Because snowmen are too mainstream.

5 full days of a taste of JC life, and I'm already busier than a seamstress who has to hand sew an American flag in two days.

The work's starting to pour in, both before and after work. It's a pain trying to keep track of the before lectures/ tutorials I've read, and even more of a pain to squeeze a little time in to preread and do them. And of course, it depends on how lazy I'm feeling.

So much reading to do, especially from GP and French. Which is basically GP. In French. So hey, you guys complaining about GP? I have it double. With one in French. Not that I'm complaining or anything. It's a little fun, if you take away the exams and how I have to constantly check the dictionary which is gradually becoming as tattered as some of my brother's clothes. But sometimes the reading - for both GP and French - can get a little heavy and/ or monotonous. Like I'm trying to force myself to read The Straits Times, Time (already starting to fail with this one), Le Monde, Le Figaro, Le Point and L'Express on not so much of a daily basis but at least often enough. So now I have a whole stack of French articles waiting for me. Which is how I'm going to spend my Sunday. Not to mention the articles on medical and technological advances Mlle Fournier sent to the whole class. Oh. And the double synonym list I just made today - one for GP and one for French.

Seriously French is just like a double of GP. In French.

Chemistry is a real pain in the ass. First topic (or so) - stoichiometry - and I'm already floundering around in perilous, uncharted territory. Sometimes (most of the time), I just want to chuck everything that has got to do with Chemistry into a huge bonfire and dance the kumbaya around it. Of course I said the same thing about Chinese last year and my worksheets have not been reduced into a pile of formless ashes. I think they're somewhere in the trash.

Thanking my lucky stars that Mdm Lee had the wisdom to teach 301/ 401 Binomial Expansion and Sequences & Series either last year or last last year (omg 2012 already sounds so foreign). Although I've already forgotten much of it (especially S&S), but at least I wasn't that lost during the first Math S&S lecture the other day. I was sitting at the row directly in front of the guys of my class, and throughout the whole lecture, I could hear this constant stream of profanities floating about behind me. The frequency surpassed that of War Games, which I think is quite an achievement.

Another thing that's bothering me are the number of choices, especially those that always pop around during the start of something new (this reminds me of a certain High School Musical song). Should I dedicate my time to this? Should I join this? Should I sign up for this? Should I...? Should I...? Will I regret it? Will I regret saying no? Will I end up becoming so stressed out later in the year that I become depressed on a daily basis? I've done a fair bit of thinking these past few days that my head actually hurts. And it's annoying how when I think I make up my mind, I happily go and become doubtful again, then we're back to square one.

But for now, I think my mind is pretty set. Academics, guitar, and maybe Panorama. Of course with a major focus on the big A for these two torturous years. I'm praying that I'll be able to stick to my decisions. I really am. Please let me not get distracted.

On a lighter note, I think Hwa Chong has achieved in instilling school spirit where Nanyang has lacked in. Unlike other schools, Nanyang doesn't have a house/ faculty/ consortium system, probably because of their obsession with school unity and everyone looking the same. I mean, seriously. Don't even get me started on the whole "Nanyang jackets or none at all" subject. Perhaps, they are afraid that the competition between the houses/ faculties/ consortiums will lead to segregation amongst students. Ironically, this has led to the opposite (for me at least) in Hwa Chong.

As one confession on the HCJC Confessions Page (on Facebook) goes...

While going over a certain school's confession page, I noticed a discussion comparing that school's batch dance to our school's faculty dances with reference to the level of difficulty and involvement of students. "A lot of Hwa Chong people complain their dance is impossibly overcomplicated" and "The Hwa Chong students had to practice 4 hours every few days leading up to the dance off" are not entirely true, I believe.
Though some may have felt that the faculty dances were initially too difficult, the fact that all 4 faculties were able to pull of 4 stunning and well-coordinated performances (not just this year, but every single year as well) only goes to show that such a level of difficulty is well within the limits of the general student population. In addition, from what I have heard, the J1s this year only had 7 hours (over a week) of "official" learning time, with the rest of it being voluntary.
The fact that the faculty dances turned out so well is largely due to the students' willingness to devote their own time to practice. The reason why our faculty dances are so much more successful in terms of students being able to learn all the steps in a short period of time - faculty pride. Contrary to what they claim about such dances fostering segregation and a sense of competition, as an ex-Hwa Chong student, I feel that these dances do the exact opposite. Friendly competition at POP (when the faculties compete) bring the whole school and hordes of alumni together, and is definitely one of the events in college during which school sprit is at its best.

So, there's that for the week. And let's all hope that we'll have enough strength to pull through for this one year, at the very least.

Dilemma dilemma dilemma.

I hate dilemmas.

I also do not like the beginning of the school year. Because everything is in such a convoluted mess and there are so many doors with so many different paths.

Okay fast forward so many days before!

