FIRST DAY IN RI

Sunday, August 31, 2008

FIRST DAY IN RI

Long journey to school
From my house, it was 20 minutes walk to the bus stop. Then I had to take this creaky and hot red colour bus operated by Tay Koh Yat Bus Company. The bus journey was almost 1 hour, jerking and bumping along Sembawang, Upper Thomson and Thomson Road and into the city. The bus terminated at Beach Road. At the bus terminus, they were many satay hawkers. They were later relocated to form the Satay Club. From the terminus, it's another 10 minutes walk to RI which was bounded by Bras Basah, Beach, Stamford and North Bridge Roads. The schools had 3 entrances. I used the entrance along Bras Basah Road. RI was surrounded by the War Memorial on one side. On the other sides, there was Stamford Canal and beyond that, there is St Andrew Cathedral and Capitol Cinema, CHIJ and Raffles Hotel on the other 2 sides.

First Day
On the first day, we were ushered into the assembly hall. We sat on the parquet floor. On the walls, there were photographs of ex school principals. They were all white men. My principal, Philip Liau welcomed us. He was tall, stern and spoke very eloquently with an air of authority. I can vaguely remember his speech. His speech mainly centred on traditions. And the school will instill in us values of honour, integrity and social responsibility and some of us will be ‘future leaders’. The “Rafflesian Spirit’ was mentioned. He also emphasised that the school have many traditions to uphold. And the school motto is “Auspicium Melioris Aevi”.

Yes, I am now a Rafflesian. I bought the school badge, tie and school bag. The Raffles colours are Green, Black and White. I was to discover later that these colours bring admiration, pride, envy and sadly outright despise.

Secondary 1

There were 8 classes in my cohort. We were arranged according to the primary school alphabet. I was in 1F. My form teacher was Amarjit Singh. It was a 2 session’s school. In the morning the class was occupied by secondary 4. I was in the afternoon session. The classroom desks and chairs were all wooden and old. The ceiling was extremely high and room was airy and really large. One side of the classroom was a large grass patch that was to become our class playground before school. Beyond this was the War Memorial. And on the other side was the a broad corridor. Beyond the corridor was the gynasium.




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