Graduation Dinner

As mentioned yesterday, today was a very busy day. There was this lecture in the morning by a proud, haughty, and arrogant person, followed by a trip down to the computer store to get a new graphics card and power supply unit (for a grand total of $193 - and it's working great, as can be seen as I'm still able to use my computer), and ending with the graduation dinner of our class of 2009 in the evening - which was really the main star of the day.

Our graduation dinner was held at the ballroom at Hilton hotel and the theme for the night was Masquerade, where we were supposed to unleash our "inner self", whatever that means. I didn't really prepare anything special for the night though, unlike some who came with masks (who were told to bring them, preferably) and I don't have a blazer too, so I just went with the normal long-sleeved shirt + tie + pants combo.

The night started quite normally, with us registering our attendance by indicating next to our name on the sitting arrangement and nominating people for the beauty pageant. Some of the people were taking photos at that time too, and that reminded me that I've been so stupid as to have forgotten to bring my camera along. I had to content myself with my rather crappy phone camera and in the end, I only took 2 photos with it. Others were taken with others with their cameras. Hopefully they will upload the pictures so I can see and get my hands on them.

After the basic introduction speech by the organising person, and our head of department (who was the only representative from our professors), the dinner was started officially. There were a total of 10 courses, as per the norm for Chinese menus, and naturally, there was a course that was fish, that I didn't take. Not a big deal though, since I'm just missing out on one course out of 10.

We also had some games along the way with the two emcees trying their best to engage our attention. But I guess most of us were more interested in the food and socialising with our fellow classmates and friends than the games. We did participate though, and one of our classmates also had her birthday celebration, along with her boyfriend for company. Some video clips made by our classmates (both past and present) were also screened during the dinner, and they were really touching, especially when photos of us from the past - from the freshman orientation to the final exams in the final year - were shown. It really shows how fast time has gone by. Four years just went flying past in a blink of an eye.

The most interesting, and fun event of the night was the beauty pageant. The nominees were pretty much caught off guard - well, I guess you can say that some of them had seen it coming - and it was a lot of fun to see them get on stage, be paired up, catwalk up and down the ballroom, and also to do challenges and dance together.

There was also an unofficial photo taking session after the first half of the pageant as people started going round to take photos with each other. They were getting together, striking poses, and basically having a lot of fun. Which was really the main point of the event. This was, after all, one of the last chance for all, or almost all, of the class to get together.

Near the end, one of our classmates who was not practising, and instead went into the showbiz industry, sang two songs for all of us - one Mandarin, one English. She's a real beauty, and cute, and her vocals are good too, so I think she'll be able to do well. Let's all cheer her on^^ She's also the female winner of the beauty pageant for the night. Not a surprise, given her looks and her attire.

As per normal tradition, or at least that's what I think, there was a lucky draw at the very end of the dinner. A total of 10 prizes were given out, and I was lucky enough to be drawn for one of them. I won a 2GB thumbdrive courtesy of the HPB. Quite a nice little souvenior for the night.

We had a class photo taking session at the very end, which was quite chaotic as trying to fit 90 over people into one photo takes a lot of squeezing and planning. After everything was done and over, it was already around 11:40pm, and there were no more trains running in the direction that I need to take to get home so I had to take a night bus.

All in all, the dinner was wonderful, and my heartfelt thanks goes out to the organising committee for planning such a wonderful night, and also to all of the classmates who came and made the night possible. The next, and probably last, time where we will see all - almost - of us together will be our commencement ceremony next Thur. I will be missing them. Those four years were great times together.

疲れた。本当に疲れた。卒業したクラスメートと一緒に宴会を参加した。久しぶりの再開はやっぱりすごい。友達と一緒に話して、写真をとって、とても楽しい時間を過ぎた。

楽しいは楽しいけど、終わったときはもう１２時ぐらいだから、電車はもう止めた。仕方なくバスで帰った。うちへ帰ったときはもう１時ぐらい。酒を少し飲んだから、頭が痛い。しかも眠い。普通はあんまり酒を飲んでいないから。

楽しい時間の後は疲れ。当然なことでしょ。