lifeAY14/15 SEM 1 | #1

H a p p y H a l l o w e e n

CAPTCAPT

As you might have seen last semester, we’ve had a newsletter. Quite uncreatively, we’ve decided to have one again! (Also for practical purposes of course) But in

the interest of saving the trees on our tiny little island, it’s going to be in a strictly electronic format. It should be released on the first Monday of every month, but we’ve been making things extra special this issue, so it’s a little late. From the minds & keyboards of our writers, we’ll be presenting a coverage of Staff

Appreciation Week, Tulpar’s night cycling event, Roc’s wear-your-school-uniform-day, Halloween and a little bit of trivia to top it all off.

If you like what you see and want to be a part of it, feel free to get in touch with the lovely people at the CSC Publicity Committee with anything from photos, articles,

lists or even just ideas :)

Dear Reader:

Editor’s Foreword

Alison Koh Yuen WanEditor

People we spook to

In This Issue:

Staff Appreciation Week

Tulpar Night Cycling, a First Person Perspective by Ng Tse PeiRoc’s#SchoolUniformDayby Heng Yi Xiang

by Cabrini Tan

A Virtual Walkthrough by Alison Koh

#TIL (today I learnt)by Gideon Goh

Treat or TrickHalloween Dinnerby Ho Xiuhuiby Ho Xiuhui

in Da Hood

Cover Page done by Cabrini Tan & Ng Tse PeiNewsletter Layout and Design by Cabrini Tan, Heng Yi Xiang & Ng Tse Pei

In its second year running, CAPT’s Staff Appreciation Week was held from 13 – 17 October. Organised by ACE and SAC, it brought on a spate of exciting activi-ties. We celebrated the hidden warriors in our commu-nity – mainly those who made sure we got our meals and ensured that our environment was clean. The week saw an appreciation lunch and dinner as well as biscuit tins given out as a token of appreciation. We are very grateful to the various members of the CAPT communi-ty who contributed to the Biscuit Fund, as well as those who supported the events; thank you for making Staff Appreciation Week a success!

For those who have yet to meet all our staff, feel free to drop by the CAPT Aunties and Uncles Face Wall at Level 1, where their polaroid photos and names have been put up in the same fashion as ours! This way, you can say hi to the Uncles and Aunties the next time you meet them along the corridors or in the dining hall.

To end off, here’s what our fellow staff and participants from Staff Appreciation Week have to say!

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS & TAKEAWAYS

Dining Hall Staff Auntie Jane: I feel very happy! I attend-ed the appreciation lunch. Very happy [that] they know our efforts in the dining hall. Last year also we have, but this year we have 3 biscuit tins to share! Really happy lor.

Organiser Audrey Kum (ACE): Even though we have lunch every year with the staff, this time round what made it more memorable was that cards were given to Captains to write on about the staff they interacted with. Ultimately, we wanted Captains to look beyond the roles of the staff and appreciate them for who they are as individuals and I think we managed to achieve that!

Participant Joel Low (Roc): I learnt exactly how much time and effort the staff put in behind the scenes. They are the silent workers who ensure that CAPT runs like clockwork and I am truly grateful. I will definitely give them a smile when I see them around from now on; it’s the least I can do!

General Staff Uncle Liang Hwee: We also have our photo taken and put on the wall. Very happy that people who stay here know who we are like this!

Organiser Jennifer Novianna (SAC): It was very touching and encouraging to see CAPTains step up to serve and talk to the aunties and uncles. There aren’t many opportunities for the CAPTains to serve the aunties and uncles, so I thought this event was a good platform for us to show our love and get to know them. After this staff appreciation week, we hope to see more CAPTains greet and talk with the aunties and uncles!

Participant Bryson Lim (Garuda): [My friends and I] got the chance to listen to Auntie Dina share about her life which really inspired the four of us. Western food from the dining hall has been more than just western food ever since that day. I know its been prepared by this lovely and amazing lady with thankfulness, humbleness and gladness of heart!

Staff Appreciation Week

“They are the silent workers who ensure that CAPT runs like clockwork and I am truly grateful for their hard work.”

