NO LONGER TOO WET, JUST DAMP II

12:04am.
this isn't a blog for this new day, january 31st, but for yesterday (see below). i just decided to continue the entry even if it ain't the day no longer. (haha..rap songs gettin' to ma head..=p)
i also should be asleep by now, since i didn't sleep at all today even if i had zero classes to attend. but i, um, just don't feel like sleeping just yet.

warning: please read the looong (hahaha) blog dated january 30 before you read this. if you refuse, hmmm... it's not too bad either. :)

anyway, as i was saying (this is extremely difficult, having to shift my mood by a day earlier), i was feeling a little damp last night.

after my feel-good moment at the bazaar, i went back to the hall with korinna, as our fellow bridging kids had left just moments earlier. i should've gone to the library to return my books, but then i felt the urge to just surf. what on earth i was surfing, i forgot already. i sure promise not to be a net addict. promise.

anyway, after a quick dinner, i slept awhile so as to ready myself for fencing at 8pm.
i woke up at 7:45, just enough for me to get down right on time. i brought my foil (a.k.a. unsharp but pointed sword, with some electronics going on) and ran down four flights of stairs, walked a little to the dining hall, then down another flight, before i arrived in the comm hall.

KY, who was quite in a perky mood that night, having seemingly forgotten about the first years no-show in the novice competition some weeks back (see previous post, "pizza and coke"), declared tonight as free-fence night, which meant that there was to be no usual training, but just actual swordfight between two fencers using all the cool gear.

it was cool, but that meant i'd have to run back up to the fourth floor to get my foil's wire to connect my sword to the suit. i didn't mind much.

so free fence it was. and i realized i was lousy at it.
maybe my dampness started just then.

i mean, i always seem to get rattled with nerves during times when i shouldn't. i mean, some nerves are a good thing, as my dad once told me, as it shows that one's serious about something. haha. i remember that when i used to join some sort of competition in school -- i think it was elocution or something. anyway, that sort of stuck to me. but in this night's case, my nerves didn't do me good. i was embarrassed.

my turn to free fence came after many pairs have played. i free-fenced with KC, one of the jolliest and friendliest and funniest seniors in the hall, who has been fencing, i presume, for a good many years already (i think he's a Year 4 senior).

i screwed up my footwork, i couldn't do a disengage, my foil couldn't target the silver area on KC's chest, and everytime i stepped forward, he'd effortlessly parry and hit me as if i were a willing prey. it was over in a breeze. 0-5.

although KC wasn't the type of opponent who'd make his competitor sulk, (on the contrary, i was glad it was KC i fenced with since he seemed more of a patient teacher than a cold nemesis) i felt a wee bit awful. damp if u please.

the scholars from mainland china did okay, some even getting up to 4 points against a senior. the locals did fine too. okay, so some of my fellow fencers got zero points too, but still, i can't help thinking that i'm just not good at it. at least not just yet. or maybe not ever.

you see, i've always been searching (perhaps unconsciously) of something i'm good at. okay, so i may be good in math and in writing and all, but this time, i want something that's physical. some sport.

people always say i got the height for basketball, and wonder why on earth do i not play. the simple answer is i don't know how. the complicated answer is i was traumatized by a childhood experience (although that's slightly an exaggeration).

i'm lousy at swimming. i've seen korinna and ivy do a lap or two without stopping when we went swimming last time in the sports and recreation centre, while i could only swim halfway across the pool. not to mention i had to swim near the edge, just in case.

volleyball is not for me too. my arms are too thin, and the thought of them getting fractured in a game isn't such a remote reality... at least to me. besides, im too clumsy for the intense smashing in volleyball. sigh.

we used to play kickball when i was a kid and that was the part of my athletic life (if it ever existed even) that i liked. we used to call it "soccer", because we kicked the ball, but it was really like baseball, since we had the bases and all. i later learned it was called kickball.
anyway...


** to be continued **

shucks. im just so sleepy. gudnyt! i'll finish this, promise.


*****
6:05pm, february 1.

as i was saying, i pretty much convinced myself that i was a pretty good kicker. and this was bolstered by the fact that, when the nestle exporatorium came to my home city of davao, bringing with it its displays of history, entertainment, and lotsa cool stuff, i was THE person who kicked hardest in one of their exhibits (i think it was for Milo). after all the spectacular exhibits, the last few stops towards the end were FUN stuff, things that people could actually play with. so after a cool obstacle course which included huge inflated rubber balloon-like obstacles and a harness, the kick-as-hard-as-you-can-and-hit-the-target game was next. not having played "soccer" for a good many years before that hot afternoon, i was pretty skeptical about my ahem, "kicking skills". so after the rest of my buddies tried their luck, i got the ball, and following the instructions of the guy in-charge, i gave it a good kick.

i was quite surprised i even hit the target (i forgot if it was the face of the image of a boy or something else), as i was quite lousy in targetting things like in basketball, but it turns out i hit the bull's eye. 'twas fun! great! woohoooooooo! ;) the exploratiorium even had a meter to record some sort of "measure" of the kick (i think it was the strength of the kick as it hit the target), and my kick was some 100 sumthing X units.

the score didn't register to me as i didn't know what the hell it meant. it was until the guy in-charge told me that was their top score of the day. and we were the last class of the the day! it was a field trip of juniors and seniors in high school, you see, and i was just a junior! hahaha. that gave me a goood wide grin. yehey!

but anyway, apparently, despite my high score in that kicking game, i still wasn't good in any sport in school. there was no soccer being offered in my school, so i contented myself playing badminton. i think i wasn't half bad, in fact i was better than average, but it wasn't till i came to singapore that i saw hard-smashing, professional-like badminton which made my badminton-playing ego shrink to about half its size.

anyway, i still try to find a good sport.
it's hard to learn when i'm already 17. i mean, i hope people here would teach newbies begining from square one. i mean, most of the teams here accept people with prior experience or knowledge. oh well. i'll fight to get into SOME sport somehow. i almost signed up for soccer here, but found no companion, and found myself busy to attend training. a friend on the e-block, yee hau, invited me to go for softball, but the training schedule didn't fit mine. oh well. next year! when earning points through extra-curricular stuff would be a MUST so i could stay here in this hall. yeah, and i'll pursue the choir too, that which i abandoned this year after being accepted for auditions. :) PR comm took loads of my time eh.

anyhow, i think i'll learn a sport somehow here. that's something on my to-do list already. fencing isn't too bad. oh, i attended the volleyball competition of our hall, KE7, in the IHG (inter-hall games) the other day, and it was then i realized that a game like that could be violent. hahaha.

i sure hope to God i get to play soccer next year. or any sport where i'm good at, for that matter. i should simply find my "calling". yiheeeee.

it's not necessary, of course, that i become sports-oriented, but it sure would be fun, in a sweaty sort of way. ;)