We had our 1st competition of the folklore category on the 2nd day in Pattaya, 13th of July. Did Yu Ye Hua and Luk Luk Lumbu. After coming down from stage, we heard some inside news that our choir was one of the few that the judges clapped after performing our pieces :)
2nd competition is for the open-mixed category, on the 14th. Ave Maris Stella was better than usual, but still, it's horrible, not due to our skill, but due to the song itself :P . Shima E, honestly, I dun think it was one of our greatest time performing, but it's still alright. Bal-Laygi, I honestly think that we did our best, and that one time was the best ever that we ever performed. The shouting part, I have never ever heard anything like that during practices. Everyone, including me, did the screaming part with full power, and standing in the 1st row, I got the full effect from everyone from behind blasting at me, it was such a great feeling. Adrenaline rushed and all. I saw Terrence's face looking a bit emotional, but didn't notice that he was already crying until the others said they saw it when we went down stage. Was really really happy with our performance.
On the side note, we all started to play bridge like crazy. Everynight in Pattaya, played at least until 1-2 o'clock, only then will we go to sleep(ok, at least not me, I slept early for the two days that has competition, but after competition, I stayed up til quite late to play oso.). One crazy thing, on thre day when we were coming back to Singapore on the plane. Kelvin and mark won a game with a bid of 7 no trumps. meaning that they can't even afford to lose one hand @@ Kelvin's hand is consisted of almost all the aces, kings, queens and jacks... Anyway, that day when we flew back, it was night time. So the lights are mostly turned off. The only three spotlights on were on NUS choir's 'gambling den' XD. You could easily recognise where the NUS choir people are just by searching where the light is on. The rest of the passengers are all asleep, but we had 3 sets of cards and we kept playing after lift off. Ok I slept a while, and Pei Suen has the picture to proof it :P. Anyways, I oso have one picture of our dear alicen sleeping with her mouth wide open on the bus to pattaya....
Food was ok during the whole stay there, but there really just wasn't any authentic thailand food served during our stay there. the buffet was mostly consists of bland food. Well, we can't complain about that, we need to keep our voices for the competition, so we can't have spicy food spoiling our throats then. had one spicy one after the competition and it burned my throat a little bit. The next morning, started to feel that a sore throat is coming on, but still, in the afternoon, we went to a restaurant and I ordered a fried rice. It was quite hot, but still it's enjoyable. I enjoyed myself imagining what Kai Lin's expression will be after he eat the fried rice XD
Honestly speaking, from the bottom of my heart, I have never ever regretted joining NUS choir! You people are great! I love every single one of you guys and gals, you all made me feel a sense of belonging, just like what Terrence had said about our bunch, we are special! :D Through this competition, we all bonded even more closely. Truly, I feel a sense of belonging with you guys. Will miss the choir practices for these few weeks though... Anyway, I hope a new bunch of choristers will join us soon, and help us liven up NUS choir even more! Met a few promising freshies yesterday, and I hope to see them during the audition :)
Results day: We got gold C for both categories that we participated in, 4th place for folklore category, and 6th place for open-mixed. I'm very very satisfied with the results really, considering about half of us are new to choir. Means we all have great potential! We'll definitely secure the 1st prize for the next competition we're going! Honestly speaking, i got dejected a bit when the results are just announced, cuz we didn't get 1st prize, but after a while, I felt very satisfied with our results, and what i came here for wasn't for the 1st prize, it was to show what we can do :D One of the judges from phillipines gave us very high marks, high enough for gold A, and I'm very very satisfied with that, considering that we don't have any connections with him, and he don't have any reasons to bias for us, and also that he is one of the strictest judges ever! Though why Singapore judges gave us low marks, I have no idea. IMO, as long as what we sang sounds nice and you enjoyed it, it doesn't matter too much if we go a little bit flat or sharp together, and it makes the chord. either the singapore judges are too technical( like what Mr. Gao Gao said about the reasons for our Bal-Laygi marks, hmph!), or they are biased against us T.T...
Terrence's speech also helps liven up the mood that day, and I agree whole-heartedly with what he had said. Although... Aaron could check how we felt 1st b4 telling Terrence that we're dejected. Anyway, what he did was good too! That's the sign of a good leader, keeping the members spirit in a good form! And terrence, we, as the choir, love you too! You're a great conductor!
Ok, enough ranting then. Now it's time to go to the business canteen to meet up with the freshies from msl and later bring them to a campus tour :)
