Tuesday, December 2, 2008
It's 1am now, and I came back about an hour ago from our Grad Night, a.k.a Prom. Labels: choir, friends, school
I managed to get my hair done and reach the hotel (Swissotel the Stamford) by 5.45, even though I thought I'd be late. However, in my hurry to get my hair done, since I stupidly didn't prepare beforehand in the morning, I took the wrong necklace, and didn't really think about my shoes.
Worst of all, I didn't bother to charge the camera that I borrowed from Nicole, so it died on me before we entered the dining hall. It was so annoying, because I couldn't take all the photos that I wanted to, and had to depend on other people for photos.
When I reached, I saw Jie Ning outside, who was waiting for Elizabeth, and some time after we went in, we saw Rachel. There were some of the 02 people in the lobby as well, such as Bingxin, Fang Yu, Yee Lin, etc. Then we found our way to the actually ballroom, where Kai Xin, Xiaowen and Liu Xuan were waiting, and more people, like Silvia, arrived as well.
Eugenia's class was there, with Quang Son dressed as a mummy, and two of their friends as pirates. Everybody gets a mini goodie bag with vouchers and stuff when you register with your ticket. So we went in and took more photos!
Just as we decided to go into the room, the camera died. So we went in to find our table No. 25, and were joined by Jessie, Jessica, Xin Yuan and Sarah. I absolutely LOVE Jessica's dress, because it looks like she stepped out of a Grecian movie!
There were so many different dresses, in black, blue, turquoise, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, magenta, white...... The makeup on most girls was quite similar, but everybody looked so pretty and glamorous! It's really amazing how lovely they all looked, with the makeup, dresses, shoes etc!
The MC was a bit annoying, but he was just doing his job, and it's not his fault the sound system was SO LOUD. We had to yell to be heard, and I covered my ears whenever any music played. He came up with a points system where each side gets 1000 points for standing up and waving the napkin every time La Bamba plays.
They had various items, such as singing and dancing performances, and contests such as Best Dressed (Trent, Sophia), Mr and Ms Congeniality (Gerard, Hashvinia?), Sweetest Couple, the Lucky Draw with the final musical chairs, and Prom King and Queen (Trent).
The dance item performed by Mel Tee, Tisiana, Louisa, Terence, Jem, Gerard, Joel, Johnson, Wei Liang and Zhi Rong, choreographed by Ying Ting, was really entertaining!
Xiaowen actually got picked for the top 7 in the Lucky Draw, but she got eliminated in the first round since the boy pushed her and got the chair instead, so she won $80 Takashimaya Department Store vouchers.
The 1st prize was a IPOD nano, and the 2nd was a Digicam, both possibly equally attractive. The guy who won is from Yong Jian's class, the one who lives beside my sister's previous house in Marymount. Possibly he negotiated with the 2nd winner as to who wanted which prize more.
The food was okay, though I couldn't take the spicy and sour soup, and I was too full to eat my noodles, so I gave mine to Xiaowen. I took lots of photos with people and more photos for people. The worst part is when you want to take a photo with someone else how doesn't have a camera, and unless you have another friend around, you can't do a thing.
At the end, we took an IP photo, as well as a class photo. But it was so hard just to gather everybody, due to all the noise. For example, for the IP photo, we'd taken quite a few, before some of the 01 girls came running over and we realised not everyone was there.
I regret that I wasn't able to get my choir group photo in the end, because the microphone system had already been disconnected,so I couldn't call them, and it was impossible to find all of them in the crowd. At least I got different photos with Conan, Yun Tian, Jing An, Yong Jian, Michelle, Jaime, Sara, and Eugenia.
One might ask what the point of prom is. You typically pay a lot of money for your clothes, shoes, hair, makeup, occasionally, as well as for the dinner itself. Is it actually worth it to have the trouble of dressing up and going to some hotel to take lots of pictures and barely eat half the food?
The people may look nice, but it's not how you'd remember them anyway.
You remember them in school, in full or half grey, studying in the library, sleeping during lessons, eating in the canteen, telling stupid jokes, recounting anectdotes, having CCA, standing for assembly, preparing for projects, running around the track, sitting in the LTs, presenting in class, walking up the multitudinous stairs, meeting with teachers, crowding the photocopy shop, and sitting for the A Levels.
You remember them as down to earth students, whom you eat, walk, sit, stand, loiter, run, wait, talk, laugh, joke, work and mug with. Not so much as the well-dressed beautiful people more concerned about their appearance on that one night in a dimly lit room with expensive food, colourful strobe lights and blasting sound everywhere.
Perhaps we take the everyday routine of school for granted. You don't see people whipping out cameras to take pictures of people studying in the oasis. No, we wait until the last week of school before realising that we wish we had pictures to maintain memories of our typical school life.
Perhaps that ought to change.
Thanks to all the blogs i referred to (countless) for html code help :) (esp. cyn' and sixseven)
Adobe Photoshop Elements for supernatural abilities
