Congratulations to all Graduants!

Wow, 48 hours of intensity!

Friday evening: Heard Janice's voice and Greg's signature sniffing of the nose. I shot up the stairs in nanoseconds, hardly able to content my excitement to meet the Gns (well, it's actually more of the Lees, Janice's parents and George coming too). After a few huggies and yuppies, we rushed off to town, the Gns and Lees heading off to Pharmacy Cheese and Wine, and me heading off to the Octagon to meet the Yeos.

Height of the night: Christmas in the Octagon. It was superb, considering the event had less sponsorhip than the previous years. The event started off with casual Pacific Islander songs by the First Church. Just prior the Nation band staged up, Tahi (ignore the spelling) gave the coolest Linkin Park-style rapping.
When I said Christmas you said 'Yeah!'
Christmas
'Yeah!'
Christmas
'Yeah!'
etc.
The coolest part was he integrated the gospel into the rap, telling Dunedin about Jesus Christ is our Saviour who brings light into the world.
Brad was the MC and a very good MC he was, even though there was an air of negative degree Celsius among the crowds (especially the oldies) at the beginning. After a couple of carols (very jazz-style as expected *hint* Michelle was the keyboardist), the crowd started to warm up and there were more and more people swarming into the Octagon. There were a few dances from Dunedin Studio of Tap (tap dancing), Pacific Association of King's (Samoan Dance---reminded me of Bruce pole dancing), and a Hip Hop band. I felt a swell of pride burning in my chest and I couldn't help but told the girl beside me, "this is my church". When Hannah was leading the song 'Oh, Happyday', I even saw some Asians joining into the song, clapping their hands and doing the not so obvious jumps.

Saturday morning: Pharmacy Awards Giving Ceremony at the Hunter. Now, this is what I called people mountain people sea. With the mass generation of CO2 in a confined place, I found it hard to breath, let along trying to weave through the vertically advantaged crowd. I could hardly catch a glimpse of the award recipients, but a few names were being called so often that they bared a mark in my brain, Anita Smith and Jason Wright. I was starting to get bored (because it was more like Anita and Jason Awards Receiving Ceremony) when suddenly I heard the familiar four names being called for the most publishable group research project: Gregory Gn, Janice Lee, Tao Jiang and William Wong. Congratulation guys, I am so proud of you!!! Esther got a prize for being the best academic student in P4.

Nearing the end of the ceremony, I was very drowsy from CO2 toxicity so decided to leave early. We did not even join in the procession. However, we found a good spot in Starbucks and had a clear view of the graduants walking down the road of victory. For the past two years, I had attended two graduation ceremonies of two people whom I am not so close with. Ironically, I was unable to attend THIS year graduation ceremony eventhough there were a lot of close friends I can cheer for. I was ticketless! I don't mind at all because experience told me I would have fallen asleep throughout except for the very brief moment when my friends were called to receive their certificates.

We had the graduation dinner at table 7. It is a very fancy, expensive restaurant with on trays and desserts. Half way through my main course, my stomach was stretched beyond the limit of bursting. Luckily there were some comfy couches lining the wall beside the table. We took a rest at the couches and must have look pretty worn out because the waitress looked at us and our half eaten food and I could imagine her thinking that we just came back from a battle. Thanks again to all the graduants who kindly paid for our meal. It was expensive, about $56 per person. And that ended the chapter of the most anticipated day of this summer!

P/s Miss Dune was amazingly cooperative and put on a bright sunny face throughout these past 48 hours.