Photo Credits: ACE & SAC

in Da HoodTulpar night cycling

On the 3rd of October, Friday, we had our night cycling event. Setting out from CAPT at around 11 pm, we rode to the National Stadium, taking in the scenery on the way to scenic locations like Labrador Park, Marina Bay Sands and Gardens by the Bay. The atmosphere was lively, especially when we entered MBS and started taking photos. We looked out for each other along the way and cheered each other on when we got tired. Some enjoyed the quieter mood of cycling further in front or behind the main group, just to relax after a long week. “It was fun, if not mildly nerve-wrecking at points, but the participants looked out for each other, which was heartening to see,” said one Tulpie. There were a lot of photo-taking going on along the journey too, and we captured a lot of funny moments.

On the way back, things mellowed out a bit as most people were starting to get tired. We stopped by McDonalds for breakfast before cycling back to CAPT. Nearing Utown, people were already starting out their day with their morning exercise. For us, after a long and tiring night (albeit a fun one) we couldn’t wait to return to our beds.

Originally, Roc House wanted to celebrate Children’s Day. However, with ideas of #throwback and #whatpubertydidtome being thrown up during the planning it became a #wearuniform day instead. Many ROCkers were apprehensive about wearing their old uniforms (for a variety of “reasons” hint hint – cannot fit?) but eventually they warmed up to the idea. It was a successful house event for ROCkers as they reminisce about good old school times over childhood games and taking photos of their one-day return to school uniform. We sure hope #wearuniform day will be a permanent fixture of ROC for years to come! Remain young people!

Roc’s #SchoolUniformDay

Based on accounts of Sheryl Lim and Emilia Tang

back to School!

Young Again

Tulpies United!Photo Credits: Justin Chew

Photo Credits: Alvin Ng

Based on accounts of Michelle Wong

Neighbourhood highlights of the month!

Photo Credits: ACE & SAC

orTreaT For those of you who missed the Halloween Dinner, here are some highlights of the spooktacular night!

This year, the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) prepared an activity-filled night for all us Captains. Starting the night with the Halloween Photobooth, Captains dressed in quirky costumes had their photos taken and printed. (We do hope the vampires survived all the flashes!) For those of you who didn’t manage to catch the various costumes, do check out the Halloween Photobooth album published on the official CAPT Facebook Page!

Jam City kick started the medley of performances with ‘Say Something’, followed by Guitarpella who put up their own rendition of ‘The Scientist’ and Rag-Na-Roc. Each house put up their own unique items; from song and dance by both Roc and Phoenix, to Tulpar’s eerily well-coordinated ballroom dancing. Garuda brought much laughter to the crowd with a light-hearted children’s song starring a prancing pink unicorn and a dancing horse, and not forgetting Dragon’s patriotic performance on some classic National Day songs.

With eyes and ears glued to the stage, our mouths were busy with food! The Halloween Dinner was definitely a highlight for all of us hungry souls. Each dish – be it the salmon on mash, or grilled chicken accompanied by roasted potatoes – was specially prepared by our dining hall staff. My favourite was definitely the chocolate ‘tombstone’ mousse – I actually hope we have that every formal dinner!

Of course, what Halloween Dinner is complete without fancy costumes? Through the night,

Halloween Dinner

spotted were Ninja Turtles, The Sims, Santa Claus, unicorns and even Jesus, but some best-dressed awards went to Ash, Angry Birds and Thor whom many coveted a photo with!

It was definitely a night filled with food, fun and laugher. It was nice to see Captains dress up as their favourite characters (some were scary but most were amusing), and also take a well-deserved break in the hectic week. What better way to spend Halloween than to spam Instagram and Facebook with scary selfies with our fellow Captains? I definitely enjoyed myself, but let’s not forget the chills. Kudos to SAC on the Haunted House trailer that earned squirms and squeals across the hall. I never knew our suites could be so creepy. I was standing near the doors of the dining hall, and whenever someone screamed, members of SAC would cheer – I’d just like to say that not only the trailer, but the entire event, was extremely well-planned and executed, so thank you to those Captains who have worked tirelessly to make the event a success!

If you missed the either or both trailers (or want to watch them again), here’s the link:

Alternatively, read on to find out more about what happens in ‘Love After Death’!

http://youtu.be/Zhpjp6274RAto

orTrick

After queuing for something close to an hour and armed with a “passport”, we were let in.

