18th Oct 2008 (by Tiffany Cheng)
SouthEast in the MidWest
Its freezing cold 5AM in the morning and I’m already trekking down to the arch with all the other freshmen. There are some Saturdays when all you want to do after a week of consecutive late night study sessions is cuddle up into those nice warm sheets and slam that infernal beeping machine to the ground. Ok, most Saturdays. Occasionally though, nothing changes up the scenery (trust me, even those pretty ivy-covered walls splashed all over those admission brochures fails to rouse the same stirrings of inspiration after a few months) like a nice road trip, or in this case, a nice long road trip to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to prove our mettle against the Midwest Universities in an epic sports meet aptly named... the Midwest Games.
Thus begins our pleasant scenic drive to Urbana, which is only, oh... 160 miles away. (Really, you didn’t think we’d wake up that early just for kicks, I mean Singaporeans do have a reputation, but no one gets up at 5AM on Saturdays to study... ok, at least not every Saturday.) Within our entourage of four cars, each vehicle was diplomatically assigned to ensure the lowest mortality rate. Placing our fates into the caffeine-induced shaking hands of our peers, we make the slow crawl southwards. After about 2 hours of intermittent conversation about Freud, Lee Kuan Yew and the meaning of life, all between bouts of dozing, physiology kicks in and reminds us all of breakfast (or lack thereof). Oh well, nothing to it but to find the closest watering hole- which also happens to be the golden arches. Walking into the upscale eatery, I nearly did a double take. The sweet, sweet sound of Singlish filled the room like the aroma of burgers and fries. Could it be? Yes, they were heading to the same event.
“Oh, so we’re competitors then.”
“No, don’t tell me, you’re from... *screws face up in extreme concentration* RJ.”
“No way! You’re from RJ too?”
“...No.”
“Oh...”
Anyways, McDonalds wasn’t big enough for the two groups of us, so we drove off... to another McDonalds. After our mafia-inspired rendezvous there (and wolfing down our breakfasts to the insistent urges of the NUSAF officers) the clock somehow revealed the time to be 9AM when we arrived.
The events were supposed to have begun at 8:30AM. Team Singapore Northwestern was off to a lovely start. We were slated to compete in a variety of events- soccer, Frisbee, floorball, and of course, Singapore’s national sport: captain’s ball. Ever the patriot, I of course chose to ‘compete’ in captain’s ball. The more adventurous opted for floorball, even though we had no inkling of what the game was about. (If you throw the ball into the basket in basketball, and throw the ball to the captain in captain’s ball, then floorball= dribbling?) A cursory glance across the gymnasium revealed an apparent disparity between how seriously each school considered the games. U of W, U of I & U of C were resplendent in matching sports tees and track shorts, while Northwestern played it casual with Mr. Men and Little Miss T-shirts and jeans.
We fared surprisingly well considering the lack of practise (see: none), graciously allowing the other teams easy wins for the first half of the day. As each game passed, the camaraderie that bore us through the 4 hour drive worked its magic, and the Northwestern Captain’s Ball team made it to the semifinals. The fresh addition of new members as the other games ended also added to our numbers and lessened some of the pressure on the more athletic members of the team.
There’s nothing like a good ol’ fashioned team sport to bring the group together, (and I’m not the only one who knows this, if the Dragon Boating freshman orientation organized by the NUSAF officers is anything to go by...) but we didn’t drive all the way just to bond within our group and get a little exercise. Throughout the day, the pleasant surprise (or non-surprise) of familiar faces from JC and Secondary School really emphasized the essence of this gathering of college students: One big (dare I say it?) chummy Singaporean reunion.
As with all things Singaporean, the day’s events culminated with the mutual partaking of food (what were you expecting?). We ate, chatted, ate some more, and even acted appropriately startled when it was announced that we received a trophy for our soccer team even though it had been a long day for everyone, and some of us could barely keep our eyes open. Getting our group pictures snapped in the YMCA hall, it was hard to glimpse the faces of old friends, new acquaintances and convivial rivalries, knowing that we would go our separate ways so soon after such a brief reunion. (Well, that and it’s pretty hard to recognize faces when there’s a camera flash going off into your eyes.) A photo montage of the day’s events mirrored the thoughts flitting through our minds.
Contrary to its moniker, the Midwest Games weren’t all about the games. Sure, we had fun tossing, kicking and throwing stuff around, but the easy atmosphere of fellowship and jovial festivity was an (Sorry, I couldn’t resist) Uniquely Singaporean experience shared, as it can only be, by those who grew up on a tiny little Southeast Asian island south of Johor Bahru and north of Batam, and who now find themselves way more than 4 hours drive from home.
Addendum: And then there’s the journey back in which JJ and JK go to White Castle, but that’s another story for another time...
Signing off,
Tiff.