excluded from the frenzy because I forgot to declare my major. Geez. I hope that’s not a biggie or else I will not economize on points if I bid in the next round. Seems that one of my modules that I want to take up may cost at least 600 points, as of Round 1A had only 10 places allocated and my friends who were bidding for it had not received it even with 600 points.

Anyway, my module management and planning is long due.

Another big one that’s coming up is the Interhall Games frenzy. Temasek Hall has invested in putting up a really large banner, outside on the side of Block D for the buses that pass by and for all to see. Above the walkway to the Communal Hall, there’s another smaller banner too. In the communal hall itself, a scoreboard (currently empty) has been put up. If I’m not mistaken, at the noticeboard of every block floor an IHG calendar has been put up.

I’ve had the privilege of visiting a friend at Raffles Hall and managed to observe what they have been doing. They’ve put up this display in their dining hall, of which they enshrine their three greatest sportsmen, with their photos in sporting action, and a brief write-up on their histories which encourage the boarders to come support these Sports Gods. My friend tells me they’re really god-like, participating in many sports and excelling in most of them.

I’ve been going for touch rugby practice anyway, and have been by far, neglecting my running, which I am not please at myself at all. Must be these games I’ve been playing on my computer. However, once my team and I get our game on with the touch rugby, it will be super fun. Personally I feel that the whole team just needs more play time, especially the new Year 1s with no rugby experience (read: me) and we need the time to adapt ourselves to real play situations and lose them jitters to really get down to using the techniques we drill ourselves so much. Trainings are always in the heat of day: 10-12pm, or 2-4pm, so I am getting quite tanned, which is good anyway.

Will post up the photos of the banners.

Its seems like only two halls websites have Inter-Hall Games (IHG) coverage up yet, which is Temasek Hall and King Edward VII Hall. Check them out here.

Temasek Hall IHG
King Edward VII IHG

Accessing it on 27th Dec 2005, around 8-9pm, Eusoff and Sheares Hall’s websites were down, the website of Raffles Hall hasn’t provided IHG coverage, and Kent Ridge has only its link to the last IHG.

On another hand, As part of the Temasek Web Team (interim committee) I must say that the recent revamp of the Temasek Hall website makes a lot of difference compared to the last one. Didn’t like the last one personally. Too much flash for my personal taste. Didn’t have the accessibility and the substance.

Okay, I have to sum up the last week that I was in hall, as well as today.

The week before I left there was this weird camp. Walking by I told Robin, “The girls at this camp are quite cute.” Walking by a few times, judging by whatever I saw walking by, I think it was a cheerleading camp or something similar. Lots of hype and energy. I guess that’s what happens during the holidays in the halls.

And there is running and touch rugby. On the Friday that I left, I went for a two-man cross campus run, and then later in the afternoon I went for touch rugby training. I must admit I haven’t got my touch rugby game on, still fumbling with passes, don’t have that teammate-awareness, or that special technique vibe yet. Need to be on the field a few hundred more times and do a few thousand more drills before anything actually happens. It was from 2pm to 4pm and I got slightly sunburnt.

The week I was in Malaysia, exam results came out. I got off to a good start in my academic life, a CAP of 4.5 out of 5. Asking around now, people are getting about an average of 3-4 in their CAPs. There are a few people in my contact list that did really well in their exams, scoring 4.5 and 4.6 that kind of score. Oh well, a 4.5 probably won’t get me into the Dean’s List. Needs one or two more A’s.

And CORS bidding Round 1A begins Thursday. 1B Tuesday (in a week). Have to get through that dreadful process again.

And now I’m back from my Malaysia stay. First thing today I went to meet some of my committee members, and then I went for some touch rugby at the SRC Field 2. We started about 11am instead of the planned 10am, and in the meantime we watched the second half of the King Edward - Temasek Hall football match for Interhall Games. Temasek Hall won convincingly at 4-0. After some rugby with 11 other guys, I had lunch and it rained. Rain in Singapore is weird. It started when I was in the middle of my meal, when I left the canteen it was drizzling, and a few feet away from the hall it was bright and sunny with not a drop to be felt from the sky. Of course the ground was wet, but that’s the capricious weather here. Later at 3 it rained again.

Wanted to do my laundry but the rain made me feel lazy.