Dalat International School: Senior Scribble

By Larissa Lee Drama Club on Fridays have been a staple X-Block for many of the theatre kids at Dalat for around five years. Every Friday, as the bell rings at 3:10, we’d all scramble our way down to the room Auckland on the first floor of the Harbor building, excited to see what improv game that day would bring. Last Friday, Keiryn Sandahl (12), student leader of Drama Club, had introduced a twist to an improv game she had introduced two weeks prior.  “I took the concept from the New Neighbor game and made it a game with a waiter and restaurant simply to change the premise so the skits wouldn’t get old. The game mechanics are essentially the same,” explained Sandahl. The game’s premise is simple. It consisted of one person acting as someone new moving into a neighborhood of that actor’s choice, while others would act as residents of that chosen neighborhood, each possessing a specific trait catered to the prompt. For example, every member of the neighborhood would have a different...

By Adelina Chee On February 23rd, a normal weekday, seven seniors lined up by the wall at Flamingo Hotel to launch fruit loops from their noses. Meanwhile, the rest of high school attended their regular classes. The event consisted of several informative sessions about transitioning after graduation. It started with lectures regarding a few topics; values, culture, faith, and relationships were some important subjects mentioned by the presenters. As the day progressed, some interactive activities were added which kept the class focusing a bit more. The program included some activities such as the fruit loop challenge which determined who could get a piece of cereal further across the room with their nose. The mentos eating contest also provided some unusual entertainment. Another activity had participants swinging a tennis ball wrapped in a long sock around their head to display their spinning skills. The winner had to pull off the sock from the other person’s head.  David Kilgo (1...

By Ester Kato Last week, on the 23rd and the 24th of February, seniors got to skip school to attend the Transition Retreat at Flamingo Hotel. During the retreat, seniors engaged in activities, sketched on a random paper, munched down tons of mentos, did henna, and put tinsel on each other’s hair while listening to Mr. Dobson’s lectures.  On the first day of the retreat, students got about four hours of free time after lunch. Many students went down to either the pool or the beach.  “I enjoyed the pool train rides, coconut hunting, playing catch [with a rugby ball], and just simply having fun with my classmates,” Sharon Kang (12) said as she looked back on her pool time experience.  Eleanor Emis (12) explains the pool train rides as how “we were able to all connect together in one giant line that floated down the whole pool,” which Anna Phuah (12) in the front led the girls around the pool. “We squealed and giggled for what felt like an hour,” Eleanor adds.  Around th...

Owen Lai On February 23rd to the 24th, the seniors had their annual Transition Retreat, going to Flamingo Hotel instead of their usual classes.  Senior Transition Retreat is essentially Senior Sneak’s little brother, but it has a very different purpose. Sneak is all about bonding with your classmates and having fun. On the other hand, Senior Transition Retreat is the annual retreat meant to prepare seniors for life after Dalat, where alumni and teachers talk about important topics such as “leaving well,” “values,” “culture,” and many more.  The schedule for the retreat reflects this purpose as it consists of listening to teachers and alumni talk for 715 minutes or approximately twelve hours in one and a half days. That is a lot of time spent listening to people talk, and it was. It was hard to stay awake at times and stay completely engaged, and it was definitely not fun listening to people talk for that long. So far, I have made it sound like the retreat was boring and should...

By Dominic Cheang There comes a time where every senior is faced with the impending reality of having to graduate, leave Dalat, and go into the wild. For many seniors, this is the Senior Transition Retreat, an annual event planned by the school to aid seniors in their transition to going to university or anywhere else they might go. Most, if not all, students are faced with the harsh reality that they will be leaving Penang, some for good, a place they have called home for years. For the local Penagites, they are faced with the reality that they will be leaving their home for some 18 odd years to study abroad. The Senior Transition Retreat has a large focus on giving students advice on how to cope in their transition to a new place. For TCK students, this might be routine, but it will still be a challenge as it will for anyone moving to a different country. The retreat also gives a wide array of advice on various topics that students will face once they go to college and beyond.  T...

