Getting there is half the fun

Go NUS Go!

Today was the Singapore Dragon Boat festival, a national and international event bringing people from all over to compete and cheer for their teams. But the big race of the day was between the two rival universities here in Singapore: NUS and NTU.

I signed up for the NUS cheer squad, along with a whopping 1000 others, but only about 500 showed up. We spent they day learning the school song and cheers, and just getting warmed up for the days events.

Lernin' the school song:


TeamNUS Canadian contingent:


Then everyone piled into about a dozen buses for the ride to the marina. To make a long day sound short we basically spent 4 hours cheering at the side of the water as the boats raced by.



There was also a running race and cheerleading competitions all day long.


Other than the national teams there were a few other countries racing. Australia took the win, followed by Germany and then CANADA(!!!!!) in third. I think Hong Kong got 4th but can't remember the rest. All I can say is that the Australian racers were sure huge guys! Also, due to an IOC convention next weekend there were a bunch of IOC members in attendance!

The most anticipated race of the day was the Prime Minister's Challenge Trophy, in which the defending champion NUS went on to cream the inferior NTU yet again!! (I guess the rivalry is much like UBC and SFU, but more heated) But due to "friendly sportsmanship rules" we weren't allowed to boo or heckle the NTU team or supporters:(

TeamNUS taking the win!


The cheers they made us learn were something else. Some of them didn't sound right if you didn't say them with a Singlish accent or like an old Chinese lady. And about every second one had "NUS is the best" in it, so it got old after a while! To top it off the school song was just impossible to sing, it sounded like a church song because it required you to sing way too high. Here's a sample of the stuff they got us to chant.

NUS is here
Let's make it clear
Step aside for the best
'Coz this is our year

and,

North! South! East! West! Who's the best?
NUS will beat the rest!
NUS!

But all in all it was such a wicked day. And afterwards we headed into town to go to a food festival event: food from the '60s!


Check out more of the photos in the gallery here!

Posted by Evan at 7:44 AM