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rowlandanthonyimperial

Life's increments & excrements.

rowlandanthonyimperial




17
29/09/90
roman catholic
filipino overseas student

sjii 08-present
sji 06-07
gsc sped 03-05
nddc-ibed 97-03
cic mandaue 95-97

rowlandanthonyimperial

The pinnacle of success in school is achieved by getting into the pinnacle of the student cohort. Because when you're on top, you REALLY are.

Top students usually get the best of what the school has to offer. Top students get the most praises from the best teachers, the best commendations and the best wishes from everyone else. Top students get the greatest exposure on school newsletters and brochures and leaflets and posters. Top students have the best access to the best of things that lie in the distant future. Top students, in a nutshell, form an executive taxonomic group known as "the cream of the crop".

There's no need to loathe them. In fact, they are so-called because there are some characteristics and abilities that people notice in them, which are worth commending and emulating. The school gives credit to such people, so that their endeavors are given recognition as well. And of course, in the spirit of service, commitment and 'pagkakakawang-gawa', they are awarded and honored with gleaming, humongous medals and shining, shimmering, splendid trophies.

And, not to mention that they are recognized as such, so that the rest of the students will be convinced that it is always 'good' to be good.

So much for a good start for the week. I slipped near the CJC bus stop and fell flat to the ground, my uniform smudged with mud and dirt, my body trembling due to intolerable pain. I didn't realize that I had I had a wounded knee, until I saw stains of blood on my pants. The wound was bleeding all the way until I reached school; Mr. Sirhan, fortunately, was there and gave me a helping hand. I owe him big time.

Doing the exam inside the -273 degree centigrade founder's hall, carrying the burden of my stupidity and carelessness, was the biggest challenge that I had to overcome in the course of this O Level Examination period.

Worse, my situation was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It was the day of the English exam, the most important exam of my life.
My only L1 subject.

And I felt that I totally screwed it up.

Two essays, two worst possible essays that I could ever write for an exam.

Incomprehensible comprehension answers.

Poorly reworded summary points.

And a few weeks back, a lackluster Oral Examination performance from yours truly.

Now, I really have no idea how in the world will I be able to clinch that A1 grade.

My life is at stake.

Somehow the attitude we call "complacency" has become more and more of a threat to my academic rigours here in Singapore. A few subjects have already been extinguished from my cranial interiors, and a few more are waiting to be willingly disposed of in the next few weeks. However, this does not mean that it is the perfect time for some crazy exuberance. As the days pass by, the more and more I become complacent; hence explaining the reason behind the drastic increase and decrease in my computer and study times, respectively.

People may argue that I may not need to study 'that' much anymore because of my ultimate mugging revisions during the course of the Preliminary Examinations, but I feel that the efforts I have put in for my Prelims are slowly disintegrating. Recently I did a Physics O level paper, and to my surprise, I found it as challenging as my Prelim Physics exam.

Well, let's just see what happens in the next few days. Hope I can still stretch some 'lazy' brain cells and force them to work, and encourage myself to study 'smart'.

Lately I have been wondering why some fortunate people can discern about the future events ahead of them, and why some people just cannot predict what lies beyond the fortification that is today, thus leaving them embattled between regret and stupidity.

The History elective paper is one the easiest and most annoying papers that students sit for their O Level exams. It is an unbelievably 1 hour and 30 minute- paper only, wherein you need to use your lightning speed abilities to the maximum in order to answer 2 structured essay questions and four source-based questions. Free time? nah. You can only have such a luxury if and only if you are totally a genius or if you did not study at all.

One of the good things about this paper is that it's so short; you will never realise that you have already ran out of time. It's good that way because you do not have to stress yourself for so long.

Well, back to the first paragraph. The culprit? Spotting.

Spotting, perhaps, has been one of the oldest forms of getting away from doing too much work. People would rather pick a few choices from a multitude of options, and hope for the best that those choices will eventually be the right ones, for whatever purpose it may serve them best. It's like playing a game of "guess-where-Kazakhstan-is-on-the-map". It is such a tough game, but once you discover that there is this so-called Borat DVD somewhere in Divisoria you suddenly realise that you do not need to worry about the game anymore. Plus, you get to enjoy the movie as well. Spotting has benefitted millions of people. Spotting also has brought trouble to millions of people too. It all depends on whether they are in the right place, at the right time.

Which brings me to the idea of spotting for the history paper.