By Ellie Guffy The word “bonded” would be a serious understatement to use when describing what happened to Dalat’s varsity girls basketball team during this year's ACSC tournament. The countless hours spent strategizing, exploring, singing and laughing together allowed all 15 of its members (or 14 ½ as Coach Davis put it, being that he wasn’t able to join us on the trip), to experience a new, candid version of each other.  Between the night market trips, exotic meals of fried crickets, and smoothie runs, the trip is one I’m confident will not be easily forgotten, especially by Sharon Kang (12). “I had at least one smoothie day,” she says, “and when I didn't have it I would talk about it until I got one. The smoothie trips bonded me with the rest of the team and made me appreciate Bangkok a lot more.”  Scouring for burnt trash next to a nearby clinic, as apart of our service project, helped strengthen the connection between the team and showed us what we were really there for. ...

By Lauren Worten Who would've thought that the Varsity Girl's Basketball team would get second place at ACSC going into the finals undefeated? Our team came into ACSC hungry, wanting to win, taking that gold, and making history by being the first girl's team to win a championship. The first game of ACSC we played was like no other I've seen all season. We started strong, confident, looking professional, and appearing intimidating to the other teams, and we managed to give off that look. The whole tournament, you could see the fear in the other team's eyes when they were going against us because we dominated any team that came our way. I not only had a blast playing basketball, but I had a fantastic time with my team. Nicole Khor (12) said, "It was the end of my last basketball ACSC, but the start of a forever bond." I've never been on a team that makes me laugh until I start getting stomach cramps, that I'm so comfortable with I can share my deep...

By Luke Ng During the week of February 13, 2023, both the boys and girls varsity basketball teams traveled internationally to participate in the ACSC basketball tournament. The boys traveled to Morrison Academy in Taichung, Taiwan, while the girls went to ICS Bangkok. The tournament was a round-robin with two pools, Pool A and Pool B. The first two days, the teams would play within their pools, and both Dalat teams were able to go undefeated in their pool. The third day marked the start of the playoffs, and the games were decided based on your ranking in your pool. The Dalat boys got a 14-point win against the home team, Morrison, but lost against Grace. The girls were able to go undefeated all the way and secured a spot in the championship game. On the final day of the tournament, the boys had to play Morrison one more time to advance to the finals. The home crowd was loud, kids were screaming, and the biased refs were making bad calls for Dalat. However, there was nothing that Morris...

By Chris Jang After a week-long travel to Taiwan, the boys Dalat varsity basketball team brings back 2nd place from the annual ACSC tournament. Now back in school, the boys go through mixed emotions reflecting on the whole trip and the ending of the season. "[I'm] sad, because we now have to do school work and basketball is over," ACSC top rebounder and all-tournament team Luke Ng (12) contemplated the morning of the first day back to school. And with the senior transition retreat approaching fast, it is no wonder that Mrs. Kearney is assigning her absent Calculus BC students an encyclopedia of calculus work (although her care for her students' success is undeniable). There is no question that junior year is the busiest year of a high school student is a myth; in senior year, it is a constant race against time. "We got to skip Mr. Riffey's class to go watch, and the Student Center would be very full and exciting -- an enjoyable break from regular school work,...

By Haylee Douglas The 2022-2023 Varsity Girls Basketball team traveled last week to attend ACSC in Bangkok, Thailand. It was the first ACSC for many of the girls on the team, but for 8 girls not only was it their first but also their last.  Senior Ellie Guffy (12) expressed how she felt about it being her first and last ACSC: “It was really bittersweet that this was my first and last ACSC for basketball. I felt that experiencing the many highs and lows on the trip brought the team together.” Within the weeks leading up to ACSC, the team practiced so hard and prepared so much in the hopes to bring back a gold for Dalat. Unfortunately despite the fight we put in, we could only bring back a silver. Losing that final was so hard, and the emotions that came after it were tremendous. But the pain of losing the final didn't so much come from just not winning, but that for most of the team it's something we can never go back to. We had one shot at the win and that was it. For us 8 girl...