I was immediately struck by how well they trans-formed the Flying Seed – the place where I had printed my notes at 2am just three days ago now looked like something I wouldn’t be in at 2pm. We were first made to watch a short video, before they handed us lightsticks and sent us off into the gloom. The first station was a classroom, where we had to decipher some Korean names and wake the corre-sponding student up. She yowled and came flying at us… which is probably what I might do if somebody woke me up from a good nap. We then proceeded to crawl through a claustrophobic tunnel, where hands made for our limbs, before reaching a creepy undead tea party. In the last section of the room, we encoun-

A Virtual WalkThrougH of tHe HaunTeD House

tered the vengeful couple that haunted the main protagonists of the story. Following that, we were blindfolded and taken to another room.

“Wow,” I thought, “This is quite value for money.”

Upon entering the next room, we were greeted by a grisly execution scene, before being made to pray to our “parents”. The next bit was, for me, the scar-iest – it was a hall of mirrors and a single monk that served as our guide. He made us pause at one point and stare at our reflection, assuring us that was all there is to the room. He lied. The last sec-tion involved looking for a comb tucked away in one of a set of cupboards. After finding it, we then applied it to the hair of an undead bride decked out in red, where, I observed, there was a neat line of hair down the middle where several people had done the same before us. Following this, our nightly rituals were complete, and we were let out into the humid night air to some delicious treats provided by the Baking Club.

Photo Credits: Ash O Hauk, Charmaine Lim, Hannah Lim

luo SiWei, Cooking Club HeAd

She (Rebecca) would organise it, I would host it. And I always hosted it as Santa Claus. That’s where the Santa at Halloween tradition began. So that’s where Rebecca asked me to host. Now I was trying to figure out what to go as, and I thought I should go as Santa Claus! You know Santa on Halloween sounds really fun. And it was fun. And so I would stand up there and all the kids are waiting around for it to begin and I’d give my yell and go “Ho ho ho! Happy Halloween!” You know some of these kids are really confused, some of the kids are like “Santa’s here!” It was just really fun to see the children’s reaction and of course, the parents all laughed.

Prof greg, his wife rebeCcA and his dAughTer AnnaA history of the Santa Claus outfit

C: Was this filming experience something new for you?G: Actually, no cos I did filming for the FOC as a house head. Jon [the director] was very professional, but I was very surprised that this comm’s standard was 95% to that level. They not only had the professional equipment but they really knew what they were doing, so I was like “wah, this guy really knows his stuff very well.” They didn’t spend a lot of money, even on things like my costume, which really fit. So I thought it was really good, creative and economical. C: So how did this Halloween experience fare against your other Halloween experiences?G: Hmm, for example the Haunted House at Yale-NUS. Their decorations were really really good, like a mini USS Haunted House. But it was not interactive like ours, which had missions at every station. And it was something we did last year too, so I guess this is becoming our way, our CAPT style, which is really cool!

liu guAn Yu, tHe monk in tHe HaunTeD House video

C: Why did y’all decide to cook this dish?S: It was for Halloween, so we thought we should use pumpkin. Pumpkin cake is actually quite popular in China, it’s something I’m very familiar with, plus it was also suggested by our event I/C. C: That’s cool! It was really very good haha I took a few.S: Actually it was not the best [compared to our dry run]. But because on the actual day itself, we didn’t have enough manpower so we made the paste one night before. But because of this it 出水 (the water level increased) overnight and we had to add more flour. So the texture became totally different. The original one was quite soft inside but on the day it really became like a biscuit. So maybe we invented something new. C: Any other thoughts?S: Oh I am very scared of ghosts. On [Halloween] itself, my lesson is usually in the Seminar Room, but that day it was turned into one of the Haunted House rooms. So when I walked past the room, the door opened and I thought it was a ghost so I just screamed. But actually it turned out to be Dr Tan!C: HAHAHAHAHA

C: How was your experience as a ghost?J: I thoroughly enjoyed it! it was my first time being part of haunted house, so I thought I’d give it a shot and volunteer as a ghost it was fun putting on scary makeup and strategizing with my fellow house people on how to scare the people for the shift we were doing together.

C: Did you enjoy the overall Halloween experience? Since this is your first Halloween in CAPT.J: Yes!! I always thought Halloween is an event that [only] angmos will celebrate HAHA. Am glad that I got to have a taste of what its like. I think it all adds up to a college experience. It was really really fun seeingpeople put in effort into their costumes. And the best part was bonding with the house too!

