Dalat International School: Senior Scribble

Doris Koay April 20th, the day after JSB, early morning at 8am. As most Dalat students were sleeping in on their lovely day off, seniors gradually arrived at the campus, still half asleep. As a Dalat tradition, seniors are supposed to treat the juniors to an After JSB Dinner to appreciate their hard work and effort that resulted in a fantastic JSB. The day started off with a discussion among the sponsors and the seniors. Papers were filled with the funny details that had happened the night before: “Putting yourself before others,” “changing microphones during a speech,” “kicking the sponsors out,” “calling for Table 2.” Laughter arose from time to time as we recalled memories from the previous night. The discussion then proceeded to talk about the theme of the dinner. Ideas started filling up the tiny whiteboard: “Sherlock,” “Scooby Doo,” “High School Musical,” “Mrs. Bernhardt’s Revenge,” and more. The discussion was put to a halt as the theme of the night was finaliz...

Areeya Kunawaradisai As the clock hit 5PM on Thursday, April 19th, students and staff, now all dolled up and dressed in gowns and suits, started to crowd in the library and waited for the beginning of the big moment—the 2018 JSB. The evening started with a skit involving a flurry of time travels, which ultimately revealed the class of 2020’s sponsors to be Mr. And Mrs. Daniels, Mr. and Mrs. Roylance, Mr. Horton, and Mr. Hieber. After that, everybody headed to the buses on the Upper Field and then finally arrived at the Hotel Jen Penang in Georgetown. “The bus ride was really nice because it was kind of a chance for me to talk to my date and my friends and get comfortable before the actual event started,” said Wansuk Kunawaradisai (10). Lines of students and staff trailed up the escalator and were greeted and escorted to their tables by smiling juniors. Seniors then were introduced by table groups and seated last, as always. With Victorian-era, British-themed decora...

Aaron Tan As she was about to walk through the entrance of the ballroom, Doris Koay (12) felt a bit of nostalgia. She remembered her junior year and the JSB of 2017 that she helped bring to life, the hours and days she spent with her classmates and her family. They worked together, struggled together, laughed together, and succeeded together. With her date by her side, she walked into a JSB not created by her class, but a JSB for her class. “I was really impressed with how the juniors set up the ballroom,” Tian Ooi (12) said. “There were so many decorations and they were all really good too. My favorite was the telephone booth because it was actually a telephone booth.” The ballroom of Jen Hotel had decorations and photo-ops on every side and corner of the room. The juniors decorated the room according to their Sherlock Holmes theme. Students and staff alike could have their mugshots taken at the back of the ballroom, or take a photo with their date in an antique cart. The...

Jonathon Chinn On Saturday, April 14, the seniors served a breakfast to the hardworking junior class and later followed this up by having a fun class party at the Cove in the evening. At 10 o’clock on Saturday, the junior class walked through the doors of the Student Center and were met with rapturous applause and a plethora of food options. The senior class had just spent the last hour rushing around the Student Center to clean it up and make it look presentable. When the juniors arrived to a warm welcome and a pleasant surprise of a breakfast, they couldn’t help but feel appreciated. Seong-Min Kim (11) summed up the thoughts of his whole class by saying, “I walked in and everyone was congratulating us. I felt really special. We just worked really hard for the seniors and we didn’t expect anything from them.” It was a great moment for both classes, and the kind gesture made conversation easier. The seniors had a great time serving the juniors, but they had an even greater...

Melynn Kendrick A wall of chilled air fell upon the Dalat girls’ varsity soccer team as they exited the heated airport in Seoul, South Korea. The Dalat girls traveled all the way to Yongsan International School of Seoul in South Korea for the 2018 ACSC tournament. It was a long year of hard work and training to get ready for their most significant set of games. Many of the players were brand new to the team and stepped onto Korean soil with open minds that were ready to see what ACSC was all about. This was an excellent year for the Dalat varsity girls as they recruited a lot of younger players to join the team. Because of this new wave of girls who committed to soccer for the next several years, Dalat is undoubtedly on the road to success in future ACSC tournaments. This year, the Dalat varsity soccer girls put up a good fight in Seoul, but unfortunately finished in 6th place after a long, cold tournament. The girls gained some much-needed experience, which will give them a b...

