ConvocatioN

Finally, after waiting for one whole year I get to wear my academic dress and receive my hard-earned bachelor certificate. I can’t state exactly how happy and excited it felt. I was rather worried if I’ll ever be able to sleep on the night before! Luckily I DID get some sleep. Hehe….

The day started with having lunch at Ding Tai Fung. I set out with my brother and his wife (yesterday’s newly-wed) in a cab. My sister and parents took another. Our cab took us to Wisma Atria at Orchard Road, only to find my parents and sister missing. Apparently, we went to the wrong branch. *slap forehead*

Paragon’s Ding Tai Fung was evidently much bigger. There we had a sumptuous meal. Thank you so much, sis. And below are the delicious hairy crabs, the last course in our meal. Don’t they just make you drool?

Then, we went over to the Esplanade for a photo shoot. My sister was so kind to ask her friend’s hubby, a free-lance photographer to take some family photos outside the studio. It felt fresh feeling, because most family photos of graduates are taken in the studio, with dull backgrounds. Taking outdoor is one-of-a-kind fun! The only setback was the cloudy sky. Sigh…

We took several family photos from different angles. He also caught single shots of me. By the end of the whole process I was sweating like a bull. I felt cooked under the academic dress. How could Harry Potter stand it?!

When evening came, we head over to Shenton Way’s Chinese Orchestra Concert Hall. It felt so good to see everyone again, we couldn’t stop taking photos! In the hall, the ceremony passed by rather quickly. I felt so nervous when I walked up the stage, I totally forgot to duff to the Head of the Arts department. =P (who announced our names in the quirkiest way) I walked straight towards the Chancellor, shook his hands, smiled at the photographer and stepped down the stage. And then guess what? They misspell my name AGAIN on my certificate. Now I have to write to them and request another one. Why don’t they EVER listen? It’s been like this ever since my first semester. Sigh…

After the ceremony, refreshments were given to ease our tummys. Then graduates were asked to re-enter the hall for the faculty photo with the ‘big people’. Our music faculty even had our ‘toss-the-cap’ photo session taken by each of our individual ‘photographers’. Congrats everyone!!

My sister took me and my parents for dinner at this little place that reminded me of Malaysia. It was a rather old building with half the tables set outside. We sat outside and enjoyed a simple meal. The specialty was a kind of clamshell animal called the bamboo clam. It was my first try. I thought it looked rather special, its shell was shape in a rectangular, just like the bamboo. The meat’s texture was a bit like the squid, but a little softer. We ate it with oyster sauce and garlic. Yum! Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of this one. =P