This year, 2007, is the first year ever since 2002, that a Germany chapter did not come out for the paper.

And many a people were taken aback by this strange phenomenon, wondering how in the world did Germany diasppear from the list of essay questions.

Was there a printing error?!

Yoohoo, are we in the right place?!

Hey, Mr./Ms. Invigilator, I think you gave me the wrong question paper...

Yes, indeed, the paper did not have a single trace of German stench of atrocious SBQs and perplexing SEQs.


Scary, as it might sound, but I believe that there are just too many people who are so good at spotting.

Some have studied chapters 1,4,5,6 and 10.

Some have studies 2,5, and 10.

Some have studied 4,5, and 6.

And some? 6.

Well, I am happy that many people did not find the paper difficult, although some were still traumatized with the sudden disappearance of what we call "the trend" in the papers.

The moral lesson?

Spot.
Really.
But do it intelligently.
Cause you will never know what will come out until you see it on the day of its revelation.


All the best for our social studies test! :)

hahaha.. i just found this small article on a magazine which has caught my attention because Surya kept on laughing hysterically when I asked him to read it. So, in conclusion, I guess it's funny after all!

5 ways to deflate his... um... ego.

1. "You know, they have surgery to fix that."

2. "Are you cold?"

3. "wow, your feet are so big, who'd have thought..."

4. "It's tiny! does it even work?"

5. "Maybe if we water it, it'll grow."

^__^

if you're having a problem with your tiny friend, it's okay. :)
Just make full use of it. hahaha

-peace-

finally, something good came, and that something has boosted my morale:

Chemistry 5068/02

yipee!! i hav never felt so much confidence in a science theory paper before.

now i'm so determined to study even more!!!

A Maths is finally over! Yipee!!! I think I lost 3-4 marks in total for papers 1 and 2.

Anyone who wants to join me for the much-awaited BURN-ALL-YOUR-A-MATHS-STUFF celebration?

Hope that the good O level aura continues to encapsulate me until the very last paper. :)

Anyway, all the best to my batchmates and to everyone who's taking their As and Os. We can do this well!

Happy Power Rangers Day!

Hahaha. No, it's not the day of the first episode of the much-loved Mighty morphin' power rangers.

This is the day when Zipporah, Kenneth, Candice, Danson, and I arrived in Singapore! It has been two years.. how time flies. Ang bilis nga naman talaga. Kenneth was the one who initiated the 'Power Rangers' thing, because there are five of us, 3 boys and 2 girls. So it fits nga naman. Hahahaha..

I can still remember the first day of our stay here in Singapore. A multitude of our senior fetched us from the airport. The first was I saw was of course, Ate Joahanna. They were wearing their uniforms, and it seemed really awkward to see them wearing such clothes at that time. Were they cutting classes? That was what I thought.

Anyway, I am very happy na two years na kaming nandito. I mean, two more years to go, at mag-u-university na rin ako.

^__^

The juniors are here! Batch 9! Whew. Nine years have passed and the Filipino scholars have remained extremely small in number, but powerful in presence, remembering a few of those more 'noticeable' ones like Allen Huang or the legendary (in SJI) Pablo Benedicto Cid Lazatin THE FOURTH, or even the more legendary (in SJI again) Calvin Caleb Lee Sy... :)

I still can't believe that I have been in Singapore for almost two years (tomorrow's our anniversary, Power Rangers' day, as kenneth calls it). I still can't believe how people like the people-who-came-in-sec-one could have withstood staying here for FOUR years!!! Anyway, yesterday, the ultimate batch seven Pinoy 1skolars came to Changi Airport at 1030am, not to see the new Airbus 380 but to study intensively for our O levels. Really. We did. The price? I spent more than 10bucks in McDonald's. ='( I studied Maths (not really studied lah, just did some questions from the five-year series). Kenneth was with me on the same table, and he was studying Geography. Danson, Jix and Calvin were studying bio, I think. After a few hours Zippy and Candice arrived and they too were engulfed in the mugger-ish atmosphere that encapsulated the early settlers in McDonlad's. Alon arrived without any materials. Sad. He thought the study thing was just a joke! hahaha... finally Jessie arrived and the whole batch was complete. Same for him, no studying materials.

***

I've gotten the SJI International scholarship today. I've decided to go for it. Hope I'm making the right decision!