Choi Jynn Chee, a gHoSt from roC HaunTeD House

C: Your costume looked super cool!! How did you get it together?B: I was walking in the tall grass one day and encountered a pikachu... No, but seriously, the hat was a gift from a group of friends. So I decided to work from that, found the appropriate clothes in my cupboard. Guess it was meant to be. Then it was a matter of getting the gloves, which took a bit of searching but i got it eventually. Finally, I had to grab Pikachu along in case people thought i was Mario. (Which some people did ): ) And thus the outfit was born!

C: Any other thoughts?B: Shoutout to dragon house and their cool dress up as WeiYang, if you haven’t seen it, you should check it out! :D

brAnDon lum, besT dreSsed guy from DrAgon neigHbourhooD

C: The pumpkin cheesecake was AWESOME!! Why did you guys choose to make this dish?Z: Firstly, thanks for the compliments! I’m glad that everyone enjoyed the pumpkin cheesecake. I was told that even the Minister of State, Desmond Lee, who came for a visit loved it! Really, the stamp of approval from everyone makes the long hours of baking worth it!For Halloween this year, Baking Club knew that it wanted to use pumpkin as one of the main ingredients. Not only was it festive, the Cooking Club was also using it. We thought that it was good if the food-related IG’s had some form of synchronization! However, we couldn’t decide on what to make. After the ExCo members bounced off a few ideas, we finally settled on pumpkin cheesecake because it was simple to make, especially in large numbers.

C: Any other thoughts?Z: I had a lot of fun this Halloween. It was entertaining watching the various houses perform during the dinner. In addition, I was surprised by the amount of effort that some people put in dressing up. I saw many interesting outfits. Some of my personal favourites were Jesus, the Adventure time gang and the Angry Birds!

ZuHaili AsY-SyAkur, heaD of baking Club

C: Was this filming experience something new for you?G: Actually, no cos I did filming for the FOC as a house head. Jon [the director] was very professional, but I was very surprised that this comm’s standard was 95% to that level. They not only had the professional equipment but they really knew what they were doing, so I was like “wah, this guy really knows his stuff very well.” They didn’t spend a lot of money, even on things like my costume, which really fit. So I thought it was really good, creative and economical. C: So how did this Halloween experience fare against your other Halloween experiences?G: Hmm, for example the Haunted House at Yale-NUS. Their decorations were really really good, like a mini USS Haunted House. But it was not interactive like ours, which had missions at every station. And it was something we did last year too, so I guess this is becoming our way, our CAPT style, which is really cool!

liu guAn Yu, tHe monk in tHe HaunTeD House video

C: How was your experience as a ghost?J: I thoroughly enjoyed it! it was my first time being part of haunted house, so I thought I’d give it a shot and volunteer as a ghost it was fun putting on scary makeup and strategizing with my fellow house people on how to scare the people for the shift we were doing together.

C: Did you enjoy the overall Halloween experience? Since this is your first Halloween in CAPT.J: Yes!! I always thought Halloween is an event that [only] angmos will celebrate HAHA. Am glad that I got to have a taste of what its like. I think it all adds up to a college experience. It was really really fun seeingpeople put in effort into their costumes. And the best part was bonding with the house too!

Choi Jynn Chee, a gHoSt from roC HaunTeD House

#Til (todAy i learnT)H a l l o w e e n E d i t i o n

Halloween iS likelY to be so cloSely conneCted witH tHe iDeA of deaTh aS iT often signaleD tHe sTart of winTer and tHe end of hArVeSt.

F r o z e n ?

The firsT JaCk-o-lanterns were mAde out of TurniPS not PumPkinS.

TrAditional Halloween colours are orange and blaCk. orAnge rePreSented tHe autumn leaVeS and tHe hArVeSt, wHile blaCk rePreSented deaTh and tHe cHanging seaSons B l a c k O r a n g e

Hi everyone! We hope you’ve enjoyed the first issue of CAPTlife!!

If you’d like to see your work featured here, or have suggestions for new sections, please visit our suggestion box at bit.ly/CAPTlifebox! See you for the next issue on study tips, farewells and the holidays!

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