Growing Up

It has come to my attention, that I will have to grow up at some point... scary prospect, right? My older brother has already been and finished his University course, my younger brother is going into sixth form and- oh my god- I'm turning 20 before the end of the year! And so, I have decided to take the opportunity to give
all you lucky lucky folks a 'highlights' edition of my iccle life :P

So, first things first- I was an enormous baby! No lie- I was huge! over 9lbs, I believe- and bald. That's right- little icclenomi, with her mass of shiny hair was a big, bald baby. Still, I think I was a cutie, nonetheless (of course, I'm biased) . Born in England to a British mother and a Chinese father, a 3 year old brother to push me around. Quaint, yes? When I was about two and a half we moved to Hong Kong.

For a time we lived with my grandparents and my aunts and uncle in their apartment, but we moved around a little (at least 3 other flats I can remember). I was edumacated in an American International School and brought up on American and Chinese tv and movies. Jackie Chan and Basketball- that sums it up quite nicely I think... Disney- lots of Disney- and also the Wiggles, before everyone knew who they were. We adopted my little brother, who is ethnically Chinese and who has Down's.

Lots of fond memories were made there- 4th birthday was at home (i got a waterbaby! who remembers those?) 5th birthday was a Maccy D party and 6th was a combined party with my brother at Harry Ramsden's :)I can remember the sports day when i had to stop in the middle of a race to tie my shoe and my best friend- who was winning- stopped to wait for me even though the prize was a box of candy! glow in the dark chalk... playing tennis on the roof of a very tall building... sqand!
Then summer of '97 we went to America. Los Angeles- Disney, Universal Studios- we also went to San Diego Zoo. This is the big one- the big time in my childhood that I remember so much from. There was a steak house- gorgeous steaks, me and my older brother wore cowboy hats, I can remember that. I remember being freaked out by the entrance to the Indiana Jones ride, so we didn't go on it (I don't think my brother ever quite forgave me for that!) And of course, my brother's fun idea of a joke. One of the breakfast times- I had pancakes- wonderful fluffy pancakes, and with them a cup of syrup, and what looked like a scoop of vanilla ice cream to my dainty, naive six year old eyes. My evil evil brother decided to play a trick on me- 'confirmed' what I thought to be true and before my mom could stop me- the whole scoop of butter was in my mouth and I gagged (luckily before I'd eaten/drank anything that day- no real damage done)
I also remember staying up late and watching the Disneyland fireworks every night... and swimming in the outdoor pool at 2:30 in the morning because the timezones had us all backwards, and our visit to San Diego Zoo as well- seeing loads- walking lots and getting very tired. I remember loving the Back To The Future ride, and the Universal Tour that took us through the center of the earth! Needless to say, after that very exciting week, we were a lot quieter on the way home than on the way there! haha. One little thing I did *not* enjoy...was getting trapped in the "Its a small world" ride... for like 2 hours. The ride stopped- the 'music' did not.
ok, then- moving on moving back to England. funnily enough I remember less about the next few years here than Hong Kong- which by the way makes no sense whatsoever if you consider how old I was at each point... But it happened- and I was different to the rest of my class, turned up in the middle of a school year- weird accent, weird clothes- i didnt know what any of the stuff my peers were talking about, so i must have been a very strange girl. (still am, really...) Was barely in that school for a year and a half before I moved schools again- entrance exams were passed, so I went to private school. I guess, as uniforms go, I got lucky.
School trips- there were a lot of them. Year four- first year of private school- we went to Eden Camp for our history trip. Its a great day out- you can learn a ton about the second world war there if you pay attention. It used to be a POW camp during the war- and they've converted the barracks to pay tribute to the men and women who lived and served through the war. (I may write more about Eden Camp at a later date) Year five we went to Normandy- it was brilliant; we went to Le Mont-Saint-Michel, to see the Bayeux Tapestry- Sainte-Mère-Église. We went to Omaha Beach and to the cemeteries at Ranville and at Coleville-sur-mer to pay tribute to those who fought for our freedom. The headmaster of my Junior School helped me find myself more than any other teacher has- he taught me about the wars, and their significance, as well as helping me find my confidence on a stage and pushed me towards striving for every goal I set myself. He is a testament to his profession.

