National Days

Hello Everyone!

So after getting back from all my travels last June, it was straight back into some teaching once again. My first semester, I only taught Music, English, and History, but the second semester I also had Maths! The following was my weekly schedule, and you can see that I certainly had quite a few classes, but at the same time, I at least got out fairly early towards the end of the week and had some free time in the middle of the days.

As all teachers are required to do, I had two main outside class activities: SWAT (Saint's Wizz Animation Team, a 3D Animation club), and student government (note: unlike American schools, the prefects, who are chosen by the teachers and older prefects, are the 'student government'.) One of my main activities with the prefects was to accompany a group of them to a two-day youth leadership conference. I was definitely an outsider at it, not only was I by far the youngest 'VIP' there, I was also basically a similar age as some of the other participants who were at university. And, I was the only Caucasian besides two guest speakers from the US. In particular, one of the oddest things for me was sitting through how the Americans approached the audience being people who had never been to Singapore (or even Asia?) before and had flown in just one day prior. They would throw out their American football analogies or Helen Keller jokes that would just fall completely flat with the Singaporean kids. It was also interesting to talk to the Americans individually about Singapore, as they both had nothing but the highest praise for Singapore. It really made me realize how perfect Singapore is for someone just there for a couple of days for a conference: you fly in and out of probably the best airport in the world, get a very nice hotel, everyone seems respectful, and, at this conference, everyone was talking up Singaporean 'racial harmony.' However, as someone who lived in Singapore, I pointed out to them the Singapore is not actually perfect, but they do a good job hiding things beneath the surface.

The first night of the leadership conference, there was an 'Asian Geographic Challenge,' which was set up by the Asian equivalent of the National Geographic Society. Everybody was in random different teams, and I was lucky enough to be with the winning team (and answered the final winning question.) Taking on the Americans don't know geography stereotype one step at a time… Here is the picture my winning team:

Being abroad does mean you miss some very American holidays, but sometimes you find a way to make up for it. On July 4th, my British flatmates decided it would be a great idea to play a prank on the poor American, and one flatmate put a bunch of British flags he got at the Queen's Jubilee celebrations all around the kitchen. Waking up at 2 am to use to restroom, I discovered this defiling of the apartment I lived in and vowed not to stand for it. Re-enact my person version of the war for Independence if you will. So, as can be seen below, I took the British plates, and drew American flags on the back, and wrote selection from the Declaration of Independence on one Union Jack, and the preamble to the Constitution on the other. My roommates/flatmates did take me for someone a bit crazy, but I felt it ended up being a great patriotic celebration.

Just a little over a month after the 4th of July comes Singapore's National Day, which celebrates Singapore's independence from Malaysia in 1965. (Historical note: When Malaysia and Singapore left the British empire in 1963, they both joined in a political union that ended incredibly acrimoniously 2 years later.) At school the day before National Day there was a big celebration with a bunch of the uniformed groups going around the main courtyard, as well as extended Singaporean speeches. The main event of the day for the boys was surprisingly boxing, a well established tradition at my school. So, over the course of the day, there were about 15 or so boxing matches between the boys in a very real boxing ring with official looking judges looking on.

On the 9th of August, most Singaporeans stay home with their family and watch the big National Day Parade (NDP) on TV. Calling NDP a parade is not exactly correct, its more a massive performance that is held at a stadium with some marching, but mostly a bunch of musical performances with lots of fireworks. Unlike the average Singaporean, I wanted to see the fireworks in person, so I went down to Marina Bay where the NDP was happening and saw these fireworks:

It is easy to tell when National Day is arriving cause there is a massive growth in Singaporean flags everywhere across the city, especially on HDBs (Housing Development Board, short name for public housing complexes that 80% of Singaporeans live in.) Here are some of the flags on an HDB that I could see from my bedroom window.

Finally, here is a picture from the special Teacher's Day assembly at my school.I have to say, I really did enjoy teacher's day. Beyond not having to teach, it was nice to be recognized a bit. And, somehow I was only of about 7 teachers to win an 'Organized Teacher' award. Not sure how I was chosen for that category, but hey, sounds good! The following picture is of a class I helped to put together a rendition of Fun's 'We are Young.' Definitely heard it too many times, but fun to watch them progress!

That's it for now. Next entry Jakarta!

-Andrew