Dalat International School: Senior Scribble

En Qi Saw As usual, the annual Dalat Fine Arts Festival was held at Penang Performing Arts Center last Friday, May 20 th .   At 5:00 pm sharp, the very first set of performance officially begun. The main performers of the evening were the High School Jazz Band, the Middle School Jazz Band, the Women’s Ensemble, the Men’s Ensemble, and Senior Brass. The Middle School Jazz Band kick started the evening off with two beautiful songs, led and conducted by middle school band coordinator, Mr. Andrew Kearney. It was then followed with five more songs played by the High School Jazz Band. As the concert went on, baby Isaac Kearney, Mr. Kearney’s one-year-old son, who was sitting in the front row with his mother, Mrs. Sara Kearney, was heard groaning and weeping, struggling to sit still quietly. The audience around, however, was paying full attention to the happenings on the stage that Isaac’s crying was ignorable. The bands successfully drew the attention of the audience into th...

Ning Kang Chia The RLT team produced a wondrous display of artistic talent in their musical on Saturday in Penang PAC, led by Mr. Sasse. On the 20th of May 2017, Dalat International School had its annual musical. The venue was jam-packed with people who were eager to hear some harmonious tones. The musical was held on the day right after the Fine Arts Festival performance as well, so expectations were high for the RLT performers. Instead of an overarching story throughout the entire play, the directors of the play opted for a more flexible and dramatic approach. The musical consisted of several scenes, each carrying its own identity, story, and tone to convey. As the lights dimmed, Caitlin Goh (12) stepped into the limelight and began her sublime delivery of her skit, appropriately titled as “The Art of Procrastination.” She memorized her lines on the back of her mind and added just the right amount of emotion to make the skit entertaining. After a round of thunderous appl...

Jing Low On May 10th, the RLT drama set-up crew travelled to PenangPAC, bringing all of the necessary props and prepared to record more than 100 light cues. Early in the morning of May 10th, the crew started transferring props from Mr. Sasse’s old room (Room 28) in the rain. Soon, they departed for PenangPAC, the performance venue for the RLT show coming up on May 12th. Once the props and equipment were moved onto the backstage, the responsibility of the tech crew and the stage manager diverged. The tech crew began unpacking the wireless microphones and connecting their receivers to the soundboard using thick MIDI cables. Meanwhile, the stage manager continued to organize the props into the scenes which they were used. After the PenangPAC technicians finished rigging and focusing the lights, the tech crew moved into programming the 115 light cues required for each show; and the completion of light cues concluded the work of the day at around 6:30 pm. "Although the lig...

Hannah Buhr “Progress begets authoritarianism. Authoritarianism begets persecution. Persecution begets revolution. Revolution begets death. Death begets God’s One True Question,” began Mr. Sasse. “Think about this as you watch.” And the room went dark. This past weekend was the debut of one of the final RLT shows: RLT Drama Best. The drama, having three showings, one on May 12th and two on the 13th, centered around skits that had previously been performed by the RLT players. Different from the usual format of unconnected skits, Act Two of the RLT Best was a one-act play. Mr. Sasse, wanting to incorporate certain skits into the program of the RLT Drama Best show, found a way to weave some of the RLT players’ previous skits and some new skits together into a creative and enlightening play. Two of the skits that Mr. Sasse wished to restage were about political persecution and oppression. Thus, another old skit was added, three other skits were written, and a beautiful pla...

Jessica Ross The Art Festival happened this week. Students from different grades were given the opportunity to display their works from the course of the school year.   The Fine Arts Festival may not be as exciting as an Eagles football or basketball game, but there is just as much heart that goes into each student's work. No doubt about it, there are students who simply fill in the requirements so they can get their fine arts credit and can move along. It makes sense; art isn't for everyone. However, pushing through those that regard it as just another class, there is a sum of students who use art to express ideas and tell their stories. I asked Inha Kim (12) what he uses his art for and why he does it. He answered me with this: “I just like doing it, but really...it's like talking. It's conveying what you feel. Rather than saying it, you are showing it. And I like it because it's more creative than just using words. I mean, you could say there is an a...

Ben Finlay For the past four or five weeks, Coach Dustin Roberts has opened the gym after school for students to gather and play five-a-side futsal from 4 o’clock to 5:30. Roberts invited all the members of the varsity men’s football team, as well as all the players from the U15 boys’ football teams. “I started opening futsal to the teams because I think futsal specifically is excellent at forcing players to work quickly, cultivate good touch, and play as a group. You have to be fast to be able to work with such limited space and time, it’s essential to have good touch, and you need to communicate well to work as a team, or else your team is left exposed. Futsal helps us do the things that we like to do, and it helps the younger players develop quicker,” described Roberts. At 4 o’clock, a decent number of people are present, just kicking the ball about for fun. Most people warm up either by passing amongst each other or by trying to behead the keeper by blasting the ba...