Kayla Ronning March 27 th was the Northern Thailand Impact team’s second day in a foreign land. Ten Dalat students worked in the scorching hot sun from nine until twelve, mixing rice husks, dirt, and water to make mud, then they put the mud into bags, which were stacked to make a circular house to store seeds. Once the day rolled closer to noon, everyone dropped their hoes, showered, and went to lunch. Then we would work again from two until six.  But from noon until two, it was siesta, which is a time of rest taken in the hottest time of the day. In the dining hall, a ping pong table, warped with years of harsh humidity and heat, was being used to battle out the winner of the 2018 Thailand team. Cries of laughter rang throughout the whole building, waking those trying to take an afternoon nap. “Working to build the earthbag house felt very fulfilling and made me happy to know we were going to help so many people, but it is also fun to build relationships over ping po...

Richard Baek During this year’s Missions Emphasis Week (April 3-6), Jill Ludlow came to Penang with her ministry team to share and talk about the love of God and having a relationship with Him. She encouraged us to reach out to God because He sees us and loves us for who we are. Jill shared her heart-wrenchingly emotional testimony during the first session. She suffers from KT syndrome, especially in her left arm. Since she was young, her friends teased her. Even through all the trials in her life, Jill, however, felt the unending, unconditional love of God. Through her testimonial, Jill also emphasized how lies about Christianity cause disconnection in our relationship with God. Because of misinterpretations or misunderstandings of the Bible, people create a lie about God and Christianity, such as God only loves clean people or God’s love depends on our behaviors and actions. Citing various Bible verses, such as Romans 8:38-39, Jill exclaimed that we are already living in His...

Daniel Go “I guess it was alright? But to be honest we've already heard most of the stuff that she told us,” said Jerald Ooi (12) when asked about the recent MEW. Honestly, I was never a big fan of MEW and SEW at Dalat. The only thing I liked about these emphasis weeks was that I didn’t have to worry about homework or tests. I have never been to a single evening session before, and I have never regretted not going. As I walked down to the chapel, I could already tell that this MEW was going to be the same as usual. I thought the main speaker would be a missionary from some third world country. It was different this time, though, as there was a team of around ten people from the U.S. On the first day, the main speaker (Jill) talked about receiving God’s love. She told us a story of Gideon in the Bible where God called him a mighty warrior and told him that He was with him. The main speaker also told us a story about how she experienced God’s presence through her har...

Vivien Lee What is a key component of a good relationship? In other words, have you ever wondered what is something that has to be in place in order for two people to be close? This spring’s MEW had a clear answer to this question. On Tuesday, April 3, MEW 2018 started with a worship night, led by the worship band (Mr. McClary, Mr. Ramos, Mr. Roberts, Jung En Seo (12), Richard Baek (12), David Chinn (12), Isabel Smith (11), Esther Kim (11), Shannon Frohlich (11), and Lydia Kim (11)); they warmed up the atmosphere of the chapel with their cheerful performance.  As the music died down, Mrs. Jill kicked off MEW, introducing her family and friends that came along to lead the week’s chapel sessions. After the introductions, Mr. Trevor astonished students with his guitar playing, as he led another short worship session. “The fact that people gathered to worship God was just miraculous and very touching. I am very thankful to have an opportunity to play cello as a part of worship...

Aidan Frusher This year was a fantastic year for the Dalat track team at ACSC in Taiwan, which was held Friday, March 23-Saturday, March 24.  Many athletes medaled, including one gold by Joy Kiehl (11) in the triple jump. Overall, the girls' team placed 3rd and the boys' team tied for 4th.  Everyone worked hard, giving it their all and managing to go through the whole trip without any major injuries. Besides working hard, the athletes also had the opportunity to host a track meet for kids with disabilities, explore the downtown area of Taichung, visit the local night market, go to dinner at a nice restaurant for some Taiwanese cuisine and bubble tea, and hang out in the dorm game room. All around, it was truly an awesome trip, but the best part was our beloved Coach Grad finding true love. It all started on Friday as the team was leaving the track; a coach from a Taiwanese school smiled and stepped aside to say “goodbye” and a “see you tomorrow” to Coach Grad. Thi...