Right, school trips... year six was a week long trip to Camp Windemere- it was cold, wet and miserable- as well as thoroughly brilliant! We went on this trip shortly before the 'health and safety' assessments took a drastic turn into the stupid, so unfortunately I doubt kids will be allowed to do all the stuff we got up to on that trip. My group started with a hike around the mountains- then climbing the rock face (those of us brave enough to anyhow) break for lunch, on to kayaking! (i capsized a couple of times- but only blacked out once when I hit my head!) When we got back to the camp we were instructed to get into dry clothing and were then accosted by one of our teachers and farced to drink hot orange juice (squash, really- it tasted horrible- but it did warm us up!) there were many many other activities, such as canoeing, and... whatever that activity is called where you make a raft out of barrells and bits of wood and tie them together using epic rope tying skills! We had hot chocolate every night- got sausage anf bacon for breakfast- yep. It was heaven for an eleven year old outdoorsy girl! I know most of the boys had fun, and me and my friends did- some of the other girls however... 'nuff said.

Of course, we mustn't forget that 2001, which is when I began year six, was when 9/11 took place. I was 10 years old, and at my friend's house after school when I saw the planes on television. Every Tuesday I would go to my friend's house after school before we went to "tuesday club" at church- we were laughing and joking on the way home, planning some sort of practical joke on her step-dad, but everything left our heads when we saw the television. We got back to her house as they replayed the second plane hitting the tower, and we watched as the towers fell.

When 2002 came about, it was a new beginning- another entrance exam and into the Senior School. There were a lot of very fun times at that school, as well as some... not so very fun times. I didn't eat very well, its where my poor sleeping habits started- many teachers seemed to hate me, and it seemed like the harder I tried, the worse I failed. However, I want to focus on the good times- like Latin lessons! My Latin teacher was the aces! D&T lessons were excellent, ICT was fantastic and as always I adored history!
As with the junior school there were some epic school trips. I know a lot of the kids in my year didn't like school trips- but I always loved them, made the most of them (and being used to travelling a lot certainly helped!) but then, the trips were generally for my favorite subjects: History and Latin. (of course one could argue that our Latin trips were effectively history trips due to their nature... but whatever!) We went to castles! Lots of castles, I love castles- learning about their defences, the way people lived- I think its important for you to know whats come before- so you can learn from it, what worked, what didn't- if you can see where you've come from, it can often make the way forward clearer.
The Arizona Trip. Yep, this deserves its very own paragraph! October 2006. We spent half term there- and it was fantastic! We visited Sedona, Old Tuscon studios- we visited Tombstone just as they were commemorating the 125th anniversary of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. We took a detour one day and visited Monument Valley, going slightly into Utah- which we travelled in open air vehicles, and it proceeded to sandstorm and the hail on us for more than a half hour! we then got to drive 2 1/2 hours back to the hotel in our wet clothing wrapped in space blankets! My accent went funny again (lots of laughing about that!) a very nice American lady thought I was Canadian, and others seemed to wonder why there was a large group of English school kids and a random Yank... With all this "boycott Arizona" stuff thats going on right now- let me tell you- I LOVE Arizona- and to boycott it is to miss out on a beautiful, beautiful state that is full of some of the loveliest Americans I have ever met!

At some point in year eleven, I decided to move schools for sixth form. My friends badgered me about it- told me not to go and such- but I made myself a pro list for each of the schools. it looked something like this:

Private school: My friends are here. ... ... ...

State School: its in my village. Its a media based college- equiped for what I enjoy and excel at. I can take subjects I like to do. No uniform. No ginormous fee for my parents. meet new people. More independence.

Needless to say, the public school won out- for me.

Unmentioned so far is the Army Cadet Force, of which I was a member for four years of my teenage life :) I left as a Lance Corporal. I could have stayed on for another couple of weeks for my promotion to come through, but I thought that'd be kinda sleezy... I loved shooting the rifles, and learning all the safe handling rules, stripping and cleaning et cetera- I loved learning the first aid- meeting and working with kids I never would have otherwise and, strange as it seems, I love drill and turnout.
I love the sound of a squad coming to attention in perfect synchronization, the sound of boots as the squad marches to breakfast in the morning. And yes, i did enjoy the field exercises as well. There was a long period of time where I seriously considered joining the armed forces- and i used the cadet force as a way of seeing how it felt- and i came to the conclusion that I wasn't right for the forces. And thats okay- they still need people at home supporting them, and cheering them on. I have my reasons and if anyone wants to discuss further- they'll have to ask me some other time ;)

thats pretty much the story of my life... with bits missed out, but again- if you wanna know more you gotta talk to me! its no fun telling you *everything*! where's the mystery?! All you folks who've been able to hang on til the very end- well done! And now... I must go panic some more to prepare for University.









Written Badly by Naomi Wong