Thanks to the combined efforts of ICC students and staff, especially Mr. Paul Autrey, the 1st RDFZ ICC Dragon Boat Race has been a roaring success. In addition to learning valuable teamwork skills, students also got a chance to bond with their new S2 classmates by engaging in the friendly competition. To top it off, the successful event serves as a way to showcase a holiday which is traditionally a Chinese one—the Dragon Boat Festival (also called the Duanwu Festival) with a history of more than 2,000 years. As MCs for the regatta, we have been witnesses to tremendous fun, great companionship, and, even greatest of all—honor and glory for all competitors and participants!

 Race champion, S2C5

Most handsome dragon by S2C2

Best design by S2C4

　 Lightest dragon head by S2C1

Royal style dragon head by S2C3

Most loveable dragon by S2C6

Red-letter dragon by S2C7

Tiny cute dragon by S2C8

Below are two marvelous accounts of this memorable day from S2C5:

As Long as We Are Together

Lirui JIAO

To be honest, I wasn’t exactly excited when the idea that we could hold a Dragon Boat Race right here in ICC came up. I mean, who would jump at a chance to run around the track in the hottest part of the day? You could almost hear the rubber ground sizzling with heat over the past week—but don’t be quick to admonish me. I believe that some students would agree with me secretly in their hearts. However, I also knew for a fact that this lack of delight disappeared almost immediately; at least, it did for me.

Of course, it had to begin with preparation of the dragon boat itself. In class 5, we soon threw ourselves into a heated discussion about the style our dragon should take. The conclusion? Funky. I guess we were all so caught up in imagining the piece of art that we were going to have that we couldn’t help but feel a spark of anticipation when we finished. This enthusiasm must have been infectious, because pretty soon everyone was pitching in to help.

A week later, the day for the competition arrived and the unexpected happened—the scales that we spent ages sticking on the dragon came off. We went into a frenzy trying to glue them back on. What really moved me was that nobody complained or threw a fit; instead, we worked together in hopes of repairing our dragon (although I can’t say that we were successful). We even used the extra scales to make cute little cone hats and stuck them on our heads. To me, this was an act of unity, an act that showed people we were a team whether we would win or lose. Then, we ran, and I mean ALL of us—the ones chosen to run in the competition and the rest of us who ran across the field to catch a closer glimpse of them. As our dragon was the first tearing past the finish line, we screamed out heartfelt cheers and everyone was caught up in that special moment.

We wore the little cone hats proudly all through lunchtime with nobody willing to take them off. In some unspoken way, the Dragon Boat Race has brought us closer. Now I know with certainty that even if in the future we have to do more of this “running under the sun” thing, as long as we’re together, I’ll get through.

We Roar the Loudest, as Always

IB Iris NI

I still remember that moment, when I was still on the running track, when my legs started to tremble, when my eyes saw everything go a little blurry. And I tried to put every piece of myself together, to race through the finish line. I saw my classmates with their little green, cone-shaped hats on their heads, distinguishable at the other end of the playground. The thing is, we didn’t plan to let that very cute incident happen in the first place. When we first sat around together during the lunch break to discuss our imaginative “IB Dragon”, we pictured it as a very “Smart, Gothic, Modern and Shiny” one with its tongue dangling over its mouth. Everyone got pretty excited about the future we were trying to make for this particular dragon, and I’m sure I saw enthusiasm sparkling in those people’s eyes, like little stars in the night sky. At that time, I was pretty sure that this Dragon was going to be epic for those amazing people working on it.

We cut cardboard into designed shapes to make it easier to move as the dragon’s body, we painted black on those pieces for hours and hours, and we cut hundreds of sheets of paper into cone shapes and glued them together. This process was repeated again and again; in the back of the classroom there were all kinds of stationery and paint. People sat in different positions as they were working. This scene took up every moment of free time, even as late as 9’o clock in the evening. However, we still hadn’t worked out everything before the last minute, the last second before the race started. Still, we coped as best we could, though the scales kept falling off and we had to pick them up as we went to the playground. This way, the scales ended up on our heads, as we didn’t want to waste them. Our dragon wasn’t looking nice-- we all agree on this point-- but our first relay team shot out like a bullet, soon leaving other teams way behind us.

We were screaming, shouting, as our team was in the lead for the whole competition, being the one and only winner of that day. This feeling can never quite be depicted with words; when I’m trying to describe it, I have to say that I knew my heart beating faster as I heard the cheering voices, I felt the surge of adrenaline and great love and pride of being a member in this new family. The stirring moment when we won the race lasted longer than every other moment as the excited cheer soared into the sky. Our being the champion team could be the greatest memory and the best moment of this whole semester for all my classmates, I presume so. We will roar the loudest, as always.

If you are not there for our race, here are some nice catches.