Noah Graves Metallic “pings” filled the sky as the Dalat men’s softball team, led by Coach Edman and Coach Sasse, and the girls’ team, led by Coach Grad and Coach Pam Hoffmeyer, hit ball after ball at the MSSPP softball tournament from Tuesday, May 2 nd to Monday, May 8 th . Both teams filled the stat sheets with home runs. The boys’ team steamrolled their first six opponents and cruised to the semifinals, the cumulative score of the first six games being 94-5. The girls’ team also made it to the semifinals, winning three games with a cumulative score of 34-7 Both teams were led by a strong core of seniors who ignited the contagious scoring. The boys had a difficult semifinals matchup, facing the defending champs and the team who beat them in the finals last year: Jit Sin. They went into the semifinals swinging the bat ambitiously, but they met their match when the faced Jit Sin’s flamethrowing starting pitcher. Jit Sin jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead with good hits and ...

Mersades Zimmer Eyes dazed, hands shaking, Daniel Kim (11, pictured below) attempts to sharpen a saw he is using to construct a ramp for a physics lab. Even though the AP Physics 1 exam is finished, students are busy working away at final projects and labs. Confusedly, Daniel looks up from his work and asks, “Mrs. Rogers, am I doing this right?” However many projects plague AP Physics students, they are still elated to have completed their exam—to have traversed the devilish desert of velocity and gravitational constants and circuits. “It was fun,” Daniel Munson (12) comments, “but I’m glad it’s over. It was a challenging class.” Students spent many a nights painstakingly stitching together labs and projects and proposals. They practiced problem after problem, free response after free response, all pushed on by their energetic, if not slightly kooky teacher and mentor, Mrs. Rogers.  Students put this feverish preparation to the test on May 2, 2017, when all AP Physics ...

Jerome Ramirez The late-afternoon glare bore down upon the beach of a hidden cove. Directly beside the silhouette of the newly built dorms lies a secretive paradise. Recent construction efforts have cleared out the vast majority of obstructions that litter the surroundings. Searching for a source of entertainment in the sleepy dorm campus, Gavin Zimmer (9), Min Guk Kong (10), and Uncle Scott gathered at the white tables. Pooling up all their rations, the “premium” crew began their journey down to the beach to get their hands—and presumably—their feet dirty. After many decades of “non-existence” and a tad bit of neglect, the cove now lies in tatters. Old wooden beams were found here and there, cement slabs peeked from under the cover of sand, and rusty rebar poked out of coarse dirt—ready to ensnare the next unknowing victim. The danger was evident as Min Guk slid precariously down a steep slope of yellow mud. Having rained the night before, rocks were more than willing...

Neehar Kantimahanti To everyone’s surprise, Mrs. Allen’s Spiritual Disciplines class cleaned the gym bathrooms on May 5th, 2017. The day before, Mrs. Allen had told the class to meet in the gym instead of the classroom. “Maybe we will be playing basketball,” Anson Chin (12) exclaimed optimistically. To almost everyone’s disappointment, he was terribly wrong. The class came to the gym only to see piles of buckets, rags, and bottles of toilet cleaner. Mrs. Allen explained that we would be cleaning the toilets as part of our discipline of service. She also talked about how no one will be writing articles on this or paying much attention to this, but it would be a huge help to the cleaning staff. Then she asked the class which jobs they wanted, such as cleaning the shower stalls, mopping the floors, or the dreaded cleaning of the toilets. Some brave souls volunteered to clean the toilets as others breathed a sigh of relief.  The class got to work immediately without much f...

By Joel Frohlich The seniors arrived at school before 4:30p on Thursday, April 27. All were eager to see what this year's JSB theme would be. There had been some guesses, of course. And now these proud predictions had to be put to the test. Dresses, both vibrant and beautiful, flooded the small chapel, along with their less colorful dates. The sophomore sponsors were announced and presented, embraced by loud applause. Then the theme showed itself on stage with an impressive narration and very talented solo actor, who look somewhat confused for a time: Beauty and the Beast. The seniors waited for the other classes to board their transportation. Excited chatter filled the now emptying room. Then the class of 2017 walked down the "Dalat red carpet" (or the closest thing to it), arriving at their bus. After a short drive, the bus stopped, to everyone's surprise, next to Gurney. The seniors got off the bus and entered the G Hotel. They were organized into a li...

Kasey Rogers It was nice being a part of the After JSB dinner for the juniors, which was held on Friday, April 28 th , in the chapel. It was cool to see the seniors work hard to put on a show for the juniors after all their hard work for JSB. The seniors performed a spoof called “Handsome and the Hag,” which was a Bachelor -style game show. Aaron Chand (12) played the bachelor who was looking for his perfect girl. He had two options, being Gastine (Mersades Zimmer (12)) or Andy (Susan Oh (12)). Gastine was a beautiful but self-obsessed woman who spent all her time in a café. Andy was a crazy cat lady who was always in an antique shop, surrounded by a bunch of cats; Oh did a fantastic job playing the crazy lady and, thus, was my favorite character. We also had a memorial for Elynn Tan (11) because she “was no longer with us,” which everyone laughed at; in reality, she was at a swim meet. Overall, it was a lot of fun to watch the scenes, which were roasting the juniors.  ...