i was waiting for the ICs of the last day (that refers to Fangzhou and TK) to update the blog. Apparently these two people have forgotten what they should do. But anyway, they have done a great job on the last day from southampton to london heathrow, taking care of two batches of people and keeping counting... thank you and well done, FZ and TK.
So that would mean the post will be written by me again. We have a coherent introduction and conclusion, you see, though the ending of such a grand story is really not comparable to the real content.
anyway, here it goes
friday 08/08/08
kin chun has more or less rounded up what has happened. Just to complete the picture, we also had a farewell party at 10 pm (london time). Mr.chong and Ms.Tang wrote a song for everyone who participated the trip. the lyrics are very well written. I personally liked the last verse: if life hands you lemon go and make lemonade. this is so true.
after singing the songs together (guitarist: Mr.Chong), we revealed the identity of every angel. sorry we did not explicitly introduced the game, but we started an angel and mortal game in the midst of the trip. Actually, I guessed most of the people here were smart enough to guess who their angels are (except for a few like me). Revealling the truth is really exciting, as always. I was almost chocked by water when my angel spoke out who he is...I hope everyone has tried to know your mortal through the trip and keep on encouraging each other in the future. Then, the purpose of this game is fulfilled.
there was also a small award ceremony. we acknowledged xin er and lemuel as the most responsible IC.(a round applause) the most punctual people are Pan tao and Pei Jun who are always the first (a tie, actually)at the assembling point. there are also some freaks who were over-active in class like me and TK. all the people got a lovely RJC bookmark.
If I'm not wrong, the present to Mr.Chong was a stack of poker cards with everyone's message. the level 3 girls also passed a small soft toy to Ms. Tang. For Mr.nicole, we all wrote him a thank you card.
Not to forget that everyone also received a present- a photo of 25 of us in front of stonehenge. the picture is posted by ms Tang already. Somehow a few of us look a bit different. an shing's face, for example, looks stretched by a factor of 1.5 parallel to the Y-axis.
that was the grand finale of the trip. after that, most of us proceed to pack our luggage. Dillion is said to finish packing within 10 minutes. there was a big sigh in my heart- time flies so fast that i felt it was just yesterday when I unpacked my stuff...
a few of us also had a small scale party. we played some card games and wathed videos. watching sunrise for the last time. trying to keep awake in the last few hours in UK.
Saturday 09/08/08 from southampton to heathrow
first batch people aka early birds got up early in the morning, had their breakfast, checked out, boarded on the bus to heathrow airport and arrived at 11 am.
second batch people cleaned up the mess left by the first batch people aka early birds, returned utensils, had their breakfast, checked out, boarded on the bus to heathrow airport, waited in the rain for more than 1 hour, almost frozen because the bus broke down on the way, took 4 cabs and arrived at 3pm.
after first batch people aka early birds killed their time in the airport in many ways that i'm not able to describe here, we finally met up as the big group and checked in.
Then we shopped at krispy kreme. In total i think we bought a few hundreds of doughnuts.
Amazingly the flight was really short this time, parially because there was a tilt wind blowing in the direction of the flight, but mostly because all of us were reluctant to reach singapore so soon.
nothing interesting happended on the plane....as far as I know. joy slept through the flight. she was only awake when she was eating.
we reached changi airport an hour earlier. but we spent a lot of time taking pictures and saying goodbye to the friends...
Then we walked out the arrival hall, passing by the depature gate which we left from on 20 July. parents were waiting outside the arrival hall, excited. I think we all have a lot of stories to tell. the friends we made, the UK we have seen, the things we have learnt.
And that marks the end of the our common memory of UK.
the good thing is, all of us will meet each other again in school. the bad thing is, that will again remind us everything about UK which makes us nostalgic...
coming back to singapore means loads and loads of working waiting for us...there will be spas, PW, CCA and promos. Good times were short, but we have to face the reality and get down to all the school work. we are truly back home, back from the golden 3 weeks in UK. as we chose to participate in the trip, the consequences are also chosen and I think all of us will get back to the track soon.
However, I hope none of you will ever forget the life in UK. do remember to say hi to the familiar faces during lectures or in the corridor. we shall cherish the invaluable experience in UK. Hope you guys will come back to the blog some time. As what i have said in the first thread, there are a lot of common memories here. hope there are also spaces in your heart for the very best time in UK.
all the best, friends.
dx^2
Monday, 11 August 2008
Saturday, 9 August 2008
Wrapping Up
Today is the second last day that we will be in the UK, and generally most people are quite sad to leave this place. Ms Tang and Mr Chong composed the lyrics for a song specially for us, and it really summarises our time here in Southampton. I believe that everyone loved the place and will have fond memories for years to come.
Anyway, there were two other highlights for today. Firstly, 08/08/08 is the day of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Mr Nicole kindly helped us set up the television to view the Olympics from BBC. I think all 23 of us watched the ceremony, and I'm confident to say that everyone found it very grand and magnificent.
The other highlight of the day is the musical, Flash Dance, that we watched. Not everyone watched it, but I think it was a good experience. Personally, I loved the musical throughout, perhaps due to my musical background. Most others enjoyed it too, and it was worth the time and money.
I think that everyone should have packed their luggage already, so I hope everyone would have a smooth journey tomorrow!
Anyway, there were two other highlights for today. Firstly, 08/08/08 is the day of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Mr Nicole kindly helped us set up the television to view the Olympics from BBC. I think all 23 of us watched the ceremony, and I'm confident to say that everyone found it very grand and magnificent.
The other highlight of the day is the musical, Flash Dance, that we watched. Not everyone watched it, but I think it was a good experience. Personally, I loved the musical throughout, perhaps due to my musical background. Most others enjoyed it too, and it was worth the time and money.
I think that everyone should have packed their luggage already, so I hope everyone would have a smooth journey tomorrow!
'Nade in Jellicoe
(Sung to the tune of “Guan Huai Fang Shi”)
The time has come for us to part
You’ve found a place inside our hearts
In Southampton’s Jellicoe
Where friendships began to grow
All the places we have been
Stonehenge, Salisbury we have seen
Fish and chips we’ve had our fill
And Sally Lunn left a hefty bill
We have traveled on the train and tube and bus across the land
To Bath and Cambridge and to London where we saw Big Ben
We are always desperately rushing
But we’ve never missed a thing
Kudos to all the I/Cs who are masters in counting
Eight-thirty we leave for school
No MSN that’s the rule
Making radios and robots
Every night you write reports
Not forgetting Chemistry
All day long doing TLC
NMR, mass spec. you’ve seen
Making new compounds you are keen
Twenty-two days in Southampton
You’ve learned life skills to survive
We hope the things you’ve gained are more than your photo archive
Do look back at all the memories
And the friendships that you’ve made
Remember if life hands you lemons go make lemonade
With love,
Mr Chong & Ms Tang
Educational Visit to the University of Southampton
20 July – 10 August 2008
The time has come for us to part
You’ve found a place inside our hearts
In Southampton’s Jellicoe
Where friendships began to grow
All the places we have been
Stonehenge, Salisbury we have seen
Fish and chips we’ve had our fill
And Sally Lunn left a hefty bill
We have traveled on the train and tube and bus across the land
To Bath and Cambridge and to London where we saw Big Ben
We are always desperately rushing
But we’ve never missed a thing
Kudos to all the I/Cs who are masters in counting
Eight-thirty we leave for school
No MSN that’s the rule
Making radios and robots
Every night you write reports
Not forgetting Chemistry
All day long doing TLC
NMR, mass spec. you’ve seen
Making new compounds you are keen
Twenty-two days in Southampton
You’ve learned life skills to survive
We hope the things you’ve gained are more than your photo archive
Do look back at all the memories
And the friendships that you’ve made
Remember if life hands you lemons go make lemonade
With love,
Mr Chong & Ms Tang
Educational Visit to the University of Southampton
20 July – 10 August 2008
Friday, 8 August 2008
Luxurious Dinner
What was special about today was that we finally got to see the luxury dinner, which had been the greatest secret for the past few days. We had dinner in a relatively expensive restaurant, TGI Friday's, with Mr Nicole and all the other chemistry tutors. The restaurant was well decorated and the food looked delicious on the menu. However, the price was a bit scary for us at the beginning. However, when we found out that we were given 12 pounds to spend, everyone felt so relieved that we could order the food we really wanted to eat.
