Last night I suddenly got a nostalgic attack.

I was just browsing through my hard drives looking for some old photos of me to compare with the current me to see how much I have changed. Then I came across my old My Documents folder from the old computer.

Man I have just realized something. I wasn’t this vain self-obsessed person I am now. I don’t have that many pictures of myself Pre-ABAC at all which is kind of disappointing. But I did manage to dig out some of the most embarrassing photos of me back in school though will show after a little bit of a history.

I was in a Thai school before, Mater Dei, this all-girl Catholic school that both my mom, my aunt, and even my grandpa (when they still accepted boys in kinder) went to. Thai system is not that bad if it’s a private school like Mater Dei. But then when we started switching from Prathom (Primary) to Mathayom (Secondary) things start to change and I didn’t like the way it was going. That’s one of the reasons why I moved to Harrow International School. Another reason was because of my cousin Whan. I followed her because I liked the uniform she was wearing.

I love Harrow uniform actually. It’s exactly like the one in England except at Harrow Bangkok there’s a skirt also.

At first I went in for their Summer Program just to try it out if I could make it. Turned out the Summer Program was way too easy for me so they asked if I wanted to go mainstream so I did. I joined “Shell” or a Harrow nickname for Year 8/Grade 7. Bua was only “the new girl” for two weeks then I came to the school. HAHAHA.

I remember my first form tutor Mr. Tilke who was also the librarian. He was this super tall skinny guy with a big shiny head. Last time I met him I was still at Harrow and he was working in Japan or something don’t know where he is now.

Then my second form tutor, Mr. Carter. All brit mind you but he’s in charge of Thai Studies. He can speak Thai as good as any one of us so he was commonly called Khun Gerry instead. HE LOVES SCRABBLE! He’s like Thailand’s champion or something. After school all the students were forced to select their “activities” and me being lazy and unsporty, I chose to do simple and boring stuff like Art club, Guitar club and of course one time I was duped into Scrabble. I sucked let’s just leave it at that.

Harrow was small. When I went there it was only occupying the first two floors of Bangkok Garden Condominium in Sathorn. I loved how it was small. Everyone knew each other and it was more like a family than a school.

I still remember my old form room, this English classroom near Mr. Grime’s office. It had this big glassy windows and I think it was the biggest room in the entire school. Sigh Mr. Grime. Tall bearded English teacher who we could say words like “shit” and “fuck” to without having to go to detention.

Oh yeah speaking of detention, we would get one if we got caught speaking in Thai. Hahah. We spoke Thai a lot even though we could speak English. Even Maddy, one of my closest Brit friends, started to speak Thai also.

I was a pretty good student. Back in Mater Dei, I flunked so badly because I hated the system. Thai school system is all about memorization and not at all “learning” if you know what I mean and I hate memorizing stuff. Moving to an international school was like a breath of fresh air. We got to do experiments instead of watching the teacher do it like in Thai school. It was a hands on learning and not all text books. We didn’t even need textbooks they were all just for show. The only books I remember actually really using was Romeo and Juliet and Catcher In The Rye. Back at Mater Dei my GPA was hovering around 1.9-2.5. At Harrow? Science, English, and yes even Maths I was in all the top sections, meaning the exam papers are much harder.

I left after I finished my Year 11/Grade 10 after I was done with the O-Levels or IGCSEs. I took Art, History, Math, English Literature, English as the First Language (*ahem*) and Coordinated Sciences (Bio, Chem, and Physics). 4 A’s and 3 B’s man. When I told them I wasn’t gonna continue doing my AS they were damn pissed. But hey I could skip two years and graduate college faster than anyone else so why not?

Sigh I missed Harrow like crazy when I joined ABAC. It was a switch back to the Thai kids society if you know what I mean. Maybe that’s why I didn’t have that many close friends in ABAC it was hard to re-adapt. The way of thinking and the way people relate to each other was so much different in Thai circle than in an international circle. But it was all good though I made it out alive didn’t I?

What I miss most about Harrow is the “old Harrow”. The small family-like school I used to go to. Unfortunately as the school expanded they had to move so the school is now the size of a palace and located near Don Muang. When the move happened some of the teachers didn’t want to follow because it was a far change so they left and joined a nearby school instead. The saddest thing is that not only that I don’t have my “school” to go back to, I still don’t have my teachers to go back and visit. And I mean visiting them in a school I didn’t go to is just plain weird.

I had a nostalgic attack before actually when I was in ABAC so I decided to go back to the site and take photos. I almost cried seeing the old science labs and empty library it just killed me. I think it’s now some kind of Korean school I’m not sure. Last time I went there man the area is all poshed up with Starbucks and all. When I was there? Coffee was from the condo’s equivalent of 7-11, DD Mart.

I really wish I had a blog back then there’s so much to share. The teachers, the friends, the trips, the dramas. Who would have thought that this one little school could have had so much impact on a person.

I got into a little web-making towards the end though so I got a page up at http://www.fifths2001.cjb.net. It’s not updated anymore though it’s hard to keep up with your friends when they are all scattered throughout the world. America, Japan, England, Australia doing everything from Neuro-Science to getting pregnant. Though having a few alumni gathering did bring some old faces back, it’s still not as good as actually living in that time again.

Sigh I just miss Harrow so much. The grown-up world can really suck sometimes.