*Because I haven't uploaded a blog post in quite a while, I decided to split it into two parts, part 1 has been published earlier so feel free to read that one first :)*
The final months of our time here in Singapore have started, so we spent a lot of the Chinese New Year break ticking off many of the places we wanted to visit before leaving. Nevertheless, we had our IB Mock exams at the beginning of March, so we also spent a lot of our time studying and revising. The mocks were written within two weeks, it was pretty stressful but overall a very good experience, as we now know all the procedures of the exams.
I also had a great time going to a concert gifted by a good friend as a secret Santa gift. It was a one hour best of Beethoven concert in the Victoria Concert Hall, the special thing about it was that only candles lighted up the entire room, it was magical. And I realised how much I missed live music, I was in tears by the first note played on the piano, and I didn't stop until the end - you could feel the mood in the relatively empty and spaced out concert hall as we all longed for a bit of normality.
After the mocks, we had our spirit week, a week where you dress according to the day's theme. From childhood characters to Dragon's day, we had a lot of fun planning outfits and matching with our friends. We had some performances and recordings with Bersama, which was great as well. Shortly after, we had our spring break, another chance to spend time with our friends. Nandini, Francesco and I went to Lavo, the restaurant on top of Marina Bay Sands, and I stayed over at Izzy's house for a while. Our corridor had a little outing to the Marina Barrage, a piece of land behind Marina Bay from which you had great views over the skyline as we spent an afternoon picnicking there. I also tried to rest a bit to be able to put everything into the weeks leading up to the IB exams.
Time passed by so quickly that soon we found ourselves in the last two weeks of high school. Our grade 11 boarders organised a little farewell party before the first day of school back from April break, and we reflected on our time here in Singapore. We went into the last two weeks excited but also starting to get sentimental. Throughout the last week, we were saying goodbye to our teachers as we finished the final classes, organised the prank for our school and celebrated. Each day we dressed up in either Hawaiian clothes or a fun revue of our prom-that-never-happened outfits. On Friday was the finale, our Grand Walk.
We tie-dyed our school uniform shirts, as it is the tradition here on campus, and arrived Friday morning to see the younger grades enjoying the pranks we prepared (I have attached some pictures). The Grand Walk usually takes place in the plaza where all the younger grades and parents come together, and we walk around them to say our goodbyes, but this year we had to reshape the Grand Walk to fit with covid regulations. We walked through the High School, Middle School, Primary School and Infant School blocks in our mentor class groups. Everyone was standing outside their classrooms waving and celebrating us, parents were able to join a live stream online. Many students wrote lovely messages, and our samba band was responsible for great music in between the groups. Although we had to rush through the route, it was a fantastic experience to end our two-year journey with. We all met in the plaza afterwards, took pictures and danced to the music. We had to be off campus by 10, so we went to the boarding house, where we all took a little break. Many of us prepared the boarding house prank the night before, so we were rather tired, and we all felt very sad, so we just needed a moment to comprehend what just happened - we have finished high school. Izzy, Francesco, Nandini and I went out for lunch afterwards, and we had another girl's night in the corridor to celebrate.
Now there is 'only' IB exams left. I write my first on the 6th of May, so I still have some time to study and prepare. After our exams we will have our graduation, another ceremony I am very excited about :) The last days have felt somewhat surreal, its hard to believe that I won't go back to class on Monday, but now we have to focus on exams. We cannot wait to finish those and leave the IB behind.