Dalat International School: Senior Scribble

Kassy Steinkamp At 8 p.m. Friday night, 20 November, the girls’ varsity basketball team began to warm-up for their imminent game against the Ex-Nationals  team, music blasting, crowd gathering, and adrenaline pumping. The first game of the season for the girls' team consisted of solid skills, intense running, and an unexpected CB asking. Three weeks into the season, the girls' varsity team played the Ex-Nationals, a team made up of former national players ranging from 20-40 years of age, who may have lacked some in speed but made up for it in experience. At the beginning of the game, the Ex-Nationals team posed a threat and challenged the girls to run faster, pass smarter, move quicker. But as soon as Sarah Tan (12) swished a 2-point shot, the girls were filled with a fiery desire to win the game. Within minutes, the girls pulled ahead and held the Ex-Nationals' score at a distance until the buzzer blared at the end of second quarter. During halftime, both teams ...

Mary-Claire McIntyre Salsa to CB with me? Whale you be my date? CB? No matter how you say it, the question of all questions brings out the nerves in everyone. A series of romantic gestures on Dalat campus...Could it be? No worries. You're not having a hallucination. It's just CB time. The on-campus craziness began with an equally crazy video. Peter Lee released a comedic call to all sweethearts and singles to join StuCo on December 11th at Paradise Hotel for the Christmas Banquet. Some took the classic route with their askings. Amanda Goh (12) had a group of friends hold up signs with the simple but effective question, "Will you go to CB with me?" Some took a more adventurous approach to the age-old tradition. Annabelle Teoh (9) had "Uptown Funk" by Bruno Mars play as she danced her way across the gym with the girls’ basketball team to ask Nick Khor (9). Even Mr. Steinkamp got in on the asking, helping to hold up Annabelle's sign...

Karsten Ladner Despite his friendly appearances at high school drama performances as the director, few realize the impact of Mr. Sasse’s passion to write. Arriving in 2006 as the new high school social studies teacher, Mr. Mark Sasse quickly garnered a reputation among his students for his devastating pop quizzes in his geography class. Today, however, he is known for the words he has written in plays, skits, novels, and musicals. It was only the second year of Mr. Sasse’s tenure at the school that he began writing--and directing. When the previous drama director left, Mr. Sasse rose to fill the vacancy, having absolutely no experience as either an actor or a director. Sasse, rising to the occasion, not only directed the production but also wrote the entire script with a motley band of eager students. Since beginning in 2007, this remarkable teacher has continued to write and direct the scripts, heavily investing in the lives of students under his tutelage. In addition...

Brian Hiew  Hindu-practicing Malaysians filled the streetways of Little India to participate in Deepavali, also known as The Festival of Lights on November 11, 2015. As the month of November swept in, the streets of Penang, Malaysia began to congest and light up. People set up stations along the sidewalks and filled the roads with color. What was the sudden change? The season of Deepavali had officially began. Deepavali is a Hindu festival celebrated to commemorate the return of Lord Rama, a prominent Hindu God; in addition, it is said that Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity, will enter buildings decorated with diyas to bless the homes and families. Such tradition has been practiced globally for hundreds of years in numerous Hindu communities. As the evening slowly appeared around 5-6pm, a multitude of Indians gathered in Little India to witness the “brightest festival of the year.” Hundreds of houses, stalls, and especially temples are heavily lit with diyas (sma...

Thizbe Balzer On November 11, 2015, the Remembrance Day assembly allowed all members of the Dalat community to take a few steps back from their busy schedules, gain perspective, and stand together with hearts of gratitude. Dalat goers fled into the gymnasium on that sunny Wednesday afternoon. Queued by the audible but barely noticeable tardy bell, the uproar of eager chatter and subsequent echoes, which saturated the hall with excitement, came to a slow yet serious halt as Mr. Hoffmeyer began to speak.  A badged vest clung to his shoulder, and his uniform mimicked the others on the elevated platform to which everyone’s attention had turned.  Those of importance sat tall, reveling in thoughtful and reflective expression; those who stood spoke with a certain kind of dignified vulnerability.  This was serious.  This was real.  People were out there fighting a war for us.  Their faces told the story. While the “old folk” told the story, individuals of th...

Brenda Ng “The Sleep-In Day contest is here once again,” STUCO’s Peter Lee announced in chapel on the 6th of November, 2015. All students, especially those with dark, heavy eye bags, cheered. They rejoiced with appreciation that STUCO has finally noticed and attended to their dire need for sleep. As long as each student contributes 10 Ringgit, sacrificing a few sweet treats at the Junior Class Store and Zach’s Shack, everyone would get to sleep in for one, two, or three blocks. Who would not appreciate a few more hours of sleep? When the Sleep-In Day contest commenced on Monday, the 9th, only a few eager students, mostly sophomores, dashed into the office to drop off their 10 Ringgit. As Friday—the deadline of the contest—drew near, an increasing number of students made their way to the office to give their share. By Thursday, the hallways, cafeteria, classrooms, and student center were filled with the question, “have you paid 10 Ringgit?” Though the seniors were in the lead on Th...

