Orientation

So well... all about the orientation from a helper's point of view...

WARNING: Bear in mind that this is how a helper experienced the orientation. It's not really important, cause it's the freshmen's day. It's their day. I pray that they make the best of friends in UB SIM. Orientations are neccessary i believe, because UB is such an informal environment, it's hard to make friends. Thus, with orientations, you can make friends faster and easier. I do sincerely hope with all my heart that everyone enjoyed themselves! Actually, i think the orientation was a success! Haha as Shanas said, it's one of the "most happening" orientations available.

From my side though, "helpers" were basically not needed, so as a human being, i feel ridiculously dumb for "hanging around, nothing to do but frown..." (carpenters song haha)

Yep.

To sum it up, it was like, MURDER, SAYANG, SLAP, MURDER, a tinge of brightness, SLAP, a little bit of hope, MURDER. Then dead. HAHA (the dead part is the falling asleep part -.-)I guess to most of the OGLs and committee members, it wasn't so bad, but for jia zhen and me, we were forgettable helpers. volunteers. extras. No one likes to be forgotten, but that we were. And it was well, it wasn't nice.

The first part was "MURDER", simply because it was like death, and it was hard to resurrect us. I arrived in school around 8.30am? Jia Zhen arrived at 9am. Our duties were to start at 1.30 pm. -.- So for most of the first part, we were dead really. Nothing to do, didn't know anything, blur tiao, extra, lost, possibly a bit sian. After all, people have fun when they have things to do right? Or rather when they have things to do, it takes their mind of the "lonliness of life". Jeez, there's something wrong with me. I'm beginning to sound like Kenneth. I enjoyed the pick up ride though, although it was super unglam since our hair was flying all over the place, but hey it was cool! =)

As for the "SAYANG" part, ahhh things started looking up when we started to get ready to be station masters. =) We started to feel a little excited and although the initial game wasn't feasible, we managed to come up with another game plan to go with. We had to wreck our brains a little, but that's good. We have to exercise our minds once in a while. It was all fun and games, and certain groups were pretty hilarious, (*cough* such as steph and kenneth's group which was super enthu and ACTUALLY listened to instructions!!) but...After a while things got a little stale. This was where we got "SLAPPED". It was kinda hot, and some groups were quite dead, so the game wasn't as fun for them as it was for others i think. Towards the end, the last few remaining groups were demoralized i guess, so they weren't very happy that they "lost" before they even played the game! There's this rule that if you're late for more than 10 minutes, you forfeit. Yeah? So yep. OH there was one funny part though! Haha we carried a whole lot of NEWater bottles for the freshmen and whoever else to drink, in case they dehydrate. But, as we placed them beside us in paragon, and we were sitting there so still and for ever so long, tourists who walked past believed we were selling water, PLUS the SAF camouflage cream (which were equipment needed for the forfeit of our station). A caucasian couple said "what a shame" that we were not selling the water, as it was such a hot day, so jia zhen directed them to the 7-11 nearby. It was hilarious! I started being cheeky and yelled "$2.50, $2.50, NEWater NEWater for sell!!" Jia zhen was glaring at me i think haha. We posed a lot too, since so many people seemed to be taking pictures of the spot where we were sitting... For a clearer picture, do take a look at jia zhen's blog. It's funny! Haha!

Anyway, we got "MURDERED" again later on when we had nothing to do but lean against a pillar and stare at everyone around us. There was seriously nothing to do, and we were stoning. Walling. Becoming cement. We were kinda out of place, sometimes walking in and out of the chalet, going in and out of the room, then sitting against our favourite pillar again.

At the end of the tunnel, there was a little light, "A TINGE OF BRIGHTNESS". We could be useful! Krystel was feeling really tired, effects of a lack of sleep, she looked bad, poor thing. But since she was feeling off, jia zhen and i were to take over the orientation group. So i thought "hey, we've got something to do, we can make the freshies feel more at home! Interaction! Make friends! They don't seem like such a bad lot, eh?"

WRONG. Okay not really, they were a sweet bunch. In fact, i quite enjoyed their company, but then again, both of us kinda "barged into" the group, and we did not have that bond with them from the start, so they didn't really need us to guide them or to glue them together. They could do that on their own, in fact, they were interacting with each other quite well already!

Right so nevermind. There "WAS STILL A LITTLE HOPE" left! There wa the NIGHTWALK! Oooo i just LOVE nightwalks. I love these stuff, these outdoor adventure kinda stuff. I couldn't wait! I thought all of us could try out for it! The reason we even went over to the chalet was because we were told "there were stuff for us to do" and we thought we could help out in the nightwalk. In the end, that little bit of wisful hope, vanished. -.-

It was "MURDER" all over again! The station masters for the nightwalk were chosen, and we didn't even know cause we thought we were already in it. Then alamak, ai ya, confusion and haywireness. Helpers were not briefed and everytime i tired to ask something, i was either ignored or given a ridiculous task. After i was told that our "duty" was to hang around and make sure everything was okay, i nearly lost my mind. I was hungry, tired, lost, and feeling utterly useless. It was beginning to be a waste of time too. And of course, i was feeling EXTRA. So well whatever. It was a bit hard to bring my mood up again. Sometimes, you're just so disappointed, you don't know what to do, and you succumb to your fatigue. Does that make sense? After a while, i guess i was so demoralized and bored that my eyes could hardly open. It wasn't on purpose, i was just feeling so frustrated and tired i guess. It was hard trying to smile and act like nothing was wrong, hard it was.

At the end, we waited for 2 hours plus for the chartered bus to bring us ang mo kio mrt station. That is, steph, jz and me! Wah i was seriously talking... erm, BS on the couch already. Was too tired. Then i fell asleep, and had a dream that eliz was kidnapped. Wah had a fright! Quickly walked down to the first level and realized she wasn't there! ZZZZ she had gone home with the guys -.- Make me panic. Gah. SO well, both freshmen and UB orientation members were all dead tired. haha, i guess tired is good eh? Means that it was a night to remember. We all went through a night of orientation together! Although some parts really got me down...

But hey, it's over! I guess that's what we signed up for right? To be a "HELPER", which is to hang around and be called upon only when they need funny stuff to be done. Ooops, maye this could be one of loisa's bad attitude, but i seriously had no fun at all. I didn't make friends, i didn't feel like i contributed anything, i feel... stupid and useless. Yeah basically.

Do i want to participate in the next orientation? Maybe. Haha, i've always enjoyed these stuff. But maybe i'm not up for it. Maybe... oh i don't know haha. I'm tired. I'm cranky. So is everyone. I do respect the hard work put in by the council and committee members though. It can't be easy trying to put together a whole orientation with a tight budget AND the exams on the way. So, not too bad, could have been better, but it's a great effort!

Good night/Good morning people. I'm off to eat, then bed.