so, after three years of yearning and awaiting, DUKY has finally come to fruition.
after going through this whole roller coaster of events, we finally made it to UK.
you cannot imagine how excited we were throughout the whole trip, maybe except when we were on the plane back.
much heartfelt thanks to everyone who made this trip possible, authorities on both ends- singapore and uk- and also all the students and dramaddicts! that made this experience a definitely unforgettable one.
It pains me with much regret now that we're all quarantined at home for seven days, but looking back on the last ten days in UK, I'm sure all of us will deem this worth it.
so, lets reminisce about the last ten days in UK.
DAY ONE:
the flight, sorry to say, was absolutely boring. I initially thought it would be much fun to gallavant about on the plane. but no. sad, hard truth? it's terribly boring to watch like almost 10 chick flick movies with no moral values whatsoever. and after the 5th, you start to confuse their characters in the movies, thinking that you are still watching "He's not that into you" when you're actually at "Confessions of a shopaholic".
once we landed, we brisk-walked out into what seemed like winter, at least for me.
yada yada bus ride yada yada travelodge yada yada dinner @ wagamama where I had a taste of reliving my childhood. I had an ice lolly! peach-flavoured, it was okay but I was so excited!
we then walked around abit and witnessed exotic birds (they seriously looked like seagulls or something) flying around. even the dustbins are cool and classic (weird I know)
DAY TWO:
we went to school!
on the way to school, the scenery was breath-taking, plus there were lots of animals like cows and sheep and horses grazing, a sight that can NEVER be witnessed in singapore, so of course I whipped out my handy dandy camera and snapped away! but unfortunately, I was quite slow and didn't get to get good picture on the first day YET. (we would pass by the same route everyday for five days HAH there's plenty of opportunities tomorrow!)
in school, our first impression was:
"oh my gosh. the girls are so freaking pretty!"
they are seriously so pretty, I felt so chinese next to them. okay, I know I AM chinese.
we had these warm ups that really got us "burning". it was pretty physically demanding as it lasted for at least half an hour, or so it felt.
we also had this mask workshop thing where we had to make masks.
so after school, we went to Marks and Spencers to do grocery shopping and I bought plenty of tomatoes! they are really really REALLY GOOOOOD! IT'S A MUST TRY IN UK!
then we had dinner at slugs & lettuce. the beef pie thing was quite nice!
Day three was nothing much so i shall just skip it.
DAY FOUR:
we had more rehearsals for the joint play that Ridings High and our school was working together for. after that, the Ridings students brought us shopping! (not like I really like shopping but it was so sweet of them to offer hahaha) then we went to Liam's place to have a barbecue! the food was so good! and there was this baby- i can't remember boy or girl, but i think its a her- she was so so so cute! shu totally illegally sniffed her. her paedo instincts. but i smelt her too, and she really did smell like flowers hahahaha.
that was about all, we took quite a few group shots and then went back to travelodge.
DAY FIVE:
more rehearsals, which I do not want to delve deep into detail about.
Rock Island! All of them were really good! Especially Tom, so I was glad his band won! Autopilot.
We were also thinking that Joe should have a band too!
went back to travelodge and chantel insisted on making music videos(??) that turned out weird and cannot-be-seen-by-the-world. we then embarked on writing farewell cards (:
until like 2+3 am.
DAY SIX
we had three performances. but the last performance was the most important one because it somehow determined if the UK students could come over to Singapore for the exchange. So of course, we did our ultimate best, and for the first time in six days, I actually perspired (its 18 degrees there).
we were really happy after the last performance and we did the "Everybody Dance now!" clap-dance. then we had this buffet sort of thing and took more photos!
the ridings high students did something so unforgettable and touching, I'll just have to post it up here.
they sang and played this awesome song for us (:
then they gave us their ridings pullovers (:
it was pretty much indescribable and now as I'm typing this, I feel this warm fuzzy feeling inside me.
when we had to go, it was a really difficult goodbye. we kept hugging each other and telling each other how much we would miss each other and almost everyone cried. although I didn't know many of them well, it just felt sad and dreary that we had to leave this coven.
when our bus was getting ready to leave, all of them we like preparing to chase the bus. how sweet can this get man. it ended up with quite a few accidents which made us feel more touched. in the bus, we started singing all the songs we had sung with them. cue more tears and whimpers. when it really started sinking in, that we were never going to see them again, i felt really low.
the next few days, we were in London. nothing much happened except for musuem visiting and shopping.
oh oh! we watched romeo and juliet, Wicked and peter pan.
Wicked was really awesome! nothing like you've seen in Singapore. We even got matching shirts that reads " I (heart) OZ" in purple! whoppee!
I really hope the Ridings High students can come over to Singapore! So that we can return them this favour, this memory, this experience, that I think I wouldn't forget in this lifetime.
RIDINGS HIGH - CHIJ ST NICHOLAS DRAMA EXCHANGE TRIP 2009