Christina Lee  Deepavali, or more commonly known as the “festival of the lights,” is one of the most important festivals of Hinduism that spans over the course of five days. The origin of the festival stemmed from the story about Lord Rama from the Hindu epic Ramayana . When Rama and his wife, Sita, returned to their country after fourteen years of exile, the people welcomed them by lighting small oil lamps called diye. At night during the festival, similar oil lamps still illuminate households and temples, being a beautiful symbol of the inner victory of goodness over evil. In anticipation for Deepavali, many families cleaned their houses and adorned the entrances with colorful patterns called ragoli. Very much like Chinese New Year, Deepavali symbolizes a new beginning for the hopes of a financially prosperous year. Offices and households are thus decorated with Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune. Varying with regional traditions, Deepavali also honors the marriage of Vishnu and ...

Sarah Tan With a bowling ball in hand and barely balancing on his left foot, Noel Teng hopped up to the foul line and eyed the pins so closely that he forgot to focus on not face-planting the ground. It was both a tragic and hilarious ending. Last Saturday, the seniors escaped from the grueling monotony of school and, for those who took the SAT that morning, cured their post-traumatic stress by going out for a night of bowling—if you can even call it that.  To spice up the competition, the Senior Class ExCom created unusual tasks for each bowler to attempt. These challenges included bowling with your eyes closed, throwing the ball “granny-style,” using your left hand, and, demonstrated by Noel Teng, bowling on one leg. But, thankfully for Teng, he was not the only one whose body unexpectedly met the ground.  Bowling balls, human limbs, and french-fries flew everywhere; and even the class-sponsors Mrs. Steinkamp and Mrs. Roberts, along with her toddler, Marshal...

On a Saturday afternoon, 7 November, a group of seniors gathered in Penang Bowl. It was a rather unusual thing because, normally, it is hard to see that many seniors together. But this time, they were gathered to have their second class event, obviously being bowling. First, seniors played one full game of bowling with the regular set of rules. They were divided into six teams with four to five players on each team. Each team was assigned to a lane where they bowled casually. But to shakes some fun into their experience, seniors decided to play with some variations. The first variation was blind bowling. Seniors had to cover their eyes and bowl. The second variation was bowling with the non-dominant hand. The third variation was bowling on one leg; this provided a new challenge to students, since they had to balance themselves while bowling a heavy ball. The last variation was to bowl as hard as they could, and the bowling balls did indeed travel along the bowling lanes faster than ...

Charlotte Combrink It was all planned out. During the three weeks leading up to the senior’s and eighth grader’s “Fall Fun Costume Party” (it was not a Halloween party, mind you—this is Dalat), Excom delivered invitations, had meetings, sent emails, and made announcements in preparation for the upcoming event. And it was all ready. By 4:15p on Friday afternoon, 30 October, the portable sound system was set up with upbeat music playing from its speakers, the games were in place, and the Halloween-themed snacks were looking yummy! Monsters, mice, witches…and a watermelon flooded onto the court, bubbling with excitement for the party and for the weekend. It is a Dalat tradition for seniors to pair up with 8 th graders and become their “Senior Buddies”; they are then encouraged to get to know each other throughout the year. For this Friday event, each pair or triplet of buddies wore coordinated costumes and planned to go from station to station together, playing games like appl...

Angelene Woo Signs were put up around campus in regards to Dalat International School’s new campus construction. One of these signs had a comma splice, and English teachers Bethany Weidemann and Emily Grad decided to take the matter into their own hands. The school year of 2015-2016 saw the start of the construction of Dalat International School’s new campus. Signs were placed around campus warning students of the dangers of the construction work and expressing the need for caution. One such sign requested that the students kindly welcome the construction workers as Dalat’s guests. This sign, however, contained a ghastly flaw! Dalat International School, who prides itself on producing students with perfect grammar—mostly thanks to Tommy Tompkins—, printed a comma splice on signs all over campus! A comma splice is a serious offence and is defined by Dictionary.com as, “the use of a comma, rather than a semicolon, colon, or period, to join two independent clauses in the absence ...

Andy Ewe On Thursday afternoon, 29 October, at 4.30 p.m., the boys’ varsity and junior varsity soccer teams ended their season with a match against Uplands at the Adventist field. Originally, the varsity soccer team was scheduled to play against the Uplands A team, while the junior varsity team would play the Uplands B team. Due to a miscommunication, however, only the Uplands B team showed up to play. Because of this error, a compromise had to be made; it was decided that the Dalat varsity team would play one half against the Uplands team, while the junior varsity would take over and finish the second half. The Dalat varsity team brightly by scoring two goals within the first five minutes against the smaller and younger Uplands team. After twenty minutes of play by the first eleven, all of the players were substituted in order to have all twenty-two players play in the final match. The substitutions clearly had no negative impact on the excellent offensive display shown by th...