hmm haven't posted in about 3 days.
friday - titrations were quite fun. just that well now I don't really care much about accuracy/not contaminating stuff cos no matter how I try I still manage to get stuff contaminated anyway. so I really don't bother washing the pipettes/burettes/conical flasks properly anymore. and most of the time I miss the end-point [i.e. adding too much instead of adding drop by drop - which is really tedious] but now I don't bother redoing and just take the reading. it's a very imprecise science anyway [at least with what we have].
pe - totally flunked tennis assessment. =D. but expected it anyway.
hcl - now she's demanding my second zuowen. zzz. but can't really remember what happened during the lesson anyway.
english - watched some videos/talked about tone/body language and people read that essay out loud. and wesley you read weirdly.
then afterwards skipped hcl remedial [again] to go for the homecreation briefing. which ended quite late so ended up rushing off to yak to meet some tupperware people for earth day [week]. zzz.
then geotrail prep - wasted a LOT of time talking/discussing. then got home at about 6 and then well slacked. and slept relatively earlier.
then saturday!
woke up at 530, managed to get to NUS by 745 [and OWL was late ._.]. then registration, geotrail briefing [which ended early] so they showed us some random youtube videos.
well on to the format of the trail
5[+½] hours - ½ for lunch; 15min grace period following which -½m for each minute late
5 stations
30min per station; 5 min grace period and -½ for every min late thereafter
flag off at 0915, 0930 and 0945 [3 groups of 10]
well first things first - assuming 30min travel between stations [highly improbable] and 30min at each station, then it'd take 5½h already: 5x.5 = 2.5h for all stations, then from NUS to station 1, station 1 to station 2 etc. 5x.5 = 2.5h also. and then of course station 5 BACK to NUS which would be around 30 min too. so altogether 5.5h - not even counting lunch! so it was of course no surprise that no team made it back on time - even with that 15 min grace period.
then... the stations were ordered 1>2>3>4>5, and with 10 teams in each cluster the first 2 would go to station 1 first, the next 2 to station 2 and so on and then follow the order.
so anyway we went to the starting point [and I was arguing with KLL about stuff] and were given our clue - which was damn obvious. but of course I didn't shout it out this time. then when they said we could go we all saw a 96 come so we all dashed across the road. and yeah.
anyway our first station was ACM. and we were actually allowed to go into the galleries! so we were the first team there - got off at raffles place, ran along the river and over the bridge - and then about 5 min later RV [which was the other team which set off at 0930 and went to our station] arrived. yay.
and even later HCI showed up too. so then we were quite surprised cos they started at 0915 so we thought that it was their 2nd station already. but then it turned out to be their first. O.o
then after that next station was tiong bahru market, so like train to tiong bahru and a short bus trip. there we saw quite a few teams so we thought that we were late. but turns out that tiong bahru was their first station. so yay. and this time I had to do the AQ and ended up writing rubbish.
then next station was botanic gardens. so took a LONG bus ride. and on the bus we met another team - but then BG was their second and our third station - but then again they were from the 0945 batch.
so went to the gardens, jaywalked in full view of the other team, got our questions - and this time I had to go find out the answers. so ran all over the place and was perspiring really badly when I got back. so anyway finished the station, then it was supposed to be the lunch break - it was structured in such a way that if say you finished station 3 at 1234, then even if you arrived at station 4 you wouldn't be able to start the station until 30 min later [i.e. 1304/when the lunch break was over]. however we used the lunch to travel and eat on the go.
so anyway next station was natl museum - so we had to take a bus. so while waiting for the lights to change we saw the bus arrive. we had to wait cos it was a major intersection and couldn't jaywalk, but the moment the lights turned we dashed across the road.
but then so happened that there was ANOTHER set of traffic lights [instead of what would normally be a zebra crossing] and those lights hadn't changed yet - so half of our team ended up just running across. and almost being knocked down. so we missed our bus and waited about 10 min for the next one ._.
well we kinda got lost at the natl museum part, so we ended up on fort canning and had to use the back entrance. so at the museum we were again surprised that we were allowed into the galleries. but seriously the museum was very cool [both literally and figuratively].
then final station was bras basah complex. so we decided to walk/run there [but then halfway gave up and ended up taking a bus. for one stop.] so as we approached the station the stationmaster was on the phone and he was like "a team has just arrived for their fourth station" or something like that and I said no fifth and he was like shocked.
so we did the station. then took a train back and got off at buona vista.
and guess what? spent about 10-15 min waiting for 95. which ended up being filled with AT LEAST 10 teams. gaah should have taken 96 from clementi.
so anyway after that we all squeezed into the bus. then at the final bus stop everyone got off and ran. so well SCGS had a headstart being at the exit, but then I managed to overtake them and was the first of that whole crowd of people to reach LT11. then ran to the tables and submitted the timesheet and stalled for a while while waiting for the rest to arrive. so the rest of the teams had to queue behind us. =D
then well met OWL [who bought us food] and then went to get changed for grand finals.
but first there was geoad voting. which was zzz cos ours didn't seem to be very good. and halfway when they were screening the geoads this guy came up to me and asked me [or a representative from our team] to meet him outside the LT later on. which got me a little worried. then turns out that we got into the finals [along with ACS(B) - ACS(I) didn't even qualify for the final round - and NUSHS. which was quite a good thing considering that RGS wasn't in the finals too.]
then final round - format was as follows:
each team was to send 3 reps on stage, then the first representative from all the teams were to go up. then the first school's rep would pick a category and all 3 had to answer that question. then the second school's rep would pick another category and so on.
then once the 3 questions were done the first school had to present their geoad.
then the second representative from all the schools were to go up etc.
then the second school had to present and so on.
so it happened that we were the 3rd school. yay.
so our first rep happened to be KLL. so after the first set of 3 questions the score was tied with all schools at 40.] then NUSHS presented and when we heard their presentation we weren't that worried. cos it turned out that the other 2 schools didn't prepare while for us OWL was like forcing us to do a script just in case we got in. but either way we forgot the script when we were on stage.
then darren went up and then did quite well, now it was NUSHS 40 ACS(B) 60 RI(S) 60 [and really it was funny going up to the stations during the trail and telling the station masters that we were from RI (Secondary)]
then ACS(B) presented - which was better than NUSHS.
then I went up. so I got the first 2 questions wrong T.T [well so did the guy from ACS(B) and NUSHS got 1 right] - so going into the last question it was 60 to all schools.
well just so happened that the last question was GIS. which was like ugh. but then when I saw it the answer was kinda obvious. =D. so flashed the answer, and all 3 teams had different answers and so happened that - mine was correct. yay. so final score RI 80 ACS 60 NUSHS 60.
then we presented - I was quite nervous and apparently everyone was laughing cos I was shifting my weight but I think we did quite ok. and Q&A from judges went relatively well.
then PRIZE PRESENTATION.
wait audience round first - which was quite funny - to answer the question you had to call the emcee's handphone. so apparently some people were smsing him and stuff. but the questions were ._.
then the prize presentation - first were indiv awards for prelim rounds - RI had 3 people placing 2nd for the MCQ round - but then there were 5 2nds and 1 first.
then awards for the application question.
then prizes for geoAd. and so like we didn't get most popular or special mention [as expected] - but then shockingly for the top 3
3rd went to I THINK CHIJ. then 2nd was ACS(B). so anyway since we all thought ACS(B)'s and NUSHS's GeoAds were quite good. and both got into finals. so we all thought NUSHS was going to get first for geoAd. but NO. turns out that the judges liked our advertisement so much that we ended up getting first. so no one was prepared to go up and get the prizes etc.
then next were geotrail prizes - HCI got 3rd [although they only had 11 min for their last station and that would mean that they had 15min to get back to NUS], we got 2nd although I thought that our AQ bombed due to the bad handwriting and all that smoke - and we weren't very creative - but thankfully the answers to the factual questions could be found in the locations [omg just discovered that I've spent 40 min on this post] - so yay. oh and we managed to save quite a bit of time by running from place to place and at quite a few stations took like 35 min for the task - cos we wrote too much and all that - but we spent at least 30 min at each station [compared to some other teams] so we did have a slight edge there. and yeah NUSHS won geotrail.
then yeah prizes for finals, so NUSHS 3rd, ACS 2nd and RI(Secondary!) 1st - for the first time in 5 years.
yay. but actually we were quite lucky for the finals - e.g. if we had faced RG/NY/HC/SC then we might not have gotten first - but then again thanks to our geoad and geotrail - yay.
so anyway now the pressure's on next year's batch. ha.