Forgot how along ago this was, but it feels like eons ago. I had subtly steered my batch whatsapp group to horse riding, and from there, horses -waggles eyebrows-

The bruises from the fac dance... but the bruises and aches and limps were all worth it in the end (':

I love this picture, for reasons. Maybe I just have a strange fetish for silhouette pictures. Add a campfire and Ares, boom. Instant love.

I love this one too (: Omg just look at all the swag that hair has got. It's like... swish. I've more swag than you, yo.

All the shoes outside one of my many aunt's house during CNY visiting. Spot mine. Super obvious.

Quack.

Oh wait it's a chicken.

Identity crisis.

Movie on CNY night. We watched Good Day to Die or something like that. Was there an Again at the back? Anyway, it was a very testosterone kind of movie. From the start to the end, it was peppered with gunshots and ceaseless firing and loud booms. I started to fall asleep.

Don't play play ah, grandma using iPad to play sudoku.

Missing the North American countryside )':

Crazy class convos are my fave :D

My brother, a 14-coming-15 RI student, still carries his small baby pillow everywhere he goes, at home at least. Even during dinnertime. No comment.

CCA Exhibition!

Photo of us so many nights ago (omg it was just last Thursday, seriously?! oh how time flies D:) doing our cheer, our first class contribution to Ares ♥

Pretty class polaroids... ♥ Spot the two goofs in the rabbit ears right at the back.

Our class photos are damn weird.

Finally a more or less proper one.


This was... a week or so ago? Sigh.

13S70. We love noodles, unicorns, apple pies, soccer, beaches, cheese jerkies and zipai shots. 


Ares. One of the best things that has ever happened to me ♥


OG lunch at Burger Shack yesterday! (:

Ended up missing ghost stories and other random shit with S70 because I went for this instead, but it'd been ages since I'd last seen OG31, so, it was a trade off, I guess.

After OG lunch, the OG decided to go up to tiantang to chill! And guess who we bumped into?

That's right. 13S70. In the guitar room.

And S70, being S70, decided to challenge OG31 to a rapping challenge (since they already had a rap all practiced plus Mother), which was totally weird since I was also technically part of OG31. So, well, S70 did a rap (the Hannah Montana cheese jerky one, thus the inside joke of cheese jerky), and OG31 made Gavyn do an impromptu and totally random and silly dance to Mother's rapping.

Cue weird class photos. Spot the OTP of the class. I hereby conclude that Yun Yang can demonstrate the weirdest of faces in class photos.

Stuffed a blue M&M (which will always remind me of Mdm Lee) into a marshmallow after eating two slices of pizza (our dinner).

A couple of hours before our final moment, our final practices at SALT... (':

It was one of our first times doing it all with the gloves since we'd only just received them minutes ago.

The Zen Moment... (': And this was just yesterday... god.

Memories of the whole faculty (the C1s and the fac com at least) just sitting there silently, heads bowed, eyes closed, listening to the music play as we imagined the dance moves in our heads... (':

If only we could go back to that moment in time and live it over and over again.

When we were taking the Before class photo... Introducing Jaryl the creeper ghost.


More shots from the silent blocking... (these pictures are mostly from the Ares fac blog)


Lines, lines, lines.

The final moment.


The After shot (':

After all the dancing, after the cheering, after the "short" SoDaChe session (which was a complete reliving of the previous week's Campfire Night), after the announcement of the results, after the screaming (when the emcees said "Ares", I screamed like I did during war games. I think some people had to cover their ears), after the cheering, after the bittersweet encore... That kind of pride and happiness and ecstasy and just pure, simple high...


What will probably be one of the groups I'm proudest to ever belong to.

One Hwa Chong (:

Picture courtesy of Wan Qing, who said that the Apollo formation looks like a crab here.

We're the smallest faculty this year, aren't we? But after all, it's quality that counts.

"Who dares challenge the God of War?"

I was totally amused by this. A warning for the kiasu nuts.

Redid and personalised the class time table so that it's now more colourful and distinct (:

Three new files, three new doodles ♥ #arespride

Went school supplies shopping around five just now, and bought three new power files (my new nickname for them), a pack of highlighters (seeing how we'll be receiving tons of lecture notes soon, nine Pilot refills and a black Zebra marker). Besides the Popular voucher, I also managed to use the Texas Chicken and Sogurt ones, like finally.


Ares 2013 Silent Blocking.

No music, no microphones, no talking; just claps, and you guys pulled it off like magic. Looks like the rain was a blessing in disguise :) Congratulations red hot Ares C1s you guys are incredible! (1:19) "I know right, looks like those China training camps."

"We are Athena! Ahoot! Ahoot! Ahoot!"


"Cool blue sexy Artemis!"

Apparently the fight was between Artemis and Ares, according to Mr Wong.


"It's hot in here, it's gotta be Apollo in the atmosphere!"


And finally. ♥

"Ares at the warfront, God of War!"