Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Addendum: Forgot to mention Ray and Chun who performed in the final dance number. Did A2 and Team Pegasus proud. Thanks, girls!

Happy Racial Harmony Day, everyone! The day began like a nightmare. I was so nervous about today's proceedings, I think I actually fell asleep at about 2am. After 1 and a half hours' of beauty rest, I woke up abruptly at 4:30 am and I couldn't get back to sleep again, though I resolutely lay in bed and tried my best to relax.

The early morning thunderstorm brought both dogs, Mimi and Q-tip, running over clamouring to be let on the bed and sleep next to us. About that time I had to get up and drag myself onto campus, so I regretfully left them all nice and snug in bed to catch my transport.

The rain made so many people late today, including one of my comperes! Both were supposed to meet before 7, but by assembly time Compere 1 hadn't shown up yet. Compere 2 was freakin' out backstage, dreading the possibility of shouldering the show alone. Just before curtain, the dancers who had prepared the dance items were nowhere in sight, and I was running all kinds of disaster scenarios in my head. The Principal had just publicly thanked Cikgu Ibrahim and me just before the show and I wondered whose head would have rolled (mine probably) once the curtain opened and noone was behind it.

But wonder of wonders, both comperes appeared and pretty much everything went on as scheduled with only a couple of minor hiccups. The Principal was impressed with the dance numbers, rough though they were, and lamented that some of the more outstanding performers were not with the Dance Society. The participants of the RHD quiz were so very sporting and answered the simple (and I mean simple) questions with such enthusiasm and spirit, quite uncharacteristic of the usual NY "cool" apathy.  Special mention must go to Sarab and Sonia who improvised a comic routine when both came forward unexpectedly to answer the last question. Their exchange came across as natural and real because, being siblings, it probably was.

A2 looked such a treat today, all the colours and borrowed costumes, as you can see in the picture above. Check out our album for more pix! (A2, this album entry looks rather bare so help me u/l the shots you took today to fill it out. Thanks!) I was a little miffed when various people couldn't see that my outfit was authentic of contemporary Hawaiian national dress, but instead decided I was just impersonating a beach bum or a tourist. The shirt was a real Aloha shirt I bought in Maui and the shell lei (well, it was a bit small) was a souvenir from the Hawaiian Cultural Centre in Oahu. So there!

Had an interesting time with Drama Club later this afternoon arguing over how the succeeding Exco lineup should look like. It's ironic that the decision makers are mostly the current and departing seniors who are deciding on the people we, the staff advisors, will be working with from now on. We have our input, of course, but we do trust the seniors, who have had more contact with their juniors than us, to make the right decision in the end.

And Mimi went home today. The experiment worked quite well, in fact. All of us are slowly adjusting to relocating Mimi to our premises. Mimi also needs to get used to living with us, accustomed as she is to living at her current home. For the moment, it looks like Mimi will have 2 homes from now on :)


No comments: