YSunday, January 13, 2008

Orientation 2008

[Yes, I know I posted this about 3 weeks late.]

Last year I picked up an OGL form. My friends questioned my intentions. They said hurtful hurtful things to me when I told them of what I'd done. Things like like "Why do you wanna become an OGL? You hate people." or "What the hell is wrong with you?" or "HAHAHAHAHA! Don't joke la."

Even I questioned my own intentions. Most of my friends were honestly surprised when they found out. What was the reason I wanted to become an OGL? To foster AC spirit? To help the new students make friends and get acquainted with the school? To test myself, and see just what I'm capable of doing? Or was it to miss the first week of lessons during school? I didn't know. I picked up a form anyway.

So there was this interview. They asked me lots of questions. We talked about pokemon. It was cool. One of the interviewers would later become something like a friend. Here we are.

She didn't remember interviewing me at the time.

We had a conversation about it.

"There was this question, 'What would you do if the sky fell down', and I answered 'Lie down. Because very pain.' Do you remember?"
"OH! So you were that idiot!"

Anyway, I made it. So I met up with my fellow OGLS. Here they are.
Amanda Feng

Nicole Lim

Amanda looks anorexic. Nicole not so much. They both love to shop.

So I met my OG on the first day of school. It was pretty miserable. Last year's OGL's had warned us, that the first few minutes are the worst. No one ever talks, and they all just sit in a circle, maintaining a polite yet awkward silence. Many an OGL had been driven to insanity by this evil phenomenon. Some OGLS cry, others feel a damning sense of despair, or even cheer more loudly because they feel sad. That's what someone told me.

So the first few minutes were very discouraging, but we persevered! We led them around playing games, told them insider information about ACJC, gave them a tour of the school, bonded, did stupid things, told jokes, laughed, and eventually, we got along pretty well.

Daimyo
This was the name of my OG. It means "lord" in Japanese. I wrote a pretty good description for it, pity it didn't get printed. Here: Damiyo are the feudal lords that reign over the vast provinces of Kyojin. Trained in the various noble arts, from swordplay, to sushi-making, and even flower arrangement, these virtuous rulers have brought centuries of peace, nourishment, and artistic expression to the inhabitants of their mountainous realms.

Games
We played many many games. Most of them were fun, many of them were gross. They all had dumb storylines. For example, some gibberish about extracting juice from poisoned fruits were fed to us, to justify the game which was to squish rotting fruits with our butts. And this storyline about the hypnotic tunes and a dragon and an egg and something or another meant that we had to play musical chairs with gross sticky starch. That was fun.


Mass Dance
As an OGL, one of my tasks was to teach them the mass dance. Unfortunately, I suck at dancing, and furthermore, the dance was terribly difficult. I remember during my orientation, the dance was quite manageable, in the sense that I had time to think about what the next moves were supposed to be. This years dance wasn't quite the same. The moves proceed quickly from one another, until I'm completely lost.

My OG kids weren't particularly kind to me either. When I'm teaching them the dance, they start laughing halfway, I get distracted, and I forget the moves. Idiots. Yet we somehow managed (thankfully) to get them to reproduce some pathetic attempt at the dance moves. Our job was done.

Saikang
Some may expect that being an OGL is quite glamorous. Not quite. Sure, we don't have to attend lessons, but we still have to work pretty hard. We had to come to school early-er in the mornings, have briefings, prepare everything. During the day, even if we're dead tired, we still have to put on our game faces, and cheer and lead. It was pretty stressful too, having to find games for the OG to play, and to keep them entertained. Then there was the cleanup. After all the J1s have gone home, the OGLs have to stay behind, and ensure the cleanliness of the school. We picked up litter, washed the floors, returned things to their original places, and even washed toilets. It was awesome. Then we would go home and collapse.

OG Outing (Camwhorage To The MAXXXXXZZZ)
On the final day of Orientation, it was time for us to travel beyond the hallowed gates of our school, out of our beloved sanctuary. We delved into the unknown, the wild, the untamed lands of Singapore, finding solace in our packs, marked by the same articles of clothing we wore. If any of us were to be separated, it would be simple for us to find our way back to the protection of the herd.

Basically, we were going to Marina Square, and we all wore the same Orientation t-shirts.

I discovered that taking charge of a group of 20 was no easy task. In addition to ensuring that no one was left behind, we had to make sure that everyone was agreeable with the place for lunch, taking into account everyone's opinions etc etc. Walking around in such a huge group is also terribly embarrassing. Not only are we loud, we also take up huge amounts of space, and annoy every single other person.

Finally, we settled on Cafe Cartel at Marina Square, which was blissfully empty, until we came in, and caused a massive ruckus. That was when the camwhoring began. I shall elaborate with the pictures.

[Notice the same girl appears in all the pictures above. YES CANIDA I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU]








[Contemplating the meaning of life]


[What's with that face?]


[Seeking out unglam-ness wherever it may lurk]




[Scandal!]









[Group Photo!]





Campfire
The campfire was held right after the OG Outing. Unfortunately it began to rain SO INCREDIBLY HEAVY LIKE 1 HOUR BEFORE THE CAMPFIRE. It then stopped 5 minutes before the campfire was supposed to start. The ground was wet. The campfire was shifted into the hall. The hall is made up of a lot of wood, so we had a campfire-less campfire. But there was air-con though. An acceptable trade. It was pretty good, if I remember correctly. Some unlucky fools were nominated to go on stage, there were performances by AC Dance and ACSian Theatre, and some weird campfire games.

We whored ourselves (camera-ly) some more while waiting for it to start.









[Evil]


[Scandal!]


[This is just wrong]


[Gross]


[This is the most unglam photo in the entire universe]

From left to right, emo, wut's dat!, itchy nose, stoned, half a face.

Finally, it was time for the Mass Dance. We did it many, many, many times. When the J1s got tired of dancing, they all joined up and formed massive trains of sweaty, sticky, human bodies, and ran around the hall. They were all wearing the same t-shirts. It was like a prison musical. I could clearly and plainly the joy and delight on all their faces. It was at this moment, that I felt this overwhelming sense of satisfaction. I was glad I chose to be an OGL. All the extra work, all the late nights, the stress, the tiredness. Seeing those gleeful faces, made it all worth my while.

More CAMPwhoring. HAHAHA.






I was a part of Orientation 2008, and it was fantastic.

Thank you to all of Daimyo, Alex(Skinny), Alex(White), Alicia, Andrea, Canida, Darrell, Dolly, Jared, Jiayi, Kenny, Madelene, Marcus, Natalie, Peixuan, Xiaojun, Yishi, Vinesh. Not forgetting my fellow OGLs, Amanda and Nicole. Orientation was an amazing experience, and you were all a major part of it.

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