By Bennett McIver The boys ACSC tournament was hosted by Morrison Academy in Taichung, Taiwan. The capital of Taiwan, Taipei, is a 4-hour direct flight from Penang; however, Taichung is a two hour drive from the airport in Taipei. This brought our ACSC Travel time to around 9 hours including the bus ride to the Penang Airport and transit time. We left school mid-day on Monday and arrived later that night and checked into the Morrison dorms.  We started the next day off with an intense last practice to get used to the new conditions; it was just over 20’C on the first day we were there! We then went to Costco as a team to kill the rest of the day before the tournament started.  The next morning, we had our first game. We played ICS-Bangkok in our opener which was fueled by some soccer ACSC rivalries (Dalat boys beat this school in the soccer ACSC final a couple of months prior). We won that game and had our next game scheduled against YISS. At half-time of that game, we were do...

 By Olivia Elliott From the drizzly rainforest of Penang to the skyscrapers of KL to the quad of Malaysia’s university of science, Varsity Girls Rugby had an amazing season from start to finish. The players expressed that rugby is unlike any other sport they have played.  Natalie Khor (12) described that she usually plays “brute force sports, but rugby required much more agility and speed” than she expected.  Jing Xuan Leow (10) also commented that rugby revolves around speed, having “sticky fingers,” and the ability to observe the opponents and decide on a play on the spot. Additionally, rugby requires teamwork and trust; one can not go off alone and hope for the best. It calls for a team who communicates well, runs fast, and has nice dumps.  But through that speed and agility, the team placed second in the Penang State Championship, was awarded fourth place at ISKL, and on February 11th, won gold undefeated at their final tournament.  Chad Neeley (teacher), th...

By Natalie Khor After the first semester of college application frenzy, the long, arduous wait awaits seniors in their last semester of high school. Every day, we check our emails obsessively to see if there will be any updates to our applications.  Angelia Loo (12) applied under early decision to Northeastern University and was among one of the first to receive an admissions decision. “The waiting game was pretty torturous and painful because all it was that it would come out by December 15, but it had come out earlier previously, so I was just checking my email every morning,” she said. When that fateful day arrived, she opened her university portal to gratifying news.  Joshua Emmanuel (12) received similar news in his applications and admitted, “Once I got [the acceptance], I couldn’t care anymore at school.”  There’s a long-standing joke that no one is more pathetic than seniors in second semester, and with acceptances pouring in as time goes on, it is only inevitable...

By Alia Peterson People have always told me that senior year goes by fast. However, I only really believed that now. The past three years of high school have gone by quickly, but senior year truly does flash by. Here we are in the second semester of our last year of high school, except it feels like our freshman year. We never had a full year of high school due to Covid putting us online.  The social aspect of the past years has been abnormal, with no sports and the inability to go to school and see friends. Everything became online, and sports disappeared for a little while. Covid has affected everyone's lives, but as I think about it, being a senior is crazy. With these last few months of school before graduation, most of us seniors have already applied or are in the process of applying to colleges. Others have different plans. As I look back on it and realize that this is the closest to an ordinary high school year for us, it's eye-opening seeing how far we have made it. Des...

By Mark Ho After a busy school day, the JV boys’ basketball team got ready to play in the Dalat Jr. Island Shootout Tournament. Right when the clock hit 3:10, the boys pushed aside their math homework and hurried straight to the gym.  At 5 pm, all thirteen boys and their coaches huddled in before their first game against Oasis. The boys were keen on showing what they were capable of. The game was tense and close. For every point Dalat scored, Oasis scored too. Unfortunately, the boys just barely fell short of the win, and it ended in Oasis’ favor 48-46. Team captain Caleb Jun (11) said, “We were sloppy and missed many layups that we shouldn’t have.” After the disappointing first game loss, the team focused only on what lay ahead. Instead of looking back on their previous game, the boys were prepared to win against their next opponent, Chung Ling Private. With their newfound mindset, they were able to crush Chung Ling in a thirty-point blowout.  With two games played by the boy...