Finally, bio prac is over.
I spotted wrongly! I thought homeostasis and leaf will come out.
In the end I saw myself with a zillion specimens, comprising fruits and seeds.

Actually, the practical was good. I think I did well, though I may have done a few mistakes here and there.

I hope I can get an A1! =D


Well, I would like to put some jokes here.. some may be in Tagalog, so ask some Pinoy firneds that you know to translate them for you!


JOKES!

#1:

JUAN: Pedro! Nasaksak ako! Walang hinto tagas ng dugo ko... Please, call me a doctor. Call me a doctor!!!

PEDRO: Sige, you're a doctor! Doctor ka Juan! You're a doctoooor!!!


#2:

ERAP: Pare ang bilis ko natapos buuin 'yung puzzle!

JUAN: Talaga? Gaano kabilis?

ERAP: Five months!

JUAN: Ang tagal naman!

ERAP: Eh tanga ka pala eh. Anong matagal, nakalagay nga dito "for 3 years and up"!


#3:

Nakakainis minsan!

Kung kailan alam mong mahal mo na siya,

saka pa siya nawawala.

Pero may mas nakakaasar pa diyan:

'Yun ay kung kailan alam mo na 'yung sagot,

pass your papers na agad.


#4:

PEDRO: Manong bayad.

DRAYBER: Saan galing?

PEDRO: Bulsa ko!

DRAYBER: hindi, saan sumakay??

PEDRO: Edi sa jeep niyo!

DRAYBER: Loko 'to ah! (bigyan ko nga ng kulang na sukli)

PEDRO: Manong kulang... magkano ba Quiapo?

DRAYBER: Bakit, bibilhin mo?


#5:

Quote for the day:

'Di bale walang tulog, kaysa naman walang gising!


#6:

Friends are like charcoals on fire;

together they glow.

Apart, they die out...

Hope the glow that we have won't ever die out!

Take care then, my precious...

Uling!!!


#7:

Small boy wrote to Santa Claus, "send me a brother".

Santa wrote back: "send me your mother".


#8:

NANAY: Hon, kanino kaya nakuha ng anak natin ang kagandahan niya?

TATAY: Syempre sa'yo!

NANAY: Talaga?? Paano mo naman nasabi? (kilig)

TATAY: Kasi walang natira sa'yo eh.


#9:

PARE 1: Gara ng sapatos mo pare!

PARE 2: Sorpresa ng misis ko.

PARE 1: Saan nabili?

PARE 2: Ewan. Kita ko lang sa ilalim ng kama kaninang umaga, may medyas pa.



I feel most of the jokes are really really funny, especially when someone reads them aloud to you.
hope you had fun reading them as much as I did. =)

my roommate!

nguyen in his weirdest costume ever

matthew as shinigami.

surya as the magician.

shreyas: good girl? gone bad?

niko.

me and jix.

robert agustian as pink ranger

rinda and evelyn.

timothy.

savy!!!!!!

julian and me.

bo er and me.

stefanie and susi.

caroline and fanny.

sebastian.

me and the girls I.

me and the girls II.

valencia and me.

rheyza and me.

brother paul and me.

three filipinos!!!

After the event, so many people went to my room. I don't know why... Everyone was just happy and still very enthusiastic after a long day of celebration.

Julian.

Jix and Ching Sarn.

Arnold.

me about to take a nice, hot bath.

And I would like to thank Jin for making my souvenir! Congrats to the committee who made the event meaningful and wonderful for us.

I have decided to post my speech in the Seniors' Farewell. Thanks to all those who appreciated it!

Two years. Imagine, two years. We have met more that three hundred new people, crossed over 200 new roads, rode on 100 new buses, ate 50 more new food delicacies, learnt 1000 new swear words, and lived together in one new home, in one new country.

These have been the fastest two years, I must say this for myself. These two years have been incredibly slow while we were on it, gliding and rocking and swaying on the same boat, some getting sea sick, while some getting addictive verve and elation, but now that these two years have passed, gosh, it was damn fast.

I can still remember the first person that I saw when I stepped in CJC. Huy. I thought he was a JC student studying in Catholic Junior College . I thought he was from China . I thought he was going to be my future roommate, because he was standing in front of the porch, seeming as if he was waiting for me all these years.

But I was wrong. He was not a JC student studying in CJC. He was merely a Sec3 student, going to be studying in St. Joseph ’s Institution, equally new and ignorant as me.
I was wrong. He was not from China . He was from Vietnam .
I was wrong. He was not going to be my roommate. He was going to be a resident of the room beside mine.

