CORS...

Dear CORS,

Although you can be very confusing at times, highly inconvenient, full of redundancy and with loads of crap to boot, but I must admit that I am impressed. At the way you managed to inculcate the sense of urgency, excitment and have adrenaline pumping through me in such a way which I have not experienced since the 'A' levels examinations.

The module which I am bidding for, CM1502, is not really a popular choice among my fellow schoolmates. However, I am, afterall, an ex-girl guide (even though it only lasted 6 months) during my secondary school days, I am equipped (or forcefully drilled into) with this useful habit, or should I say, the motto "Always be Prepared". So what if CM1502 has few bidders? Many unexpected things could have happened, take for instance, that one of the lecturer or teachers in charge of this module suddenly died of an heart attack, thus reducing the class size by half? Ah, such things do happens, which is why this motto is very very useful.

Not to mentioned that some wacko go and bid 740(!!!) points for it, which makes me hesitated, since the lowest bid point was only 1. There was a huge freaking range of points for me to choose, and I am wasting precious seconds. So after 5 seconds of deep serious consideration, I decided to bid 200 points. At that point, there were only 8 bidders for 65 vacancies, but I am not taking any chances for I must "Always be Prepared".

The very next day, I had to endure 2 hours of Maths Revision Lecture, before I had the chance to go into the Science Library to use their computers and check on the current bidding situation. To my horror, I saw that the numbers of bidders has risen! It was 15 bidders instead of 8! Nearly doubled! May seemed so little to you, but think, many people like to 'hug the Buddha's leg', which is the direct translation from it's chinese counterpart. It means 'to do things at the very last minute'. So the numbers of bidders may surged by the time the bidding round is going to end.

Very much as I want to head home to guard the bidding round, I can not as I have to attend a briefing on the orientation week organised by the Engineering Faculty. I could ill-afford to miss it as I desperately need to socialise and sourced out who belongs to my class, as I need a tourguide. So with a heavy heart, I went for it.
I did enjoyed myself to a certain extent at the briefing, for the seniors were really enthusiastic, and my word, enthusiasm is contagious. So after some beginner-sounding cheers, we proceed to have play games which served as ice-breakers. It is slightly amusing in the beginning, but stales in the end, for nearly all ice-breakers are similar in composition.

But it was at around 4pm when I started to feel a little bit nervous. This is because the bidding round ends at 5pm! So very quickly, I excused myself and went home, along with a fellow like-minded student. The journey home was torturous. At 4.45pm, I entered my home. At 4.52pm, I switched on the computer. At 4.55pm, I log into CORS.nus.edu.sg , your website.

At that point, I was drenched in cold sweat. My hands were trembling as I fought control over them. It took me a very long time to be able to access into your website, must be due to the huge numbers of anxious students like me. It was 4.58pm when I went into the page to check on the bidding situation. What I saw, however, nearly stopped my heart.

Bidding Status : N/A

I went "Oh my goodness!". Am I too late? Did I just missed it? Fear gripped me, I could hardly breathe. I shook my head to clear my thoughts before refocusing on the entire information.

Vacancies = 65 , Bidders = 22

Holy cow! Thank god, the number of bidders have not exceeded the vacancies given. After giving thanks to all the gods I could think of from different cultures and religions, I sat back and relished in my victory. Yes, my victory in getting the module which has 22 bidders hankering after it.

So, as I have said before, I am overwhelmed. It has been a long time when I had encountered such strong emotions. I shall congratulated you on that.

Yours Sincerely,
Averii