Dalat International School: Senior Scribble

Lauren Lee This week, the high school track team made their way to Morrison Academy, Taiwan for the final meet of the season, the ACSC conference. A hectic travel schedule from March 22nd to March 25th, the week moved very fast, but not at any disadvantage: full of contentment, competition, and of course, bubble tea, this trip had many highlights to be cherished forever. We left early Thursday morning and arrived late Thursday night, met with a two-hour long karaoke-filled bus ride (rather unfortunately for the coaches and the bus driver, the bus came with a microphone connected to twelve speakers throughout the moving vehicle). We arrived after campus was closed—almost midnight—and we settled into our beds (our boys had quaint air mattresses in the middle of the weight room while us girls had the old refurbished dorms) and got some rest for the next two day’s events. The first day was filled with sun as we worked with a school for children with disabilities to organize a ...

Alicia Chin This year’s ACSC/TISSA Track & Field tournament was held at Morrison Academy, Taichung, as per usual. The team of fourteen girls finished second. Each contributed to the best of their abilities, but there was one particular girl who stood out amongst the rest—her name is Esther Kim (12). Esther excels in many sports—volleyball, track, softball, you name it. This girl is talented in so many ways. This year, she made the decision to go to Taiwan to participate in the track and field tournament, which is a first for her. Her events were four field events, the hammer throw, discus throw, javelin throw, and the shot put, and one track event, the 100-meter sprint. All the events which Esther participated in, she snagged a medal. She left Taiwan with four gold medals and a silver in the 100-meter sprint, just 0.3 seconds behind the first-place competitor. Esther gained the nickname “Trunchbull.” Miss Trunchbull, more commonly known as the Trunchbull, is a characte...

Hannah Lawrence We have 81 days until the Class of 2019 will be on the stage in Harbor Hall, being told that, in a few moments, we will be Dalat Alumni. It will be a completely surreal moment for everyone. Hold up, though. Rewind. Close your eyes. Breathe.                                                               Questions. Questions just filled your mind. Questions can fill our lives. They can cause stress, anxiety, fear, excitement, confusion, etc. What are you going to do after you graduate? Where are we going for lunch? Why are they doing that? Are you going to uni? What uni are you going to? When are you leaving? Do you know what you want to major in? Do you have s...

Ashley Kim On March 8th, the Dalat baseball and softball team traveled five hours to KL to play against the ISKL teams. After the girls played during the day, the boy’s baseball team put on a magnificent display as the sun just started to set. It was DALAT's inning. Jack Cura, an 8th grader, came striding up onto the mound for pitching. The field lights illuminated him, deepening the dark lines of his face. Over to the top, the KLCC tower blended in symphony with the maroon, blue hues of the sunset. As the hum of the soft lights embraced the field, the girls’ softball team slowly gathered around the edge of the field, plopping themselves up against the fence side-by-side. "YEAH! THAT'S MY DORM BROTHER!!!" cheered Grace Bae (9), her legs dangling on the field fence, her minuscule hands tensed hard up against the field net. G. Bae remarked, "I feel better when they cheer up after I cheer for them. I liked how we improved and received encouragement...

Amanda Low On the second week of March, Mrs. Allen led her senior Bible class through a lesson called the discipline of prayer, in hopes of strengthening their relationship with God. Scattered all around the campus, seniors settled down and devoted their time to God during Bible class. As I sat on the second floor of Harbour Hall, overlooking the entire campus, I noticed the different ways my classmates were approaching prayers—some prayed alone in silence, some talked in small groups, some listened to worship songs, some took a walk, some painted, and so much more. Throughout the week, a lot of them got the chance to find a prayer method that suits their personality, breaking the misconception that there is only one way to pray. For that week of prayer, Mrs. Allen, a very experienced and competent Bible teacher, provided her students with a menu of activities that they could choose from to experience talking to God. She made sure that there was something suited for everyon...

Joy Kiehl Last weekend, March 8-9 th , the track team traveled to Kuala Lumpur for a track meet against six other schools from Southeast Asia. After around a six hour drive down to KL on Friday, the track team arrived at Alice Smith School. We were going to compete against schools from Singapore, Thailand, and KL. The first day of competition the Treagles (Track Eagles) were involved in the following races: 4x400m relay, 3000m, girls’ shot put, boys’ discus, and girls’ high jump. The 4x400m relay boys, Yuuki Horie (11), Tien Min Tan (11), Garrett Miller (9), and Jared Douglas (10), were able to come in third place and tie the school record. Douglas also came in third place in the 3000m. At the end of the first day of the meet, we drove to our hotel, which had a mall attached to, and expected to find food. However, to our dismay, we found that all the restaurants were closed. We all had to go out of the hotel to look for a restaurant. It took a while before we found a p...

