Dalat International School: Senior Scribble

Christy Chow On Tuesday, April 18th, Dalat’s women’s varsity soccer team met at 3:30am to begin their journey to Manila for the ACSC soccer tournament. The sixteen exhausted girls headed to Penang International Airport in two vans, accompanied by Coach Frohlich, Coach Munson, and chaperone/parent Aunty Claudia. Upon arrival in KLIA, the girls immediately boarded their next flight to Manila. This flight took much longer, but the team entertained themselves by watching movies from the countless selection Malaysian Airlines offered.  The plane eventually touched down at noon and the girls piled out of the gate into the long immigration lines. During their wait, Daniela Rana (11) kept the girls in good spirits by telling a story about her windowless seat on the airplane.  Unfortunately, after the long wait, not all the girls passed through immigration safely. The immigration officers detained three of the youngest members of the team traveling without a parent pre...

Darby Kendrick Varsity girls’ soccer is unlike any other sport at Dalat. Unlike other sports, we don't have an abundance of people who want to join the team, we have two seasons in the school year, and we think that we laugh more than all of the other teams combined. This year for our ACSC tournament, we traveled to Manila, Philippines. We had a goal, one we had been working for since the beginning of the school year: we wanted to place third or higher in the tournament. Throughout the whole tournament, we all went to bed at 9pm, drank more than enough water, and ate the healthiest we could from the options provided. While other teams took trips to the mall and didn't get back until 2am, or ate the desserts provided during lunch, we had our goal in mind and did not want to compromise our playing by not fueling our bodies correctly with nutrition and sleep.   Our first game resulted in a 1-0 win against St. Paul. The next day we tied 1-1 with Grace, and the followin...

Christy Chow After a long week in Manila, Dalat’s varsity women’s soccer team headed back home without a trophy—but with lifelong memories. Thankfully, this trip back didn’t involve a 3am wake-up call. The team of nineteen women left the YunJyo Lyso Ministry Center at 11am and arrived at the airport after an hour-long drive through traffic. For some reason, this team attracted misfortune whenever they travelled. Upon arrival at the check-in counters, the officers informed the team that their carry-on bags were now too heavy for the flight home, which resulted in them having to check-in their precious cleats and uniforms. Before checking her bag in, Kayla Ronning (11) warned the officer, “If my bag doesn’t get to Penang, I’m going to know who to blame.” The team hopped onto the plane, only to soon find out that there had been a delay. By the time the team arrived in KL, their next flight to Penang was set to leave in thirty minutes. Before the plane landed, Coach Frohlich c...

Yeorin Yun On Thursday, April 13th, the StuCo committee hosted their last event, called The Talon Games, for the 2016-17 school year. Over ninety high school and 8th grade students got into groups of eight to form a district to participate in this second annual challenge. The Talon Games, which adapted the Hunger Games’ theme of survival, turned out to be a great success. All twelve districts were represented. On the day of the event, the majority of the districts’ players showed up in matching colors. Among districts one to twelve, district eleven stood out for its players’ outfits. Teddy Zimmer (11), Gavin Zimmer (9) showed up in legitimate camouflage soldier uniforms and toy guns, while Daniel Munson (12) painted his face black and white, along with shaving his hair into a Mohawk, to boost team spirit. The school has never been busier and lively thanks to the Talon Games. Students competed in stations; those who weren’t in stations were constantly running around to avo...

Laura Joy Phillips With JSB about a week away, the 10th through 12th graders have a number of things to prepare for. The first thing that comes to mind in the weeks leading up to JSB is the whole ordeal of asking, and the second is probably the knowledge that the juniors are down to their last few days to polish their program. But this year, the sophomores and seniors have a new aspect of preparation beyond finding a date: learning to dance. For the first time, Dalat is sanctioning students to dance as part of the banquet. Several times a week during lunch, students were free to go to the chapel and learn the basics of the dance from Mr. Pagee. During the lesson on Monday, April 17, the first few minutes were a flurry of finding partners and getting positioned in a circle around the chapel. Mr. Pagee demonstrated arm positions and then led the students in learning the basic steps. After allowing a bit of time to practice and correcting some common mistakes, Mr. Pagee explained...

