The Opera Populaire

I can't write about my NUS life without talking about my one sem in KR. I had always wanted to stay in hall since I first come to NUS, but for some reason I was never accepted until my yr 2, 2nd sem. Actually both Eusoff and KR called me up, but in the end I chose KR becos I wanted to stay in a single room. Think I just couldn't bear the thot of being disturbed by nocturnal room mate who dun sleep until at least 3 am, playing music or studying all the way. Haha, with the exception of the Malaysia trip, I am usually an early sleeper who can't function without at least 5 hours of sleep every night. Plus, some of u may know that I dun sleep easily, esp if there r noise or light around me when I'm trying to sleep. I figured out that it was to my advantage that KR had moved to its new location at Heng Mui Keng Terrace, so off I went.

Little did I realize that some screw ups happened that very 1st day I tried to book in. My uncle, aunt and I went up E Block to wat was supposed to be my room, opened the door with my matric card, only to find that the room seemed to have signs of being occupied. It was still barely furnished, but there was a pair of shorts lying on the desk, a TV set and some files and textbooks. Horrified, some neighbours offered to help us contact the block mistress. They gave me yet another room at D Block 7th floor, which I was admiring when I came up becos u could look far away to the sea and above HSSML etc. But we were stopped dead in our tracks when we saw that someone was occupying the room I was supposed to occupy. The hall mistress very kindly went to look into the matter while I chatted with the gal, who oso happened to b new in hall. At last, they got me a room in the same block but at the 4th floor. Relieved, I ate dinner with a new gal I got to know and went back to rest.

While I was talking to my mom over handphone, suddenly my door opened! A Malay couple looked inside with shock. I was even more shocked! The gal said that that was supposed to be her room. I was like, "Hah?" In the end, we went down to find the hall mistress again. Thank God, the Malay guy was nice to say that he would send his gf home while I can have the room for the night. We would settle the matter in the day time. I felt like crap when I got back to the room, not even daring to take out my belongings.

Thank God the matter was settled in the morning. I was to keep the room while the Malay gal was to have another room. I happily decorated my room. Kelvin and some others usede to say that I got a very nice, clean and neat room. I found out that Chris, my fren from RC, was in the same hall and same block too, so I found a fren.

BUt the sad thing was that our block head din even give us so much as a glance. I dunno why he was very unfrenly towards newcomers & din try to integrate us into the block spirit. Whenever I tried to smile at him, he just pretended not to see me. It seemed that there was a sort of gap btw those who belong (those who were active in hall and the oldies) and the newbies (or those who ceased to b active). Not all were like that, but it seemed that the block head's spirit pervaded our whole time there, which was why I decided agst being more active in hall, getting kicked out as the result.

However, that was a minor blot in my happiness there. I made new frens, esp from my CG there. We met every Wed night 10-12 pm. Weijian said that the addition of me, Chris and Jackson made the CG very, very good. Jackson provided the Word, Chris and I helped create laughter and gelled the group tog. Of course, it was e standing scandal that Chris & I were tog hahaha. Weijian used to call him my "fei wen nan peng you" buahahaha. The CG was where I learnt e game of Double Jeopardy, introduced by Jackson. That night was like the highlight of my time there. I was growing like neva b4 in God.

Btw Chris and I, we oso had lotsa fun, tho pls perish that thot abt both of us being more than frens. We went jogging tog, singing tog etc. He was basically more like a mentor gone wrong to me hahaha...wat I mean is that he was always poking fun at me and being very funny in general, always telling me to be more feminine, rub my nose less etc. Most importantly, he was e one trying to help me & Kelvin back then, when we were courting.

Hall time was oso when Stephen decided to make me his god-sis. Becos he was after our fren in Eusoff Hall, he always conveniently came by to ask me out to supper and needless to say, I was oso e butt of his endless jokes. I knew him from RC oso and he was Kelvin's very good fren who had shared weal & woe supposedly. Of course he was oso my matchmaker, complete with psychoanalysist and endless words of advice, wanted or otherwise. Haahha.

The loveliest event in hall was my 22th birthday celeb. It was meant to b a surprsie planned by Chris, but the beans were spilled to me by someone whose identity I chose to keep secret. So I had to feign a pleasant surprise, which din fool the organisers one bit. Anyway, my neighbour, Yunling, knocked on my door & asked (with not a very good acting oso hehe) if i wanna watch "I am Sam" on her comp. Then she said why dun we go up 7th floor to look at the stars, she wanna take some pics. So up we went. Turned out that the ppl who were asked to go had not hidden themselves when I came up. I wanted to laugh becos how could anyone pull this off after this obvious mistake but Yunling made me look at e stars. Later on I learnt that they disagreed on how to best make their entrance to surprise me so they hid so late. Anyway, they came out, bearing e cake and sang and wished me a happy birthday while I tried my best to act surprised. Lovely time we had, with Weijian smashing me with the cake and caused me to have to bathe at 3 am at night!

I oso learnt that I need to learn to cook after being embarassed by the ppl in hall. One day Weijian was cooking for the combined CG when I asked him if I could help. He told me to go slice e carrots. When I did it, Jasmine laughed till her jaws got tired. Instead of slicing it at an angle, I sliced it vertically, which not only made it difficult bt oso resulted in ugly-shaped carrots. Then on another occasion I tried to help Jackson steady the pan while he pour out the water after cooking pasta. I caused the pan to overturn, spilling pasta! Jackson very nicely said to me, "U dun cook a lot at home, do u?" Weijian encouraged me, saying that in e past he din know how to cook oso, but after coming to hall he learnt. Hehe but I haven't learnt till now!

Of course the prize of all these fun was to make my CAP drop drastically. I cried and cried over it for some days. I have since managed to pull it up, but I dunno if I can make it this sem. BUt perhaps in the long run, it is the memories that will stay with us, not our results. So I thank God for this time oso. More abt aspects of my NUS life later.