By Soo Wei Goh This past weekend, the varsity boys basketball team and the varsity girls basketball team travelled to Kuala Lumpur to face our rivals, ISKL. Before this meeting, we had already met them on our home grounds. The girls had won both games, whilst the boys had fallen short by 1 point. The girls sought to continue their winning streak, while the boys sought revenge on their home floor. The bus ride was chaotic, as usual. Everybody complains about the long bus rides, but I genuinely enjoy them. Spending 4 hours with your friends at the back of the bus playing clash royale is as fun as it gets. For many, it was our last ISKL trip, and we wanted to make it memorable.  Fast forward a few hours after the bus ride, we tipped off against ISKL in their home crowd. Adrenaline was rushing through our bodies as we started the first quarter. We got off to a slow start and ended up down 4 points in the first minute. After a timeout was called, we went back on the court and defended a...

By Chika Tsumagari I stood at the centre of the court, on top of the huge logo of ISKL, The International School of Kuala Lumpur. I was ready for the tip-off, but there was some unknown complication among the referees, so I took the chance to talk to the ISKL panther standing in front of me. I offered my hand to wish them luck, and I shared with her that this was my last time at ISKL, and my last time competing against them. She took my hand to shake it but told me that she still had future games against Dalat since she was only a junior.  The game started and I was able to tip the basketball to Lauren Worten (12), our captain and point guard, who was waiting for the ball behind me. We beat ISKL 29 to 16; it was a clean win. Our skills and teamwork lead us to 4 total victories against the Panthers this season. The victory was well deserved, and I have no doubt about that, but I couldn’t help but feel slightly sad when we finished the game.  Sharon Kang (12), Joycelyn Fung (12)...

By Jeta Anderson The end of rugby season is approaching as the first ISKL trip for season two sports occurred last weekend. The teams who attended included the varsity boy's basketball, the varsity girl's basketball, and the varsity girl's rugby team.  All the teams did very well in the tournament. However, the most surprising result was for the varsity girl’s rugby. Having only started a few months ago, the girl’s rugby team was relatively new to Dalat. Out of the original eighteen girls on the team, only four had ever played rugby before; the vast majority of the team not even knowing the basic rules of touch rugby. With little to no prior experience, the girl's rugby team surprised everyone when they placed fourth out of the six teams. The other teams consisted of club teams that practiced all year round and teams from other international schools that had been playing for years.  When asked about the growth of the team, Captain Millie Morgan (12) replied, “Even over ...

By Keilah Pickett Over the weekend, the girls’ varsity basketball team travelled to KL to compete in the not-so-tournament (seeing as there were only 3 teams). Traveling is always something athletes look forward to during a sports season because of the new sights and bonding that can happen.  Haylee Douglas (12) said, “My favorite part of ISKL was the whole team squeezing into one room because I felt like it really bonded us talking all night.” It is fun to see and experience new places and grow closer and more comfortable with your teammates. The 5–6-hour bus ride down was filled with activities like karaoke, Tik Tok-making, and long conversations. From long hours tightly packed in a bus, we learned more about each of our teammates, which is an important part of any team sport. Chika Tsumagari (12) said that “during this trip, we spent so much time together and bonded so well. It really showed on the court which allowed us to be undefeated.” For some of the players on the girls’ t...

By Millie Morgan This past weekend, all of Dalat’s varsity teams traveled to compete against ISKL for basketball and rugby. While the games and tournaments are the focus of the trip, many hours are spent on the bus. The bus rides are always a great bonding experience for the team and full of fun memories! People always hear about how the games went and how each team placed, but no one seems to know about the fun things that happen on the bus. The bus rides give us time to spend together as a team off the field or court and learn more about each other outside of the sport. Being stuck together for hours with the nerves and excitement for the upcoming weekend, brings the teams together.  Olivia Elliott (12), a varsity rugby player, talks about how “we were able to bond over ‘never have I ever’” and how she got to know her teammates better, “especially the underclassman.” We filled the time with singing, eating fast food, fixing each others hair, and taking pictures of people sleeping...