Susan Oh Long weekends are a great opportunity to just relax and be lazy. Like many others, I spend most of my long weekends taking several naps, maybe going out to Gurney with friends, or binge watching my favorite TV shows. But this past long weekend was a bit different. This long weekend I decided to go on a little trip, and that became one of the most productive things I did. Just an hour away from Penang there is an island called Song Song. Song Song Island is very small compared to Penang, but it’s a very beautiful place. The water is clear, the sand is white, the sun is bright, and there is a forest where people can explore. Half of the island is covered with red, slippery rocks that lead to the forest, while the other half is filled with soft, white sand that makes a clean beach. It’s a perfect getaway place. Getting there, however, can be a little tricky. First, you need to ride a boat. During the ride, the waves can be harsh. If you get easily seasick or have tro...

Denise Chai It’s that time of the year, when after the admissions cycle of searching, planning, working, stressing, waiting, and rejoicing/mourning has come to a close, and Dalat seniors are preparing themselves for the final stretch of high school. For those hard-working seniors lucky to have the intellectual and economic means to entertain alternatives, choosing the right college becomes one of the first-world problems many of them have to face. Student Lilian Li (12) weighs in on the topic, “Choosing a college is hard because it feels like I'm choosing my next phase in life, but it is also exciting because I don't know what the future will hold.” As exciting as it surely is, there’s also a lot to consider. With their heads swimming in statistics, drowning in advice as they weigh the pros and cons of each institution, and as their hearts and brains are locked in fierce battle for the rightful candidate to arise, along with the dreaded AP tests and all the imp...

Mathias Maurin For the first time in Dalat history, the track team (known as the Treagles (Track Eagles)) travelled to compete in ACSC. The momentous meet was held in Taichung, Taiwan on Morrison Academy’s campus. The Treagles trained all season for this highly anticipated event, faithfully attending three practices a week and the occasional weekend track meet. Upon arrival in Taiwan, the Dalat students were immediately treated to a bustling night market, despite their exhausting day of travel. Led by Mandarin-speaking Morrison students, the Treagles had their fill of the finest Taiwanese street food. When they arrived at Morrison’s campus after dinner, the team had a debrief on the track on which they’d be running the following days. Floodlights illuminated Joseph Chandra (9) as he encouraged the athletes—reminding them that their abilities were from God and that they’d be competing for his glory. After a mighty Treagles chant and a terrifying squawk, the tired team went ...

Jarrod Chang On the 7th of April, the asking season for 2017’s Junior Senior Banquet officially began for the seniors, prompting every twelfth grade male to ponder the hundreds of ways to ask the ubiquitous question: “Will you go to JSB with me?” What seemed like a regular chapel session ended with a unique surprise as Simon Jeong (11) stood on his seat and started a quirky flash mob that danced to the tune of High School Musical’s “A Night to Remember.” The juniors then formally invited the Class of 2017 to this year’s JSB. As the seniors approached the front of the room to receive their elegant invitation cards, again, one question preoccupied the minds of every man: How am I going to ask her? Contrary to popular belief, the most common question for senior guys during asking season does not concern who they want to ask; it involves how. Most seniors, since it’s their last JSB, have already worked out the details of who they want to spend that special night with. The har...

Wei Sing Goh For one day in Taipei, a group of seniors met up with an old friend who went to Dalat International School back in middle school. A group of seniors, Sam Huang, Jerald Lim, Felicia Teoh, Jarrod Chang, and Christy Chow, were going to Taipei, Taiwan for their ACSC track meet. Upon further planning, the seniors decided to leave for Taiwan ahead of time so they could spend their spring break there before the track meet. Coincidentally, Wei Sing Goh (12) and Jessica Hsiao were also going to be in Taiwan during that time. Goh’s family had decided to visit and tour Taiwan during spring break and Hsiao, an ex Dalat student now studying in Shanghai American School, was returning to Taiwan during her spring break to visit her relatives. On Monday afternoon at around 4 p.m., Jessica Hsiao arrived in Taipei International Airport and met up with Wei Sing Goh at the 1914 Creative Park, which features a bunch of small cafes and art shops. After walking around for a bit, they...