9:07 p.m. - 2004-09-09
The Crying Game
i think i'll definitely try to come back for next year's NJRC.. the stuff that goes on there is just... lets say interesting.
lets start with yesterday shall we?
so i went in yesterday morning all prepared to sit through another round of interviews with the primary kids. but just when you think things are getting predictable something comes along that just throws everything out of whack. at 7.30am, Idzhani comes along and says that Joey's not coming in so i have to step in and take over his teams for the day.
woohoo!
i didnt really mind cos all the secondary schools were coming in today, and while some of them can be bitchy little troublemakers, the rest of them are fairly ok. and i was lucky enough to get teams from the CHIJ (Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus) schools - all-girl teams, and more of the better behaved ones. and i knew some of the teams from interview rounds, which made it even easier to interact with them. so i got along really easily with them... thus i was really hoping that again, i wouldnt have to tell any of the teams that they were disqualified.. and thankfully i didnt have to.
see its really a two-way thing. i take care of the teams, get them to their missions on time, get them prepared for their missions, keep time for them, keep team morale up, stay with them on the playing field and watch their robots perform. in return they look after me =). grape soda, lemon tea, food.. oh i was feeling good.. ah lots of freebies too!! badges, light-sticks, candy and ooh a goody bag of free expensive make-up samples!! oh i was happy happy happy.
except of course when some of the girls set too-high expectations of themselves and start crying their eyes out when they dont meet those goals... mreh... i had alot of consoling to do.. and strangely, i'm the one who seems to get all the crying teams.. ah well, probably a Higher Reason for that, i just do my best to make them feel better.
today was no different really. Joey was late again and i took his teams.. i really was hoping i could get his teams cos one of them was the team from Admiralty Secondary School that gave out the plushy dolphins.. as soon as i walked in with a few of the others and the trainer saw me and found out i was going to be his team's coordinator, he immediately grabbed my wrist and took us all out to his car and gave us another bag of dolphins to share. i finally got my pink dolphin named 'Rosy'.. yay!!
as for the teams themselves... most of them were very unprepared.. i had one girls' team that didnt even know how to work the robots or download the missions. that was just pathetic and they ended up forfeiting all the missions. one team didnt even show up and a third gave up towards the end. so i was left with only 4 proper teams: including team Dolphin who, i was warned, had a reputation at NJRC for breaking down in tears for the slightest mishap.. and oh boy, this year was no different.
i swear whenever they come out to the field for their actual run, the entire school presence lined up in the stands, all the officials, referees and some of us coordinators circle around, all to watch what happens. doesnt help the fact that the 2 girls running the robot are also incredibly high-strung nervous wrecks. serious drama man. geez. its sad really, cos when they're not competing, they're really nice girls.
it'd be interesting in the finals to have the dolphin mascot from today and the multi-colored neon octopus from yesterday compete against each other in the cheer-offs cos they were damn hilarious.
choir practise was alright except for my fits of coughing. finally went to see the doctor about it and he gave me some medicine which i hope to Primus works.
and Thor, your box came today. lol its funny, when i walked in the door i didnt even see it cos my grandmother had placed in on the floor in front of the cabinet which is not in my line of view as i walk in. and i was so tired that i just went straight to my comp table and dumped my bags down. it was my dad who asked me about the box. lol thats when i noticed it. the card was lovely. i was about to open the presents too when i remembered i promised you i'd wait till my birthday. so my dad's put the box out of my sight till the day arrives! gaaah! no fair!!
whew! only to more days to go and i can start sleeping properly again. hopefully i wont get any crying teams tomorrow.
