King Edward VII: The Hall To Be In

Contributor/Editor Huang Shaocong on Halloween:

"...bountiful, like monkeys trapped in a piñata, the bursting of which releases forth much joy and ooking."


Reuter - King Edward VII Hall (KE) is presently the temporary home of a community of international students, most of which would be rejected from the local equivalent of a fraternity hall for lack of arbitrary standards of happening-ness.

Traditionally, KE was a hall for housing drunken medical students, who would drink nightly, and before exams, only to graduate in a relatively sober state with qualifications to take knives to the anaesthetized bodies of unconscious people.

Then, admission to the hall was opened to students of other faculties. With the new intake, life turned stale. People forgot KE, and the great tradition of boozed excess forged by generations of intoxicated doctors-to-be. Now, people often associating the hall with asceticism and monotony. The drunk doctors did not remain long to see the effects.

For the past few years, the population of the hall, even with the remaining doctors, has seemingly been under anaesthesia.

However, there have been signs of reform in this quiet hall. Residents have decided to bring the love back into KE. A post-traumatic treatment of sorts, to recover the hall to vibrant, healthy levels of life essence.

Observe, if you will, the AFRO-ed banner in the dining hall, sitting upon a smiling lighbulb, a golden crown perched atop the afro's bouncy excess. What does it mean? Why is the lightbulb smiling? Why, indeed, is the afro bright fluorescent pink?

Anyone from Eusoff who was in hall on Halloween would likely remember the trick or treating. This writer can assure you, reader, that was merely a show of intention. That was merely a preview. What the banner promises, however, is the full scope of reform that may or may not happen next year. They are intending the whole echidna.

Of course, there are the usual wet blankets. People who insist on proper procedures, same old shit. People who want closed doors, quiet lives. Well, that's not hall life. Hall life is a pink glowing afro. It is dressing up for trick-or-treat on a school day. It is contributing to a common hall culture.

Maybe I don't subscribe to the real KE culture. I could be an oddity, a wayward sheep. Even if that was so, I'm sure the learned reader would agree that sometimes, it takes a different drumbeat to make things more interesting. And sometimes, that beat is the rhythm of a sincere heart.

I truly want to make KE a hall I can be proud of. And I see the fire in the principle people who are going to make that happen. I don't mean the JCRC.

I mean Orientation-team. Pass the word, readers: KE's the place to be next semester. Don't put us down. Come on in.