The first memories were still vivid. Le Vu, Phuc, Duy, Robert, Marconi and me as the first batch of ASEAN scholars who arrived in the hostel. Truc, Huy, Khanh and the other Vietnamese enjoying the dimness of their yellow-lit lamps given to them by Madam Tee. Julian and Marconi with me in the dining hall, eating dinner. Auntie Kristine giving us cakes on our very first dinner in CJC.

And, the first ever christmas away from home.

Soon everything changed. People started flocking the place as if they were migratory birds who just came back from the mating season. The place was filled with noise. There were different smells everywhere. Different faces. Different languages. Different ersonalities and characteristics. Like a United Nations General assembly squeezed into a few hundred square metres of glass, concrete, iron bars and wood.

People began to know each other. People began to make friends. People began to explore different probabilities of who’s going to hook up with who, or who’s going to break up with who. Gangs, societies, and alliances formed, and each distinct group successfully captured different territories inside the dining hall. Some were solitary people who felt left out, and some were solitary people who have enjoyed all the solitude all they have acquired. Some people left us, while some people have been leaving us from time to time (get my point?). Some people became friends one day and the next day they were no more. Some people were vicious enemies the moment they saw one another, but in the end, you couldn’t separate them at all.

Life was fun and memorable for us, for most of us. Some of us enjoyed the little victories we have made in our hostel games. Felt the sense of euphoria upon catching one committee member hiding in the dark corners of CJC. Felt frustration and anger after missing that one last shot in the last few seconds of the captain’s ball game. Felt confusion and psyduckishness after a wrong tally of the team scores.

Life was also unbearable for us. All the project works that we have to do late at night, all the stench and smell from our friends’ shoeracks, all the pile of laundry inside the washing machine that we need to take out because the recent washer has not collected the finished laundry yet. All the times that we had to wake up early for school, and all the excuses that we had to formulate if we wanted to skip school.

Life here has always been full of surprises. We have formed strong firendships with people that we have never thought of befriending on the first day that we have met them. We have gathered ourselves acquaintances that we have never thought of acquainting with. We have encountered people who have changed our lives for the past two years.

And we will never forget the small but soon to be special places that we have always been in.

The dining hall with Auntie Kristine.
The vending machines. Our source of nescafe.
The table tennis arena.
The CJC chapel.
The newspaper lounge.
The lounge.
The TV room.
Our room.
The basketball courts.
The steep grandstand.
The hill.
The barbage bin.
The toilets.

I hope that we will forever cherish our stay here, the bonds that have been formed within our small community. May we not forget the lessons we have learnt in life inside CJC hostel, and may we continue to move on with our lives without forgetting the past that we have shared.

#1: Bus.

Randy.

#2. MRT.

MRT emo guys...

Which way?!

Newest endorser of the so-called "Underground Radio"...

We were tired of travelling. Eventually we arrived at Changi Ferry Terminal, and there we had to ride a boat to go to Pulau Ubin..

Ah.....

Lisan's irresistible suicidal attempt.

Dung and me.

they're getting seasick.

See how uncomfortable the seat is.

Caroline falls for the nth time.

ayu and vena.

posers. =p

The biking was fun... it was awesome. We had a good time. It seemed like the perfect way to destress! Especially for us sec4s who were there, because we were still having our O levels.

Then we stopped by to have some cold drinks.. Some drank buko (coconut) juice, while the rest decided to poison themselves a little by having a can of coke and sprite.

We followed the sign...

...and see? they were like monkeys who found golden-plated bananas.

Ayu got into an accident.

We were all shocked to see her bleeding.. So our brave SJAB people finally managed to use what they have learnt in their CCA...

Then Lisan and I rushed to the Police Coast Guard (which was helluva mile and miles away from the area where the accident took place)...

Finally we managed to get proper help from two kind policemen. Thanks for helping us out!

rowlandanthonyimperial

rowlandanthonyimperial




sji international
carmen charissa danusha eskor
ian jessica joey jose
mary matthew nicolette sarah
weijie yinto zhenhe
rowland
sji 07
aloysius arthur boer calvin fong
iqbal matthew tianye hazm
others
alyssa christabel ferina pynx

philippines
benazhir candice crisselle eunice
joahanna kenneth lex muriel neil brian
rheyza

rowlandanthonyimperial

October 2007

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