Dalat International School: Senior Scribble

By Hannah Peek As they drew the curtain on the opening night of first semesters two drama performances, The Pied Piper and Robin Hood, an excited cast was revealed. Many spectators never know how much effort is put in behind the scenes of each drama performance. Here is a deep dive into the mounds of practice and energy that is behind every word, prop, and movement. Six months ago, preliminary auditions took place, requiring each person to perform an excerpt from either Robin Hood or The Pied Piper. Nervous contestants had to wait over the summer until after the fall auditions to learn whether they had received a role from the directors Mrs. Horton and Ms. Geiman. The cast list was doubly anticipated because up until that point, the play was a mystery. Then the email was sent out, and Robin Hood was set into motion. Rehearsals began right away, including three two hour practices a week and the occasional Saturday rehearsal. Each line of dialogue was carefully thought over and t...

By Emily Chew In the locker alley, I heard the murmuring of the varsity basketball guys talking, and the rustling of them getting their jerseys and shoes on. It was the first game for the varsity-boys against Youngsters, a team based in Chung Ling High School. Every player was recognized with compression garments that fitted tightly around their limbs– these compression gears are very important for the basketball players. Some of the guys seemed excited, longing for this day to come, and some seemed nervous before they were called by Coaches Loustale and Lee to huddle around in a circle. The returning basketball players were filled with confidence, and positive vibes as they walked into the gym. This year’s starters were J Cho (12), Eddy Seong (12), Wansuk Kunawaradisai (12), Aaron Worten (12), Kaden Keefer (10). The referee began the play with a jump ball, and the crowd went wild as Youngsters managed to get a head start. After several missed shots, Wansuk Kunawaradisai (12) l...

By Edward Seong “Get yourselves together!” shouted Jae Cho (12), as the varsity boys’ basketball team warmed up for the upcoming game. Finally! It was the time that all the players and crowd had longed for. Varsity boys’ first game against Chung Ling Private! “We are the king of the island so far, so we should continue this legacy,” Aaron Worten (12) told the boys with pride. The boys stretched themselves in the workout room. As coach Lee walked into the weight-room, he said, “Alright boys, we will do some stretching and core workout before the game.” All of the boys were shocked and looked as if they were questioning his authority. But later on, the boys realized that he was joking. The boys, Coach Loustale, and Coach Lee gathered up for a short meeting before the warm-up. The meeting consisted mostly of how the play would work. “Just have fun and play basketball,” said Coach Loustale. They started warming up with lay-up lines, shooting lines, and working on their ...

By Wesley DeLaughter After ten hours of winding roads, exhausting travel, and buses breaking down on the side of mountains, the dorm students finally arrived in the Cameron Highlands on 12 November, Saturday, for their dorm retreat. That morning, all three dorms had boarded the bus with high spirits, excited for a weekend that promised to be fun, bonding, and educational for them. Aside from the slightly bumpy start, it was just as promised. Together the dorm students played games, laughed, and enjoyed life as a dorm family away from the stress of school. Away from Dalat, up in the mountains, stress was not the only thing that dropped. At 62 degrees, the cooler temperature proved to be a shock to those who had adjusted to the tropical island of Penang. It was a blessing to some and a burden to others. The words “I’m freezing” were forced out by Madaline Rude (12) through chattering teeth as Jack Cura (9) ran past her to receive a football thrown by his father, Jackson dor...

By Onyu Kwak Finally! It was the time that many dorm students had waited for-- the dorm retreat to Cameron Highlands! Everyone was excited about this annual trip and people would mark their calendars to count down the dates. “Dorm retreat helps us to bond as a whole dorm, as it helps us to get to know new people better. Cameron Highlands is one of my favorite dorm retreat sites that we visit, as well. The strawberry farm that we visit every dorm retreat is fantastic,” Megan Septon (11) mentioned as she was thrilled for the retreat.   One of the most unexpected events that happened during the trip was the bus breaking down in the middle of nowhere. It was already a long bus ride. People were tired and some were even sick to begin with, so the malfunction of the bus did not bring out positive reactions from people. Everyone had to either wait in the bus or stand by the roadside for approximately 4 hours until it was functioning again and ready to go. However, like a...

By Niki Tsumagari In Dalat, a student’s life revolves around his/her school. This is a reasonable statement to make. Elaboration: sometimes, a student’s life can be very well-organized, making everything that’s happening in it seem like they’re placed correctly in the right spot. Other times, however, things don’t look like they are. In addition to this, problems sometimes seem to fancy piling up on one another… The life of a high school student (in Dalat) involves both mountains and valleys all the time. As much as there are ups and downs that make one’s life so complicated as it is, there is always room for improvement; a little extra thinking and effort put in will never fail to increase the number ups while reducing the amount of downs. Solutions to a slightly/much better quality of life can require you to perform the simplest of tasks. One of the best examples for this that a good number of Dalat students currently aren’t accomplishing is getting enough sleep. Not a ...

By Livinia Menon It’s easy to get lost in the work we have, it’s easy to forget why we’re doing what we’re doing. It’s easy to only focus on what seems important now. But what is hard, is laying in your bed at night and realising that you don’t know why you’re doing what you are. College applications, SAT exams, AP exams, tests, quizzes, the homework that’s due first block tomorrow, they all just seem like pieces of the cognitive overload accumulating at the back of your brain. You don’t go out anymore, you decline invitations to hang out, and it isn’t until you’re standing on stage receiving your high school diploma that you realise you never really did experience high school at all. That’s the nightmare that haunts every high school student, the urge to do our best in academics overriding the high school experience itself. It’s the sugar crash after Halloween, the sick feeling after eating all your candy. We are all bound to burn up if we get lost in the storm of wo...

By Corinne Fraley Some might say Dalat has invaders in its midst…. Others would just call them home schoolers. It may be hard to believe, but Dalat actually hosts a community of homeschoolers right on its own campus as part of DLRC (Dalat’s Learning Resource Center). They are the unique “inbetweeners” that both are a part of Dalat’s vast community yet not quite fully immersed. That does not stop them from joining and planting themselves as part of the community. Homeschool kids seems to have a whole world of their own when it comes to schooling. While some of these homeschoolers have siblings at Dalat or some are waiting to return to Dalat the next semester, others are purely rogue, only showing up for social interaction. For some, homeschooling works as a better suited alternative to brick-and-mortar schools. While most Dalat students experience the normal 7 hour grind, homeschoolers participate in a very different routine involving co-horts (meetings with other homeschool s...