To eat nice food really requires you to be patient. We waited for over an hour to get our food. During the waiting time, we played all the games we could think of and enjoyed ourselves a lot. (Actually we also made a lot of noise there.) Some people were playing the Code game(the 终极密码？Is this its name?), while the group sitting with Liang Xu(who is very lame)played all the random games until everyone was bored. Then the dinner finally came!!!
Though the food was quite nice, some of us could not forget about the money conversion problem. Quote from Tzer Han, "siao ah, the price here is 7 times of that in Malaysia! We have the exact same restaurant there and the prices are exactly the same, but one is in Ringgit and one is in pounds." Then I started to calculate in my mind how much it would cost for me to have my dinner and found that wow, that’s really a luxurious and expensive dinner.
After dinner, we had our usual rush to the bus stop. I think that by now, everyone is finally quite familiar with the public transport system in Southampton. The most fun part also started. People started to tell ghost stories on the way back. It was forty past ten at that time so it was quite dark and was a very good atmosphere to scare people. Screams came from different parts of the group occasionally. On the bus, Liang Xu started to tell more such stories. In order to be scarier, he even started to describe the settings of the stories in Chinese(which he is more fluent in)! Poor Joy screamed a few times because of that. An Shing even said that he would think about whether he is going to take a shower tonight or not.
Anyway, three weeks is really a short time. We are leaving this Saturday. Back in Singapore, we will have to face the stress of schoolwork again(yes, including PW) and try to catch up as much as we can. Hope everyone can cope with that. But on a more exciting note, the 2008 Beijing Olympics will open tomorrow. Yeah, let’s watch the Olympics!!
- Written by Pan Tao and (heavily) edited by Kin Chun
To eat nice food really requires you to be patient. We waited for over an hour to get our food. During the waiting time, we played all the games we could think of and enjoyed ourselves a lot. (Actually we also made a lot of noise there.) Some people were playing the Code game(the 终极密码？Is this its name?), while the group sitting with Liang Xu(who is very lame)played all the random games until everyone was bored. Then the dinner finally came!!!
Though the food was quite nice, some of us could not forget about the money conversion problem. Quote from Tzer Han, "siao ah, the price here is 7 times of that in Malaysia! We have the exact same restaurant there and the prices are exactly the same, but one is in Ringgit and one is in pounds." Then I started to calculate in my mind how much it would cost for me to have my dinner and found that wow, that’s really a luxurious and expensive dinner.
After dinner, we had our usual rush to the bus stop. I think that by now, everyone is finally quite familiar with the public transport system in Southampton. The most fun part also started. People started to tell ghost stories on the way back. It was forty past ten at that time so it was quite dark and was a very good atmosphere to scare people. Screams came from different parts of the group occasionally. On the bus, Liang Xu started to tell more such stories. In order to be scarier, he even started to describe the settings of the stories in Chinese(which he is more fluent in)! Poor Joy screamed a few times because of that. An Shing even said that he would think about whether he is going to take a shower tonight or not.
Anyway, three weeks is really a short time. We are leaving this Saturday. Back in Singapore, we will have to face the stress of schoolwork again(yes, including PW) and try to catch up as much as we can. Hope everyone can cope with that. But on a more exciting note, the 2008 Beijing Olympics will open tomorrow. Yeah, let’s watch the Olympics!!
- Written by Pan Tao and (heavily) edited by Kin Chun
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