By Eleanor Emis  If you have seen multiple people on campus with a boot on a foot, or crutches in their hands, and even me sitting in a wheelchair, then your observations are correct. These past two weeks to be specific, several students have been injured due to sport specific injuries, the majority being in the ankle. From myself to Kyra Brewster (10), Luke Ng (12), Soo Wei Goh (12) and Noah Kaney (12), all of us have shared sprained and broken ankles.  It all started two weeks ago when Kyra and myself both injured our ankles. It was a Monday afternoon, and I had my weekly rugby practice. I was sprinting while doing a practice game and all of a sudden my feet stopped before my body had time to catch up. At the same time, my ankles inverted. It hurt pretty bad, but thankfully Mr. Riffey was able to come to my rescue and help me out. He told me later that I had a grade 2 ankle sprain on my right foot and a grade 1 on my left. After 2 weeks of recovery I am now boot free and can...

By Grace Neeley Touch rugby has been a small sport at Dalat for a while; however, this year, taking home second and fourth place in the tournaments, it's become more popular. Girls of all ages participate, learn, communicate, and build friendships through this beautiful sport.  Last weekend, the team went to ISKL for a tournament where six teams played competitive touch rugby and Dalat placed 4th. On the field, there was an impressive amount of learning and adapting that took place, the other teams played on a different level than we had been and that caused us to have to readjust and adapt.  Some of the girls on the team were skeptical about joining the team as most had never played before.  Jeta Anderson (12) said, "I had doubts about joining the girl's rugby team but I'm so glad I did because it was such a fun experience. I was able to learn a completely new sport and get to know so many of the other girls on my team."  Every team member showed so much growth t...

By Jordan Suen Sounding off in the dark of the night, the fireworks illuminated the night sky with their vibrant colors and earth-shaking sounds. It was that time of year again, a time to celebrate a new year. A Chinese New Year to be more specific. Common festivities of Chinese New Year include lion dancing, family reunion, and red packet gifting. These practices have been passed down from generation to generation, all having their own meaning and purposes.  The lions dance to the beat of the drums so that they may ward away evil spirits, the suits crafted to look like Nians from Chinese mythology in order for them to symbolize the power and wisdom of the creature. Chinese tradition also has the art of gifting red packets filled with money. These represent luck and good wishes so that people may carry these ideals forward to the next year.  Chinese New Year is celebrated in hopes of good luck and prosperity, but also serves as a time to be with family. Friends and family from...

By Kai Ru Bok On a calm Friday morning, the varsity boys' basketball team traveled to Kuala Lumpur on Friday, January 27th, to reclaim glory against ISKL (International School Kuala Lumpur) after a devastating loss in the recent Island Shootout tournament.  ISKL's varsity basketball team proved better the first time after beating the Dalat boys in the finals after a close 40-41 game on home ground. Tensions were high during the days leading up to the team's trip to KL as they worked harder than ever to prove to ISKL, and more importantly themselves, that they were the superior team. After a long six-hour drive, the tired team entered The Jungle, ISKL's main gym, and prepared themselves for the competition. Not long after, all thirteen boys gathered for warm-ups on the court, followed by a pre-game shootaround.  Starting the game, captain Noah Kaney (12) said, "Coming into the game injured with a sprained ankle is a big upset for me as I was looking forward to playi...

By Tian Xiang Hwang “So, I wanna hear your opinions on Harry and Meghan,” Mr. Jason Knutson asked the class unexpectedly one day. There are many classes in Dalat International School, ranging from a science class like Physics to the hard AP classes like AP Calculus. However, there is one very underrated class in particular called AP Comparative Government & Politics, which there are only four students taking. In that class, you learn about political concepts, type of regime, democratization, and the examples of the six countries of the United Kingdom, China, Russia, Iran, Nigeria, and Mexico. The teacher, Mr. Jason Knutson, has done a good job on making the class discussion-based. He managed to keep the class engaged by talking about modern politics of the six countries and current events. Now, talking about current events might sound extremely unrelated to the class, such as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. However, Harry was part of a royal institution that has been around f...