Dalat International School: Senior Scribble

  Swimming and playing basketball used to be an integral part of hanging out with my friends. This usually took place at the cove, since it has a usable basketball court and multiple pool facilities.  Nowadays, everyone is so busy with school, hanging out at other spots and taking the pool facilities for granted, that these hangouts rarely even happen anymore. However, recently, it did.  I met up with Raphael Boyle (9), Zach Ooi (12) and Ben DeVries (12) at the Astaka food court before the hangout, to eat some delicious local food.  After eating, we went over to the cove. However, instead of heading to the basketball court, we went to the tennis court. Zach and I wanted to play some tennis, and so we did. We played for around an hour, and had a great time. I was rather rusty, but was able to still serve rockets.  After playing tennis, we met up with Philip DeVries (12), Abraham Miller (12), Clark Zhang (12), Matthias Seevaratnam (12) and Reuben Beasley (10) to p...

  It was our last outing as a class. The final, and fourth one. Compared to the previous ones, this one was probably the best. We had gone to a waterpark before, but ESCAPE is the better one out of the two. Getting there was less of a hassle that I imagined it to be, since the drive was around 10km from Dalat. Once I arrived, I gathered with the rest of the class, and entered the water park. A few things changed however from the last time I was there. Firstly, face identification technology had been established at the entry/exit gates. This was a great surprise for me, since Penang is usually quite ancient in its technology, compared to the bigger cities in South East Asia. Using the Face identification scanners proved to be a great help, since they just scanned your face and let you through. Secondly, the waterpark contains freely rideable scooters now. They go quite fast, reaching around 25km top speed when you have fast mode enabled. This makes traversing the park ever so mu...

  Not many seniors can believe the way time flies. With graduation a week away, many students are reflecting on their journeys at Dalat. No matter if you started in elementary school or joined just this year, soon you will be able to say that you’ve graduated together. We all benefited from Dalat differently. There were certain people who even marked their years in high school by participation in the NFL. More popularly, people chose to surround themselves with sports, joining varsity teams, D-league, regional tournaments, and ACSC trips. Some opted for the stage, performing well-rehearsed lines in front of hundreds, conveying their emotions through exaggeration, tone, and body language. Others focused on clubs that carried their learning beyond the classroom, or devoted their time to service and chapels.  Rebekah Wood (12), leader of Student Impact Club, explained, “It was rewarding to see how even just showing up put a smile on kids’ faces. I was able to build true connectio...

  At exactly 3:15 p.m, something interesting happens at Dalat. It’s not something loud or dramatic. Quite ironically, it's the complete opposite… just silence. One second, the senior campus is alive, and the next second it’s basically a speed run of who can leave school the fastest, and everybody disappears at the same time. If you stand there long enough, you could almost magically hear the echo of backpacks zipping up in perfect sync.  If you ask me, it’s pretty impressive.  Before this year, seniors used to actually stay after school. People would function normally after school, like hanging out with friends, playing basketball, talking for hours, and then finally slowly making their way home. The basketball court was the highlight, it was practically the main gathering spot after school. There used to be games every day, lots of noise, and the adrenaline was brought to the max.  However, now, it’s really depressingly different. After 3:15, you blink, and it’s emp...

  Christal Teoh (12) disrupted a peaceful Sunday night when she announced that Senior Assassin would officially begin the next morning. Within minutes, the entire class logged onto the Senior Assassin app. While most players stayed discreet in the chatbox, Abraham Miller (12) posted a victory emoji, like a warrior celebrating before the battle began. Within twelve hours, Anna Chand had eliminated him: the game’s first casualty, and its first lesson in humility. Senior Assassin, an unofficial tradition that ripples through graduating classes across American High Schools, arrived at Dalat on Monday, May 18, when Christal Teoh (12) of the Senior Class ExCom launched the game, with 43 Class of 2026 students enrolled. “ ExCom decided to run Senior Assassin because it was a fun way to end our high school days and also a tradition that previous grades have done.” Christal Teoh (12) said. Each player draws a single target; an elimination requires water splashed on the target, verified by ...

  There are games that end with a whistle, and others that stay with you long after the field is empty. For me, this year's ACSC was both.  Before our final game even started, I could already feel myself getting emotional. My designated hair braider, Hannh Blacklock (11) was braiding my hair for the last time. The moment I heard a small sniffle from her, neither of us could hold it together anymore. It’s strange how such a simple action hit me harder than I expected. We had done this so many times before that it felt normal, but this time it was different because we both knew it was the last. Sitting there while she finished my braids, surrounded by my teammates getting ready, I realized how much I was going to miss all of this.  The match was against last year's champions, ICS HK, and from the second the game started, we played like we had nothing left to lose. The Jakarta heat was exhausting, but we kept on pushing harder and harder, remembering how much we had worked f...