Sofia Park Excitement filled the air as thirteen concert band students sat by the boarding gate, humming tunes from their band pieces; for five days, from March 6 th to March 10 th , these students launched  into the ASCS Honor Band trip in Manila, Philippines. Once we landed, the first thing we saw was the Jollibee’s in the airport. We had not known its impending ubiquity at that time. Then, as soon as we stepped out into the outside air, a crowd of crammed traffic greeted us. It was on the way to our guesthouse when we came to a realization: Jollibee’s were simply everywhere ! It seemed as if every single street and alley, nook and corner, had a Jollibee’s restaurant with their eerily cheerful bee mascot grinning from ear to ear, tracking our every move. A few students ended up creating a road trip game of Jollibee’s, too. That night, as we settled into our rooms, was pretty uneventful. We fell asleep, hearts soaring with anticipation of what tomorrow would bring. I...

Alice Chang On March 6th, thirteen musicians gathered in front of the anchor, ready to head on a five-day trip to Manila, Philippines for an honor band festival held at Faith Academy. The honor bandmates from seven different schools started as individual musicians but ended the trip as one whole band and made many fun memories. One of the memories made from the trip was the whole ‘Wi-Fi problem’ at the guesthouse. After the long journey from Penang to Manila, the team went to a guesthouse. One of the first things people asked for was the Wi-Fi connection at the guesthouse. However, the Wi-Fi only worked in one specific area of the guesthouse. The worst part of it all was the fact that the one Wi-Fi was being used with over thirty people. When the chaperones and seniors asked for the WiFi password, Esther Tse (10) decided to go down to the kitchen and ask for the password. This was where the chaos began. Stuttering, Tse asked, “Uhh… What is the WiFi password?” A stude...

Min Guk Kong The week of March 3-7th was filled with horrendous yet important and historic events, including International Women’s Day, the SATs, and the release of Captain Marvel . As Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday slowly traveled by, some people started filling a mixture of excitement and nervousness for the events ahead.    “Celebrating International Women's day is so important because there are so many females who contribute to society in important ways. And I want Dalat guys and girls to grow up knowing that advocating for equality is the right thing to do,” said Aunt Val, a dorm parent of Jaffrey dorm; March 8th is a day of celebration for the accomplishments of women. However, this important day is also a momentous day as Marvel stamps its first female-led movie, Captain Marvel . I ended up interviewing Jireh Ang (11) who gave me quite an intriguing observation about the movie, “I liked how the movie explained a lot for the upcoming Aveng...

Yi Yao Tan “Remember, three burpies make two Brewster Bucks!!” said Mr. Brewster, as he kindly reminded us about the wages as we labored arduously for our “money.” During Senior Transition Retreat, the seniors received an amazing opportunity to escape the boring classrooms and sit in a meeting room right next to campus for hours a day to listen to potentially life-changing lectures about surviving college. Of course, no retreat is a true Dalat event without a bit of educational “fun.” One of the activities incorporated a lecture, which was supposed to simulate college life. During the lecture, Mr. Brewster, the session leader, charged a Brewster Buck per minute for his talk about the dreadful expenses of college and the horrible world of debt. To earn their tuition fees, the seniors had to do a certain number of workouts based on the jobs they received to obtain enough to pay off their lectures. At the end of the session, more than half the class were either sore or buried und...

Linus Lim The date is 28th of February 2019; as the class of 2019 prepares for their retreat to Paradise Hotel, we’re reminded of the tradition at Dalat where the senior class skips two days of school to prepare for their next chapter in life. Many students don’t get this opportunity to look back on how the school has shaped them and prepare for the transition to college, so it’s a privilege that we should be thankful for. On Thursday morning, we see smiling faces across the senior lockers as they talk about whom they’ll be rooming with and what they can do in their free time. When the first bell rings, the seniors slowly stroll along the pathway to Paradise Hotel. The retreat starts in a conference room where students are made aware of how diverse of a class they are, and they are given the definition of Third-Culture Kids (TCK). Then the seniors discuss who’s impacted them and how they can show appreciation or gratitude during these last three months of school towards the in...

