Bonjour

... is just about the only french word i can say and spell out correctly. and french was the theme for last night's international formal dinner (IFD). Year after year our dining hall is filled with Hawaiian hula girls, Indian candlelight and Chinese cheongsams, and last night was no different from that it was filled with all things french. From a chopstick Eiffel tower to the Moulin Rouge windmill to the Arc de Triomphe - i bid Choops a job well done.

ooh la la!

I couldn't help being late for Mass - since the change of having formal dinners from saturdays to weekdays means i only have half an hour to run/jog/cycle back, shower to rid myself of the smell of dental masks, gloves and probably some splatter of frasoco-caries water, dry my hair and get myself made-up. there's only so much you can ask for from a girl. And late as i was, i sauntered down to the chapel (after feeling a little like a third wheel in Kris' room), only to find in the JCR two girls making last-minute masks. I chose to hang around and wait for the church-goers to pass by so i could drift along with the crowd. After all, I was already 40 minutes late. But when they said they wanted to go back to their room to get some masking tape (excuse the pun) i thought i should head down to the chapel. The music that drifted out in the night air told me that Holy Communion hadnt even started -.- So in i went and joined the choir, later than i had hoped.

Pre-drinks of champagne got me a little high, though i only had one drink before. I think it was the mood of having the week over and done, and the thought of exams looming was pushed out of my mind for the evening. How else could i have enjoyed the night?

The performances were entertaining - some of which made us get up to dance and make a train that travelled the periphery of the room, much to the annoyance of Brother Rob. There were loooong asian-ang moh Yam Sengs (YAAAAAAAAAAA *breathes* AAAAAAAAAAAA *breathes* AAAAAAAAAAA *breathes* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM *breathes* SENG!) -- apparently yet another annoyance factor for by the third time, Pauline was going around asking everyone to stop, although for some, telling one to stop would spur them on even more, and when the fourth yam seng was evidently in the midst of starting, the DJs hit the play button (purposefully or not, i do not know). Most of the dining hall flocked to the stage and the dancefloor, and i don't know which was worse for him -- the dancing or the yam sengs!

In retrospect, yam sengs are an asian tradition - what is a 'Celebration of all the Nations' (another BRob idea) without various cultures coming together?

And amidst the camera flashes, the dancing and the laughing, something got me thinking. But that is another story to tell.