Albert Jeong It was March 1st, the day after the Senior Transition retreat. Seniors gathered at school to head to the paintball arena. Everyone was hyped to enjoy a class activity after the dreadful class meeting about transitioning to college. For some people, it was the first time holding a paintball gun, but for others were experienced weaponizers. After less than 1 hour, we finally arrived at the War Museum, which had the paintball arena beside it. The team division was set, and players were traded left and right. In the end, the trade between Min Guk Kong (12) and Jeremy Worten (12) declared the completeness of the team, and Mr. Steinkamp casually joined Jeremy and many other athletes. The game was Capture the Flag. A team wins when two of its players touch the enemy’s base. I was with Mr. Steinkamp’s team, and he called out the offensive strategies: “We’ll have a group of three. One group will play the middle, and the other two will play left and right lane. The midd...

Lydia Kim On February 28, while familiar teachers greeted the juniors, sophomores, and freshmen into classrooms at Dalat, the freezing cold air welcomed the seniors into the Bayu conference room in the Rainbow Paradise Hotel. After approximately 45 seconds of traveling, the seniors of Dalat International School arrived at the Rainbow Paradise Hotel where they would experience the annual Senior Transition Retreat for the next day and a half. The purpose of the retreat was to prepare the seniors with practical tools for their transition from high school into the unknown world of college, gap year, or even work. The first session consisted of mini-activities and lectures by Mr. Dobson on what it means to be a third-culture kid. After seniors finished watching clips from Castaway and testing themselves on their “TCK-ness” on the first stage of hypothermia, Mr. Dobson instructed most students to walk back to Dalat in order to participate in a workshop. The students instruc...

Seong-Min Kim 2 March 2019 was D-Day for the Class of 2019; it was a paintball war between Team Trevor and Team Nicholas. The Senior Excom planned a paintball event for the senior class at the Penang War Museum. Early Saturday morning, with excitement and fear, the senior class met at Dalat to head towards the battlefield located just near Penang’s airport. As soon as the class arrived, they split into two fair teams to start the battle. Team Trevor was known for confidence, but they only had one goal. Their main target was Nathan Chand (12). Team Trevor had eyes only towards Nathan before heading into the battlefield. On the other hand, Team Nicholas was looking for the win by touching the opponent’s base. Both teams were filled with confidence and hunger. Both teams stepped into the arena that would soon be a paint shed. The marshals did a countdown before teams could rush towards their hiding spots. When “zero” was heard around the battlefield, both teams dashed near th...

Esther Ko                                                                  “What are we doing?” “I don’t know,” says Lydia Him (12). “Guys, what are we supposed to do right now?” “I don’t know, to be honest,” says Nicholas Khor (12) as he shrugs. In the midst of the rowdy confusion, the crowd of students stands under the shade, awaiting instructions that seem to never come. Everyone appears lifeless and exhausted from the intense two hours of service at various locations, but the places the students served at emit a gentle glow—a glow of warmth, gratitude, and joy. Playing Bingo with the elderly people at the old folks home, painting buildings, singing and performing magic tricks for the children at the hospital, and crafting cards for the bedridden—the high schoolers have successfully delivered their kindness...

Bethany Davis Lights dimmed and music soft, the atmosphere reflected the mood of the people gathered in Harbor Hall. Mission Emphasis Week’s kickoff started with a night full of worship and time to reflect on personal relationships with God. Students gathered with friends and teachers, opening themselves up to receive prayer and encouragement. The other nightly sessions proved to be different but extremely beneficial. Instead of a whole night of worship, guest speakers, well known around campus, came to share their experiences and advice about following God into the unknown. Mr. Strong gave a great analogy about what to put in and take out of our “backpacks” as we prepare for our journey into the unknown with God. Other speakers chose to entertain the crowd with personal stories or encouragement to follow God with support from Scripture. These night sessions helped the students have a chance to meet with God for a longer period of time, rather than the short 45-minute time all...

Tim Baek “In Jesus name, Amen!” After Mr. McClary ended the beginning prayer, the worship team announced the beginning of MEW with the drummer leading everyone into the worship songs on Tuesday night. Full of excitement, worship team members played their parts with all their heart. For MEW, there were two worship teams: one being in charge of morning chapel and one the night sessions. For the morning team, they had to come to school at 7:00 am for practice, perform in both middle school and high school chapel, which were held at 8:25a and 11:30a respectively. John Cho (12) responded, “You can wake up early and praise the Lord” to the question “What is the advantage of being in morning session?” On the same question, Nathan Chand (12) answered, “the advantage of the morning team is that we get to have breakfast because Mr. Ronzheimer gives us donuts and curry puffs. I also really enjoy everybody’s morning voices. It is very nice.” On the other hand, for the night team, ...